#critical

Johnson is a radical skeptic, insisting, in the best Socratic tradition, that everything be put on the table for examination. By contrast, most skeptics opposed to him are selective skeptics, applying their skepticism to the things they dislike (notably religion) and refusing to apply their skepticism to the things they do like (notably Darwinism). On two occasions I’ve urged Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic Magazine, to put me on its editorial board as the resident skeptic of Darwinism. Though Shermer and I know each other and are quite friendly, he never got back to me about joining his editorial board. ↗

— William A. Dembski

#critical-thinking #darwinism #evolution #macro-evolution #macroevolution

The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#independent-thought #opinions #skepticism #thinking #independence

Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing. ↗

— Diane Abbott

#debates #even #health #mental #mental health

Afghanistan is going to be here a long time, and what's critical is that Afghanistan's relationship with its neighbors are, to the maximum extent they can be, constructive and operationally useful. ↗

— John R. Allen

#constructive #critical #extent #going #here

How do I respond to criticism? Critically. I listen to all criticism critically. ↗

— Paul Thomas Anderson

#criticism #how #i #listen #respond

There will be certain points of time when everything collides together and reaches critical mass around a new concept or a new thing that ends up being hugely relevant to a high percentage of people or businesses. But it's really really hard to predict those. I don't believe anyone can. ↗

— Marc Andreessen

#around #being #believe #businesses #certain

I was so self-critical. I still am, but it's not as bad anymore. ↗

— Fiona Apple

#anymore #bad #i #self-critical #still

[W]e have an automatic tendency to pay attention to or seek out information that is in agreement with (confirms) our preconceptions, and to ignore, distort or avoid information that contradicts (disconfirms) our preconceptions, a tendency that is called the confirmation bias. The confirmation bias serves to maintain and strengthen the beliefs that we already hold by causing us to automatically (that is, without being aware that we are doing so) perceive and remember experiences that confirm these beliefs, and to ignore or reinterpret those that disconfirm them. Because we tend to seek out only confirming evidence, our beliefs over time become so well confirmed in our minds that we come to think of them as “obviously true." In order to avoid the confirmation bias, we must force ourselves to look for evidence that disconfirms our beliefs. ↗

— Wadsworth Publishing

#experience

Whenever we hear an opinion and believe it, we make an agreement, and it becomes part of our belief system. ↗

— Miguel Ruiz

#independent-thought #spell #freedom

A mode of thought does not become 'critical' simply by attributing that label to itself, but by virtue of its content. ↗

— Alan Sokal

#critical-thinking #science #skepticism #science