#skeptic

I think whenever you see what may be the seeds of a third party, you need to be very skeptical because there's not a very good track record for third parties. ↗

— Candy Crowley

#good #i #i think #may #need

I think you can be cynical about religion on occasion, and certainly skeptical about the degree to which some people use religion to manipulate other people. ↗

— Peter Jennings

#certainly #cynical #degree #i #i think

God is always trying to give blessings to us, but our minds are usually too full to receive them. ↗

— Shannon L. Alder

#blessings #clouded-thoughts #confusion #delusions #doubt

I wanted to cast doubt on the step he was about to take, to help him see there are other ways to live, other ways to seek knowledge, love...even self-transformation. I wanted to convince him his dignity depended on maintaining a free, skeptical attitude towards doctrine. I wanted...to save him... Doubt, like faith, has to be learned. It is a skill. But the curious thing about skepticism is that its adherents, ancient and modern, have so often been proselytizers. In reading them, I've often wanted to ask: "Why do you care?" Their skepticism offers no good answer to that question. ↗

— Mark Lilla

#skepticism #attitude

Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death? No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no. One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?" Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be. ↗

— Isaac Asimov

#faith #skepticism #ufo #death

Dan Rather is guilty of not being skeptical enough about a story that was politically loaded. ↗

— Bill O'Reilly

#being #dan #dan rather #enough #guilty

Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism. ↗

— David Suzuki

#education #failed #important #important lesson #lesson

It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's highest callings. (Can You Believe in God and Evolution? Time Magazine, August 7, 2005) ↗

— Steven Pinker

#science #skepticism #design

I'm convinced that most men don't know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man's atrocities, but wouldn't dream of imprisoning a mother for her son's crime? ↗

— Criss Jami

#apologetics #atrocities #belief #bias #biases

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#ignorance #skepticism #thomas-jefferson #education