#skeptic

One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview—not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it. The really striking thing is that it would not take much effort to establish validity in most of these cases… but people prefer reassurance to research. ↗

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

#science #skepticism #worldview #science

People wrap themselves in their beliefs. And they do it in such a way that you can't set them free. Not even the truth will set them free. ↗

— Michael Specter

#atheism #denialism #fundamentalism #michael-specter #science

So my antagonist said, "Is it impossible that there are flying saucers? Can you prove that it's impossible?" "No", I said, "I can't prove it's impossible. It's just very unlikely". At that he said, "You are very unscientific. If you can't prove it impossible then how can you say that it's unlikely?" But that is the way that is scientific. It is scientific only to say what is more likely and what less likely, and not to be proving all the time the possible and impossible. ↗

— Richard P. Feynman

#scientific-method #skepticism #science

No one, in the world's whole history, ever attempted to substantiate a truth by a miracle. Truth scorns the assistance of miracle. Nothing but falsehood ever attested itself by signs and wonders. No miracle ever was performed, and no sane man ever thought he had performed one, and until one is performed, there can be no evidence of the existence of any power superior to, and independent of nature. ↗

— Robert G. Ingersoll

#miracles #religion #science #skepticism #nature

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

Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society? ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#life #more #moreover #mystery #paris

I've encountered a lot of people who sound like critics but very few who have substantive criticisms. There is a lot of skepticism, but it seems to be more a matter of inertia than it is of people having some real reason for thinking something else. ↗

— K. Eric Drexler

#critics #else #encountered #few #having

Journalists are supposed to be skeptical, that's what keeps them digging rather than simply accepting the official line, whether it comes from government or corporate bureaucrats. ↗

— Linda Chavez

#bureaucrats #comes #corporate #digging #government

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

We live in a culture that has, for centuries now, cultivated the idea that the skeptical person is always smarter than the one who believes. You can be almost as stupid as a cabbage, as long as you doubt. The fashion of the age has identified mental sharpness with a pose, not with genuine intellectual method and character. ↗

— Dallas Willard

#doubt #skepticism #age