#skeptic

There was a danger that skeptics and opponents would misread those likelihood ratio tests as rejections of an entire class of models, which of course they were not. ↗

— Thomas J. Sargent

#course #danger #entire #likelihood #models

Because a truly skeptical position would be a very uncertain one. ↗

— Rupert Sheldrake

#position #skeptical #truly #uncertain #very

I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#religion #skepticism #age

Nevertheless, a distinction must be made between skepticism as a philosophical thesis and skepticism as an attitude in life. As a philosophical thesis, it is a contradictory one, since it affirms the impossibility of knowing truth, although this affirmation itself claims to be true. Thus, skepticism as a thesis refutes itself in the very act of being formulated. The other aspect is different: this is the abstention from all judgments, skepticism in life, which neither affirms nor denies. This skepticism appears in history time and again, although here, too, it is doubtful whether human life can remain floating in this abstention without taking root in convictions. ↗

— Julián Marías

#attitude

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#education #humanity #rights #science #skepticism

What we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts. ↗

— Thomas Henry Huxley

#faith #religion #science #skepticism #faith

I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs. ↗

— Sam Harris

#skepticism #faith

Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invisible, and he is likely to require as much evidence as anyone else, and to be persuaded only to the extent that you give it. Tell him that the book he keeps by his bed was written by an invisible deity who will punish him with fire for eternity if he fails to accept its every incredible claim about the universe, and he seems to require no evidence what so ever. ↗

— Sam Harris

#religion #skepticism #faith

We know enough at this moment to say that the God of Abraham is not only unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man. ↗

— Sam Harris

#reason #religion #science #skeptic #faith

Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance. ↗

— Sam Harris

#religion #skepticism #faith