#skeptic

...there being a god, that god must be worshiped. Worship means raising the god above the individual, and liturgies often make the point that the individual is less than nothing compared to the deity. If this be done, then, when the god is invoked, the individual has so little worth that he or she may be sacrificed for the needs of the god.... And who speaks for the god? If all people do, then no one does, and there is no god. If the people accept a priesthood, or the equivalent, then those priests exercise whatever power that god's believers grant that god over them, and that elite may cause an individual to be worth less, to be exiled, or even to die or to be killed. Yet such powers do not come from a deity. In modern history and science, never has there been a verified occasion of a god appearing or demonstrating the powers ascribed throughout history to deities. Always, there is a prophet who speaks for the god. Why cannot the god speak? If a god is omnipotent, then the god can speak. If he cannot, then that god is not omnipotent. Often the prophets say that a god will only speak to the chosen, the worthy. Should a people accept a god who is either too powerless to speak, or too devious and skeptical to appear? Or a god who will only accept those who swallow a faith laid out by a prophet who merely claims that deity exists—without proof? Yet people have done so, and have granted enormous powers to those who speak for god. ↗

— L.E. Modesitt Jr.

#faith

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

Working together during the past three years, we have confounded the skeptics and the cynics. We've shown that here in Virginia, Democrats and Republicans can come together, put politics aside, and make tough decisions when times demand it. ↗

— Mark Warner

#come #confounded #cynics #decisions #demand

Scientists are always skeptics. ↗

— Donald Norman

#scientists #skeptics

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

One, I am skeptical of the effectiveness of nutritional supplements. ↗

— Michael Shermer

#effectiveness #i #i am #nutritional #skeptical

That's all right," she told him. "I can manage. I can sleep outside just fine." Four pairs of eyes looked at her with a distinctly male skepticism. ↗

— Ilona Andrews

#fate-s-edge #funny #gaston #george #ilona-andrews

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#skepticism #intelligence

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#knowledge #reason #ridicule #skepticism #jesus

Faeries and vampires were glittery now? Honestly. ↗

— Kiersten White

#twilight #supernatural