#skepticism

Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others... ↗

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

#empathy #empathy-diversity #empathy-psychology #prejudice #racism

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

Those might not be the very best judges of the relation of religion to happiness who, by their own account, had neither one nor the other. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#pessimism #skepticism #faith

I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all of my friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine. ↗

— Charles Darwin

#charles-darwin #religion #skepticism #men

The real reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even a God can love them. ↗

— Thomas Merton

#skepticism #love

Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course. But we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time. It is therefore at least millions to one that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie. ↗

— Thomas Paine

#religion #science #skepticism #age

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

Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easily develop a completely false notion of the mentality of the men who, surrounded by a skeptical world, have shown the way to kindred spirits scattered wide through the world and through the centuries. Only one who has devoted his life to similar ends can have a vivid realization of what has inspired these men and given them the strength to remain true to their purpose in spite of countless failures. It is cosmic religious feeling that gives a man such strength. A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people. ↗

— Albert Einstein

#science #skepticism #age

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