#skepticism

Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. ↗

— Robert K. Merton

#skepticism #faith

...Today the lack of faith is an expression of profound confusion and despair. Once skepticism and rationalism were progressive forces for the development of thought; now they have become rationalizations for relativism and uncertainty. ↗

— Erich Fromm

#skepticism #faith

I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it's as if they can't get past their emotions, and in their rage they become as faith-driven as the beliefs they criticise. I always said they give scientists a bad name. After all, science has to be about asking unthinkable questions, not closing down debate. ↗

— Scarlett Thomas

#religion #scepticism #sceptics #skepticism #skeptics

The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more virulent in a hitherto virgin soil. ↗

— Simone Weil

#becomes #diseases #hitherto #like #more

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought. ↗

— Walter Gilbert

#science #skepticism #thought #virtues

The doctrine of the sacredness of the soul sounds vaguely uplifting, but in fact is highly malignant. It discounts life on earth as just a temporary phase that people pass through, indeed, an infinitesimal fraction of their existence…the gradual replacement of lives for souls as the locus of moral value was helped along by the ascendency of skepticism and reason ↗

— Steven Pinker

#life

I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#skepticism #religion

Investors should start with a view of skepticism. They should become intellectual investors rather than emotional investors. They should be careful, and they should be skeptical. ↗

— Arthur Levitt

#become #careful #emotional #intellectual #investors

Skepticism is an important historical tool. It is the starting point of all revision of hitherto accepted history. ↗

— Samuel E. Morison

#historical #history #hitherto #important #point

Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good. ↗

— Daniel Patrick Moynihan

#agencies #been #birth #conservatives #endowed