Skepticism Quotes - Page 8

• My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.

  Carl Sagan

  Science, Two, Parent

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.13, Ballantine Books

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• I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Men, Faith Religion

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• Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order.

  George Will

  Government, Order, Punishment

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• Because of the complexity of the problem, environmental skepticism was once tenable. No longer. It is time to flip from skepticism to activism.

  Michael Shermer

  Environmental, Flip, Global Warming

  Michael Shermer (2016). “Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye”, p.36, Henry Holt and Company

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• Setting skepticism aside, even briefly, can make for very interesting explorations. It is not necessary that we change any of our beliefs. It is necessary that we examine them.

  Julia Cameron

  Inspirational, Interesting, Belief

  Julia Cameron (2012). “The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity”, p.78, Souvenir Press

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• No medicine man these days can afford to be without a portable tape recorder. Without the aid of this modern device, which may be easily concealed in the undergrowth of the jungle, the old tribal authority will rapidly become undermined by the mounting influenece of modern skepticism.

  Muriel Spark

  Technology, Men, Medicine

  Muriel Spark (1960). “The Ballad of Peckham Rye”, p.142, New Directions Publishing

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• Skepticism is a religion very rich in evangelists but very short on saviors.

  Robert Breault

  Belief, Rich, Savior

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• Like belief, doubt takes a lot of different forms, from ancient Skepticism to modern scientific empiricism, from doubt in many gods to doubt in one God, to doubt that recreates and enlivens faith and doubt that is really disbelief.

  Jennifer Michael Hecht

  Doubt, Different, Belief

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• As a conservative, I maintain a healthy skepticism of the theory of man-made global warming. I also believe that more people enjoying the fruits of modernity and economic development is a good thing - as long as those people arrived legally and obey the law.

  Gary Bauer

  Believe, Men, Law

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• Most of all we need an education which will create an educated mind. This is a mind not simply a repository of information and skills, but a mind that is a source of creative skepticism, characterized by a willingness to challenge old assumptions and to be challenged, a spaciousness of outlook, and convictions that are deeply held, but which new facts and new experiences can always modify.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Education, Skills, New Experiences

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1967). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966”, p.772, Best Books on

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• Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough.

  Michael Crichton

  Enough, Situation, Consensus

  "Aliens Cause Global Warming". Caltech Michelin Lecture, January 17, 2003.

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• The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence, -- luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition, -- are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.

  Cyril Connolly

  Civilization, Luxury, Goal

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• Skepticism relieved two terrible diseases that afflicted mankind: anxiety and dogmatism.

  Sextus Empiricus

  Two, Anxiety, Disease

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• A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt.

  Emile Durkheim

  Strong, Ignorance, Risk

  Emile Durkheim (2005). “Suicide: A Study in Sociology”, p.245, Routledge

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• Skepticism's bad rap arises from the impression that, however necessary the activity, it can only be regarded as a negative removal of false claims. Not so... Proper debunking is done in the interest of an alternate model of explanation, not as a nihilistic exercise. The alternate model is rationality itself, tied to moral decency--the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Powerful, Rap, Exercise

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• The modern world tends to be skeptical about everything that makes demands on man's higher faculties. But it is not at all skeptical about skepticism, which demands hardly anything.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Men, World, Demand

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• There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Science, Discovery, Doubt

  Richard P. Feynman (2015). “The Quotable Feynman”, p.290, Princeton University Press

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• I respect more the person who struggles with his faith than the person who is confident in his skepticism.

  Robert Breault

  Struggle, Belief, Persons

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• I have serious problems with fundamentalist Christians and their creationist theories. Although I believe that scripture is divinely inspired and infallible, I have a hard time going along with the belief that the whole creation process occurred in six twenty-four hour days. My skepticism is due, in part, to the fact that the Bible says that the sun wasn’t created until the fourth day of creation (Genesis 1:16-19). I have a hard time figuring how twenty-four hour days could have been measured before that.

  Tony Campolo

  Christian, Believe, Hard Times

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• Education must enable young people to effect what they have recognized to be right, despite hardships, despite dangers, despite inner skepticism, despite boredom, and despite mockery from the world. . . .

  Kurt Hahn

  People, Boredom, Hardship

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• No one is infallible, and no one can claim a monopoly on truth or virtue. It would be contradictory for skepticism to seek to translate itself into a new faith.

  Paul Kurtz

  Would Be, Virtue, Claims

  "Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda" by Paul Kurtz, (p. 338), 2014.

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• I don't think there was enough skepticism because I think most of us kind of believed that Saddam Hussein was building biological, chemical, and perhaps even, nuclear weapons.

  Walter Isaacson

  Thinking, Nuclear, Hussein

  "Buying the War". "Bill Moyers Journal", www.pbs.org. April 25, 2007.

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• These matters require what I think of as the Shakespearean cast of thought. That is to say, a fine credulity about everything, kept in check by a lively skepticism about everything.... It keeps you constantly alert to every possibility.

  Robertson Davies

  Thinking, Healthy, Matter

  Robertson Davies (1991). “Murther and Walking Spirits”, Penguin Group USA

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• All that the posture of skepticism accomplishes is to freeze the ego in an ignorantist poverty that never stretches or diversifies its resources of imagination or understanding. Any uncultured cretin can close his eyes and try to reduce the issues down to linear simplisms and say, "I am doubting, I am proving my magisterial or sovereign control over my own mind." Doubt is a useful and significant test of one's critical powers, but by itself it bears little if any significant cultural charge of enlightenment or satori; indeed it is the very opposite kind of thing.

  Kenny Smith

  Eye, Opposites, Issues

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• Every race man and woman should cast aside their skepticism regarding the Negro's ability as a motion picture star.

  Oscar Micheaux

  Stars, Men, Race

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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