Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.
Robert K. MertonStichwörter: science skepticism
As every inquiry which regards religion is of the utmost importance, there are two questions in particular which challenge our attention, to wit, that concerning its foundation in reason, and that concerning it origin in human nature.
David HumeStichwörter: religion skepticism
Tell people there's an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.
George CarlinStichwörter: humor doubt reason belief skepticism absurdity credulity evidence gullibility indoctrination invisible
I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.
Clarence DarrowStichwörter: fear wisdom doubt skepticism
My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at because the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it.
Bertrand RussellStichwörter: philosophy belief skepticism desire wish beliefs
Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.
Albert EinsteinStichwörter: dissent freedom-of-thought skepticism independent-thought
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Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
VoltaireStichwörter: injustice religion atheism skepticism absurdities atrocities barbarity
I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.
Walt WhitmanStichwörter: science life certainty doubt thought mistake ideas affection skepticism scientific evidence humble guess surrender
Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?"
Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.
Stichwörter: faith skepticism evidence ufo
If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.
[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]
Stichwörter: reason lies skeptic freethinker skepticism new-testament yahweh judaism cruel fake freethought god-of-abraham imposter jehovah
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