#evidence

The creative act is not pure. History evidences it. Sociology extracts it. The writer loses Eden, writes to be read and comes to realize that he is answerable. ↗

— Nadine Gordimer

#answerable #comes #creative #creative act #eden

Of course, a positive growth rate might be taken as evidence that a population is below its optimum. ↗

— Garrett Hardin

#course #evidence #growth #growth rate #might

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. ↗

— Bertrand Russell

#bertrand #evidence #foolish #majority #opinion

[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#atheist #evidence #god #noremorse #science

But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record. ↗

— Charles Darwin

#conclusion-before-evidence #darwinism #evolution #fossil-record #fossils

A fair trial is one in which the rules of evidence are honored, the accused has competent counsel, and the judge enforces the proper courtroom procedures - a trial in which every assumption can be challenged. ↗

— Harry Browne

#assumption #challenged #competent #counsel #courtroom

Although the evidence at this trial shows that Charles Manson was the leader of the conspiracy to commit these murders, there is no evidence that he actually personally killed any of the seven victims in this case. ↗

— Vincent Bugliosi

#although #any #case #charles #commit

Writers of historical fiction are not under the same obligation as historians to find evidence for the statements they make. For us it is sufficient if what we say can't be disproved or shown to be false. ↗

— Barry Unsworth

#evidence #false #fiction #find #historians

Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#changed #consolation #crutch #evidence #harm

Religious fanatics want people to switch off their own minds, ignore the evidence, and blindly follow a holy book based upon private 'revelation'. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#blindly #book #evidence #fanatics #follow