#skeptic

Science has carried us to the gateway to the universe. And yet our conception of our surroundings remains the disproportionate view of the still-small child. We are spiritually and culturally paralyzed, unable to face the vastness, to embrace our lack of centrality and find our actual place in the fabric of nature. We batter this planet as if we had someplace else to go. That we even do science is a hopeful glimmer of mental health. However, it's not enough merely to accept these insights intellectually while we cling to a spiritual ideology that is not only rootless in nature but also, in many ways, contemptuous of what is natural. ↗

— Ann Druyan

#science #skepticism #nature

Not one of the orthodox ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of his congregation think otherwise. He knows that every member of his church stands guard over his brain with a creed, like a club, in his hand. He knows that he is not expected to search after the truth, but that he is employed to defend the creed. Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment. ↗

— Robert G. Ingersoll

#religion #skepticism #religion

La pensée ne doit jamais se soumettre, ni à un dogme, ni à un parti, ni à une passion, ni à un intérêt, ni à une idée préconçue, ni à quoi que ce soit, si ce n'est aux faits eux-mêmes, parce que, pour elle, se soumettre, ce serait cesser d'être. ↗

— Jules Henri Poincaré

#science #skepticism #religion

One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview—not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it. The really striking thing is that it would not take much effort to establish validity in most of these cases… but people prefer reassurance to research. ↗

— Neil deGrasse Tyson

#science #skepticism #worldview #science

There are those who believe we have need of more literature, of a large international publishing house, of a great peace newspaper, or the like. I am rather skeptical about this idea. ↗

— Fredrik Bajer

#am #believe #great #house #i

I'd say there was a fair amount of skepticism at the time about whether the Internet held any promise. And of course I felt that it did. ↗

— Jim Clark

#amount #any #course #did #fair

A majority of American citizens are now becoming skeptical of the claim that our carbon footprints, resulting from our use of fossil fuels, are going to lead to climatic calamities. But governments are not yet listening to the citizens. ↗

— John Coleman

#american citizens #becoming #calamities #carbon #citizens

I think whenever you see what may be the seeds of a third party, you need to be very skeptical because there's not a very good track record for third parties. ↗

— Candy Crowley

#good #i #i think #may #need

I agree with Chomsky in almost nothing. When it comes to innate structures and so on, I'm very skeptical. ↗

— Clifford Geertz

#almost #comes #i #innate #nothing

I think you can be cynical about religion on occasion, and certainly skeptical about the degree to which some people use religion to manipulate other people. ↗

— Peter Jennings

#certainly #cynical #degree #i #i think