|
2021 November 19
|
"No great advance has ever been made
in science, politics, or religion,
without controversy." |
"Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus." |
"Free inquiry entails recognition of civil liberties as integral
to its pursuit, that is, a free press, freedom of communication,
the right to organize opposition parties and to join voluntary
associations, and freedom to cultivate and publish the fruits of
scientific, philosophical, artistic, literary, moral and
religious freedom." |
|
2021 November 18
|
"A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion." |
"There is no absolute knowledge.
And those who claim it,
whether they are scientists or dogmatists,
open the door to tragedy.
All information is imperfect.
We have to treat it with humility." |
"In theory, there is no difference
between theory and practice,
but in practice, there is." |
|
2021 November 17
|
"By freethinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring
to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering
the nature of the evidence for or against, and in judging of it
according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence." |
"In questions of science the authority of a thousand
is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." |
"If a theory and its proponents stubbornly refuse falsification by an ever increasing body of substantial conflicting evidence, the theory degenerates into a textbook example of dogmatic pseudo-science. The neo-Darwinian theory of macroevolution has failed on all fronts, from mathematical feasibility, to theoretical plausibility and explanatory power, to empirical support." |
|
2021 November 16
|
"Ever since the beginning of modern science, the best minds have recognized that "the range of acknowledged ignorance will grow with the advance of science." Unfortunately, the popular effect of this scientific advance has been a belief, seemingly shared by many scientists, that the range of our ignorance is steadily diminishing and that we can therefore aim at more comprehensive and deliberate control of all human activities. It is for this reason that those intoxicated by the advance of knowledge so often become the enemies of freedom." |
"I know that most men -- not only those considered clever,
but even those who are very clever and capable of understanding
most difficult scientific, mathematical, or philosophic, problems --
can seldom discern even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such
as obliges them to admit the falsity of conclusions they have formed,
perhaps with much difficulty -- conclusions of which they are proud,
which they have taught to others, and on which they have built their lives." |
"Causes that live by politics, die by politics." |
|
2021 November 15
|
"Freedom is the oxygen without which science cannot breathe." |
"Truth, in its struggles for recognition,
passes through four distinct stages.
First, we say it is damnable, dangerous, disorderly,
and will surely disrupt society.
Second, we declare it is heretical, infidelic
and contrary to the Bible.
Third, we say it is really a matter of no importance
either one way or the other.
Fourth, we aver that we have always upheld it and believed it." |
"Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind,
and therefore independence of all
social, political or religious prejudice...
It loves one thing only... truth." |
|
|
|
