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Sunny Jackson

Why do atheists talk so much about this God they disbelieve in? - Quora - 0 views

www.quora.com/ut-this-God-they-disbelieve-in

Quora Questions Learning

shared by Sunny Jackson on 07 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • when the god squad stops trying to enforce their god through legislation, we'll stop talking about it
  • oddly enough, despite my not believing in him, other people keep trying to cram him down my throat, often via efforts to enact laws based on his non-existent rules.This disturbs me.
  • Yeah, I know a detective who talks about crime a lot.  Mad isn't it?
  • ...74 more annotations...
  • I try to give equal time to all the gods that I don't believe in.
  • Religion is a huge force in the world. Good, bad or mixed, it's inescapable.
  • When something is a major component of the Human Condition, it's notable.
  • None.
  • wanted to make you and your children believe this too and were willing to change laws, education and polices to force this
  • how long would it take before you started speaking out?
  • Like all conscientious people who care about what goes on in the world, we are all struggling to define the best way for us to live.
  • There are good things in the world and there are bad things in the world. What is good and bad, and in what degree, depends on your perspective.
  • When it happens publicly, it is generally regarded by atheists as either gauche or extreme.It seems most extreme when it enters into political or other ostensibly secular arenas, like school.
  • the strengths of these secular institutions depends widely on the separation of religious and secular activities and ideologies
  • this resembles a backslide into barbarism and ignorance
  • For the atheist, it is a frightening prospect that people want to hinder education or freedoms based on Biblical writings.
  • if I did not care about the world, I would have nothing to say about God.
  • Both I, and the most extreme fundamentalist, want only to live in the best way we know how.
  • As an atheist, I personally have no qualm with any belief in a deistic God.
  • When I see people pushing other people around, trying to take away their rights of people, or hurting people in some way, I get angry.
  • For this atheist, it isn't about God, it's about how we treat people.
  • There is an unfortunate crossover with religion and social justice.
  • I am only concerned with the ways in which religion, as I see the world, hurts the vision I have of how we should best live. There are grave incompatibilities with that vision.
  • I don't believe in spirits, or souls, or gods or reincarnation. I do believe in finding meaning, in finding the "path to the self", and finding the best way to live in this world.
  • hope for the future elevation of humanity to freedom, to the best possible health and cooperation
  • There is beauty and wisdom in every belief system, but also there is ugliness and ignorance to be found, and I see it as a detriment to humanity if we simply avoid the hard work of re-examining those parts, and simply allow people to say "It is God's will, we've got a book that says so."
  • What am I talking about? Subjugation of women, ostracism of homosexuals, teaching creation myths as science to children, circumcision of boys by Jews, of girls by certain sects. From the eyes of an atheist, doing these things in 2012 is an archaic nightmare. Allowing these things to happen out of a fear of offending people is a most ludicrous failure of humanity.
  • a human person wrote any words in any book ever written. There are no gods, no sons of gods, and no prophets. To hold another person hostage for words written by a man, who possessed all the frailties we have today, but had far less knowledge, seems a dangerous and singularly terrible act to condone in this time. We know there is no basis for it, and it is frightening to see those who are willing to commit violence and abuse in the name of God and call it "good".
  • it seems simply like folly or madness
  • They had a belief that their view of the world was the right one, just as I have a view of the world that I believe is the right one.
  • To the atheist, it resembles a wave of madness taking over people.
  • Approach with caution and come with gifts
  • I know a lot about "this God" theists believe in
  • It is always good to engage your mind in an intellectual exercise
  • I was once a believer
  • I'm more certain on my position now that I ever was when I believed in god
  • it helps me refine my thoughts
  • often I find myself discussing something with a theist who has a strong intellect - and this is entertaining in the same way a sports person, or chess player, enjoys meeting their match or better; it gives me a chance to stretch and test myself - see where I might need to improve my "game".
  • All we do is try and unpack the reasons behind things
  • After unpacking these reasons the conclusion is baffling; These things are done, people are tortured, children are abused all in the name of a story.
  • I find belief in god and other supernatural entities an interesting human and social phenomenon.
  • Religion teaches to be satisfied with not understanding.
  • Religion teaches to not question authority.
  • Religion teaches a twisted concept of evidence and logic.
  • Religion advocates intolerance.
  • Religion promotes immorality.
  • Religion promotes inaction.
  • Religion inhibits progress.
  • I talk about the silly, stupid and vicious things that some people who claim to believe try to impose on the rest of us.
  • And sometimes I applaud the wonderful things that people of good character and religious belief do
  • What people do in this world matters.
  • Think of it as self defense.Atheists don't talk about their views until religious people refuse to shut up about theirs.
  • surrounded by theists trying to ram their beliefs down everyone else's throats, incorporating their religion into the government and legal system, corrupting the educational system by blurring the difference between fact and belief, and murdering and hurting people in the name of their "god"
  • Why should anyone assume that if one disbelieves in something, especially something that a lot of other people keep saying they believe in, one should not talk about it?
  • Why do anti-war people talk so much about war if they don't believe in war? Pretty much the same reason for atheists and talk about god.
  • I only really talk about it when someone else brings it up. Since I live in the United States, this happens about every ten minutes.
  • large percentages of each country believes in some God
  • They have TV shows to broadcast their beliefs
  • billboards
  • huge gatherings
  • radio shows
  • You have people standing in the street, shouting at you, telling you how you are going to hell
  • You have religious people questioning evolution, preaching creationism, questioning the Big Bang and promoting God-magic.
  • some people still insist in teaching their children that an invisible being thought the universe into existence, and that believing this is more rational than to trust science's explanation of the same event
  • Religion is stepping on my toes - a response is pretty much expected don't you think?
  • if 'talking about God' means 'talking about theology,' then Atheists totally have a right and a commission to do so, because theology can be done by both adherents and non-adherents
  • Atheists have been portrayed as belligerent, annoying twerps who need to be quiet; when, in reality, their calling out religion needs to be applauded. This is the 21st century—a supposedly new era—and Atheists are doing a good job of calling out politicians and leaders who cannot and will not rationalize their decisions outside of a faith context.
  • So many people do boneheaded things in the name of God, both those doers and their God need to be called out...and that calling out is often done by Atheists.
  • I, for one, find religion/mythology fascinating.
  • bad things religion pushes and endorses
  • we do not have to believe anything on insufficient evidence
  • the harms it can bring
  • that is a serious problem
  • Atheists do not keep talking about god. They keep getting asked about it
  • it's a part of our history and culture that is hard to ignore
  • we don't like being lied to
  • there's no reason to believe it
  • try to reason
Sunny Jackson

i want the chance to chat with an atheist : atheism - 0 views

www.reddit.com/...chance_to_chat_with_an_atheist

shared by Sunny Jackson on 26 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • For me it was liberating because finally the Universe made complete sense. There was only matter and energy that followed constant laws...anything 'supernatural' was simply dreamed up by humans. When bad things happened, it was not punishment, just chance. It meant that we could make this world into what we pleased, for good or ill. My choices were on me alone.
  • I'm from the Bible Belt as well. My suspicion is that you actually do know some atheists, but you just don't know it. It's very difficult for atheists to be "out" in the Bible Belt. As to your question, I would first just point out that it's less that I "decided" there was no God, and more that I just "realized" there was no God. And for me at least, it wasn't "liberating" so much as terrifying. I wasn't frightened of God's judgment or anything like that. Having grown up in a fundamentalist Christian household, I was always taught that doubt, in itself, was sinful, so by the time I got to the point of not believing, I had already crossed the line of doubting God (and thus being subject to judgment) long before that. In that sense, when I finally realized there was no God, it actually erased any fear of judgment - there's no God to judge me, thus no fear. Instead, I was terrified of the reaction that I would get from people around me when they found out that I no longer believed in God. My number one concern was my grandparents, whom I am very close with. I knew that it would devastate them, and that was really tough for me. (To this day, I have never really "come out" to them, although my parents told them - something that I honestly think I will always be resentful towards my parents for.) Beyond that, literally everyone around me, friends, family, my whole community really, were Christians, and so there was a deep, deep sense of loneliness when I realized that I had basically become "evil" in all of their minds.
  • It is liberating not to follow any religion because I feel that most of them (the major ones i.e. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity) are oppressive, intolerant and encourage ignorance in one way or another.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Being open-minded means being able and willing to question one's own beliefs and consider those of others
  • You don't even have to change your mind, the very fact that you're asking questions and considering the ideas of those with whom you don't necessarily agree means you are open-minded (and is great, if you ask me).
  • It is kind of disheartening to know I have only one life to live and it is relatively short in the scheme of everything, but it makes this life I have more important. Alternately, I think the belief in an afterlife would make life feel cheap. I'm perfectly okay with knowing after I'm dead that will be the complete end of me. All I can hope for is that I "live on" in the memories of those that survive me.
  • The uncertainty of what happens after death is why humans are afraid of it.
  • reality is reality whether I find it unnerving or not. Wanting something to be true has no effect on whether or not it actually is.
  • I would just like you to know that there are places in this world where coming out as gay to one's parents is not viewed as the end of the world.
  • Many people have different "coming-out" experiences with their atheism. If their family is mostly composed of fundamentalist christians or muslims, they're going to have a much harder time than somebody who comes from a less irrational family.
  • There are atheists that are bigots
  • There are bigots in any group you can think of.
  • I think the scale of bigotry is tipped heavily in favor of those that are extremely religious.
  • Christianity has oppressed them, discriminated against them and has caused them all kinds of grief.
  • here is a quote from Steven Weinberg. Christopher Hitchens has also used the same idea in many of his debates: “Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.”
  • I can tell you with almost 100% certainty that people you know personally are atheists.
  • But it comes down to what makes you happy. As an atheist, I believe we only get one shot at this life. I think it is most important that you live a happy and moral life and as long as you do that, believe or disbelieve whatever you want.
Sunny Jackson

Fallacies of Presumption: Begging the Question (Petitio Principii) - 0 views

atheism.about.com/...beggingquestion.htm

shared by Sunny Jackson on 26 Jun 13 - Cached
  • it directly presumes the conclusion which is at question in the first place
  • Circular Argument
  • A good argument in support of a claim will offer independent evidence or reasons to believe that claim.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • if you are assuming the truth of some portion of your conclusion, then your reasons are no longer independent: your reasons have become dependent upon the very point which is contested
  • A is true because A is true
  • assuming the validity of what the other person was questioning in the first place
  • A is true because B is true, and B is true because A is true
  • A is true because B is true, and B is true because C is true, and C is true because A is true
Sunny Jackson

Begging the Question Fallacy: Religious Arguments - 0 views

atheism.about.com/...beggingquestion_2.htm

shared by Sunny Jackson on 26 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • person's commitment to the truth of their religious doctrines may prevent them from seeing that they are assuming the truth of what they are attempting to prove
  • a person's commitment to the truth of their religious doctrines may prevent them from seeing that they are assuming the truth of what they are attempting to prove
  • circular reasoning
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • assuming the conclusion
  • assuming a related but equally controversial premise to prove what is at question
  • these assumptions are at least as questionable as the point at hand
  • A person making such an argument must defend this premise before the argument can have any force
Sunny Jackson

Begging the Question Fallacy: Political Arguments - 0 views

atheism.about.com/...beggingquestion_3.htm

shared by Sunny Jackson on 26 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • a person's commitment to the truth of their political ideology may prevent them from seeing that they are assuming the truth of what they are attempting to prove
  • presumes the truth of a premise that isn't stated
  • closely related to the point in question
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • this premise is far from obvious
  • support it
  • that is exactly the point being disputed
  • assuming
  • the arguer is assuming
  • questionable
  • the assumption is unstated and debatable
  • Genetic Fallacy - an ad hominem fallacy which involves the rejection of an idea or argument because of the nature of the person presenting it
  • what is being offered here is not an independent reason
  • most people are smart enough to avoid stating their premises and conclusions in exactly the same manner
  • it is important to know how to take apart an argument and examine its constituent parts
  • look at each piece individually
Sunny Jackson

Atheism and Theism; Proof and Disproof - 0 views

atheism.about.com/...aa100798.htm

shared by Sunny Jackson on 26 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • That the theists have some burden of proof simply cannot be denied. They are obviously making at least one claim - that at least one god exists. Theists must, then, be prepared to offer justification for their claims - they must face up to their burden of demonstrating that their assertions are reasonable.
  • one of the first steps any theist will have to take is to explain the nature of this god they are claiming.
  • Unless we have a good idea of what we are looking for, we'll never know if we've found it or not!
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • atheists aren't necessarily making any particular claims about the world.
  • When a person says to you "I am an atheist," all you can really assume is that they are saying "I do not believe in any gods."
  • no one need deny any particular theistic beliefs in order to be an atheist, they only need to not believe in any gods, whatever their reasons or attitudes.
  • Just because an atheist believes something doesn't mean that that belief is so connected to atheism that, in order to justify atheism, the belief in question needs to be justified.
  • evolution describes how life has developed over time, not how it originated.
  • Unless an atheist does not believe in any gods because of evolution, the an atheist has absolutely no need to defend evolution in order to defend atheism.
  • There are theists who accept the explanation of evolution, and theists who do not. There are atheists who accept the explanation of evolution, and atheists who do not.
  • So atheism is not inherently dependent upon evolution
  • Theists will commonly ask "Well, where did the universe come from?" Like the atheist reaction to evolution, we can approach this question with: "I don't know. So what?" Unless a person's atheism is dependent upon a particular description of the origin of the universe, they neither need to know the answer to the theist's question nor do they need to support any particular answer.
  • The only possible origin for the universe which is incompatible with my atheism is that of a creation by a god. This, of course, would be for the theist to demonstrate - and if they cannot, my atheism remains, whatever the real origin is. I do not need to account for this "real origin" in order to account for my atheism.
  • Theists need to explain and account for their god, because that's what theism is: belief in a god.
  • I hold a wide variety of beliefs
  • my atheism is not about the universe
  • are atheists required to disprove theistic claims? In general, no.
  • the burden of proof is on whoever is making the claims.
  • This is sometimes on the atheist, if they choose to deny something specific.
  • Only after the theist has presented coherent and rational arguments might the atheist need to explain why she does not accept them.
  • justification of atheism is based upon inadequate justification for theism
  • Just because the atheist happens to disagree with the theist on other issues does not mean that the atheist needs to justify these other beliefs in order to justify atheism.
  • If the discussion is about the existence of gods, then that is where it must be kept.
Sunny Jackson

Great Minds: Atheist Quotes - 0 views

www.atheistempire.com/...greatest.php

Atheists

shared by Sunny Jackson on 22 May 13 - Cached
  • "Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color." --Don Hirschberg
  • "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" - Epicurus
  • "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • "And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence." - Bertrand Russell
  • "Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense." -- Chapman Cohen
  • "Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned."
  • "Only Sheep need a shepherd!"
  • "It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." - Mark Twain
  • "In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point." - Friedrich Nietzsche
  • "The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence." -- Abu Ala Al-Ma'arri
Sunny Jackson

10 Questions Every Intelligent Atheist Must Answer « An Exercise in Futility - 0 views

emach.wordpress.com/...ntelligent-atheist-must-answer

Atheists

shared by Sunny Jackson on 22 May 13 - No Cached
  • Are you a moral relativist, or do you believe in absolute morality? 
  • do you believe that cultures, or even individuals, can define their own rules on what is moral and what is not, or do you believe that every action has one unique, absolute, and true moral assessment?
  • the morality as defined by the Old Testament is different than the morality defined by the New Testament
  • ...39 more annotations...
  • who or what determines which actions are moral and which are not? 
  • I do not trust any human being, no matter how smart they are, including myself, to prescribe to me what is moral and what is not
  • Always minimize both actual and potential suffering; always maximize both actual and potential happiness.
  • how and why morality can be universal
  • where it comes from
  • Is your trust in science based on faith or based on science?
  • observed and interpreted the evidence yourself and drew your own conclusions
  • Science has the ability to self correct.
  • Is absence of proof the proof of absence?
  • What does the atheist position offer people?  How has it improved your life?  Why will it improve others’ lives?
  • When you attempt to use logic to conclude facts about religion, are you starting at the conclusion (God is not real), or are you starting at true premises? 
  • If you are starting at true premises, then what are they?  And how are they true? 
  • If all Christians believed that the Bible was entirely allegorical, what would you argue in support of your position?
  • Why is it important to you that everyone is an atheist?
  • Do you believe in extra-terrestrials?
  • I don’t want to hear about how religious people are more “moral” when their god slaughters all the first born male children of egypt.
  • Where does language, art, music, and religion come from?
  • if a new piece of evidence arises
  • always check your sources
  • The human brain. All our mental capacity for reason and creativity come from it.
  • damage to the brain’s structure affects the mind
  • I don’t know, but I do know that it was not the invisible man in the sky, because the invisible man in the sky is not an explanation.
  • Your mind does NOT survive your death.
  • damaged brain, damaged mind
  • Destroyed brain, destroyed mind.
  • The b**** says VERY SPECIFIC things about your god, things that are impossible.
  • I can now see reality from a clear perspective
  • there is no original sin
  • as a society I do think we need less god and less religion
  • you argue that god is real because of X. I take a look at X and it does not conclusively prove that god is real, so I go on being an atheist.
  • all the “proofs” provided by theists have already been refuted
  • I was a religious person when I was younger and I believed it
  • After I read all the arguments against it, I could not believe it anymore.
  • I would still be an atheist.
  • Other people’s beliefs do not affect my beliefs.
  • I can’t speak for every atheist.
  • Keep it to yourself and away from the government and small children.
  • the distances between planets are ENORMOUS
  • YOUR god is supposed to be EVERYWHERE
Sunny Jackson

Stephen Hawking - Wikiquote - 0 views

en.wikiquote.org/...Stephen_Hawking

Wiki Quote Book

shared by Sunny Jackson on 03 Jul 13 - Cached
  • Reality is not a quality you can test with litmus paper.
  • I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes.
  • I don't think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars.
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • Life would be tragic if it weren't funny.
  • My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.
  • However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there's life, there is hope.
  • It is not enough for me to wear dark sunglasses and a wig. The wheelchair gives me away.
  • The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order
  • Each time new experiments are observed to agree with the predictions the theory survives, and our confidence in it is increased; but if ever a new observation is found to disagree, we have to abandon or modify the theory
  • Bodies like the earth are not made to move on curved orbits by a force called gravity; instead, they follow the nearest thing to a straight path in a curved space
  • The ultimate objective test of free will would seem to be: Can one predict the behavior of the organism? If one can, then it clearly doesn't have free will but is predetermined. On the other hand, if one cannot predict the behavior, one could take that as an operational definition that the organism has free will
  • If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist.
  • I have noticed that even people who claim everything is predetermined and that we can do nothing to change it look before they cross the road.
  • One cannot base one's conduct on the idea that everything is determined, because one does not know what has been determined. Instead, one has to adopt the effective theory that one has free will and that one is responsible for one's actions.
  • A society in which the individual feels responsible for his or her actions is more likely to work together and survive
  • If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason
  • a good scientific theory: it made definite predictions, which could be tested by observation, and possibly falsified.
  • We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet.
Sunny Jackson

Karl Popper - Wikiquote - 0 views

en.wikiquote.org/Karl_Popper

Wiki Quote Book

shared by Sunny Jackson on 03 Jul 13 - Cached
  • The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth
  • When I speak of reason or rationalism, all I mean is the conviction that we can learn through criticism of our mistakes and errors, especially through criticism by others, and eventually also through self-criticism.
  • A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others — not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others. The emphasis here is on the idea of criticism or, to be more precise, critical discussion.
  • ...35 more annotations...
  • The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff. He is well aware that acceptance or rejection of an idea is never a purely rational matter; but he thinks that only critical discussion can give us the maturity to see an idea from more and more sides and to make a correct judgement of it.
  • True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
  • The game of science is, in principle, without end.
  • if our civilization is to survive, we must break with the habit of deference to great men. Great men may make great mistakes
  • The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.
  • paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek.
  • paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
  • counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion
  • We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
  • No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.
  • It is our duty to help those who need help; but it cannot be our duty to make others happy
  • There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life.
  • A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence. He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force
  • Only if we give up our authoritarian attitude in the realm of opinion, only if we establish the attitude of give and take, of readiness to learn from other people, can we hope to control acts of violence inspired by piety and duty.
  • it always takes two to make a discussion reasonable. Each of the parties must be ready to learn from the other. You cannot have a rational discussion with a man who prefers shooting you to being convinced by you.
  • Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now. Our fellow men have a claim to our help; no generation must be sacrificed for the sake of future generations, for the sake of an ideal of happiness that may never be realised.
  • If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it.
  • we do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.
  • The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance. For this, indeed, is the main source of our ignorance — the fact that our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
  • The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, clear, and well-defined will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance. The main source of our ignorance lies in the fact that our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
  • I believe it is worthwhile trying to discover more about the world, even if this only teaches us how little we know.
  • What we should do, I suggest, is to give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and admit that all knowledge is human; that it is mixed with our errors, our prejudices, our dreams, and our hopes; that all we can do is to grope for truth even though it be beyond our reach. We may admit that our groping is often inspired, but we must be on our guard against the belief, however deeply felt, that our inspiration carries any authority, divine or otherwise. If we thus admit that there is no authority beyond the reach of criticism to be found within the whole province of our knowledge, however far it may have penetrated into the unknown, then we can retain, without danger, the idea that truth is beyond human authority. And we must retain it. For without this idea there can be no objective standards of inquiry; no criticism of our conjectures; no groping for the unknown; no quest for knowledge.
  • Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
  • I believe it is worthwhile trying to discover more about the world, even if this only teaches us how little we know. It might do us good to remember from time to time that, while differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.
  • If we thus admit that there is no authority beyond the reach of criticism to be found within the whole province of our knowledge, however far we may have penetrated into the unknown, then we can retain, without risk of dogmatism, the idea that truth itself is beyond all human authority. Indeed, we are not only able to retain this idea, we must retain it. For without it there can be no objective standards of scientific inquiry, no criticism of our conjectured solutions, no groping for the unknown, and no quest for knowledge.
  • Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
  • The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error. But science is one of the very few human activities — perhaps the only one — in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected. This is why we can say that, in science, we often learn from our mistakes, and why we can speak clearly and sensibly about making progress there.
  • There are all kinds of sources of our knowledge; but none has authority
  • more people are killed out of righteous stupidity than out of wickedness.
  • There are all kinds of sources of our knowledge; but none has authority ... The fundamental mistake made by the philosophical theory of the ultimate sources of our knowledge is that it does not distinguish clearly enough between questions of origin and questions of validity.
  • Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.
  • All things living are in search of a better world.
  • Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.
  • There are uncertain truths — even true statements that we may take to be false — but there are no uncertain certainties. Since we can never know anything for sure, it is simply not worth searching for certainty; but it is well worth searching for truth; and we do this chiefly by searching for mistakes, so that we have to correct them.
  • Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.
Sunny Jackson

Carl Sagan - Wikiquote - 0 views

en.wikiquote.org/Carl_Sagan

Wiki Quote Book

shared by Sunny Jackson on 03 Jul 13 - Cached
  • Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
  • If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you … On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones.
  • The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.
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  • We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That's a clear prescription for disaster.
  • I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.
  • If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
  • Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever it has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?
  • In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
  • Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere.
  • We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it's forever.
  • It is all a matter of time scale. An event that would be unthinkable in a hundred years may be inevitable in a hundred million.
  • The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no place in the endeavor of science.
  • With insufficient data it is easy to go wrong.
  • Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.
  • For a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations.
  • They (i. e., the Pythagoreans) did not advocate the free confrontation of conflicting points of view. Instead, like all orthodox religions, they practised a rigidity that prevented them from correcting their errors.
  • If we long for our planet to be important, there is something we can do about it. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and by the depth of our answers.
  • We embarked on our journey to the stars with a question first framed in the childhood of our species and in each generation asked anew with undiminished wonder: What are the stars? Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.
  • If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.
  • A googolplex is precisely as far from infinity as is the number 1... no matter what number you have in mind, infinity is larger still.
  • The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent to the concerns of such puny creatures as we are.
  • The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species.
  • Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors.
  • I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.
  • Other things being equal, it is better to be smart than to be stupid.
  • As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky.
  • History is full of people who out of fear or ignorance or the lust for power have destroyed treasures of immeasurable value which truly belong to all of us. We must not let it happen again
  • Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries.
  • there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined
  • We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.
  • whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised.
  • Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.
  • Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.
  • the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing.
  • Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.
  • it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true.
  • For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
  • Do we, holding that the gods exist, deceive ourselves with insubstantial dreams and lies, while random careless chance and change alone control the world?
  • God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it.
  • Humans are very good at dreaming
  • For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
  • You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.
  • We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both.
  • We're made of star-stuff.
  • The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature.
  • We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature.
  • We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged. We are the legacy of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution. We have a choice: We can enhance life and come to know the universe that made us, or we can squander our 15 billion-year heritage in meaningless self-destruction. What happens in the first second of the next cosmic year depends on what we do, here and now, with our intelligence and our knowledge of the cosmos.
  • The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars.
  • War is murder writ large.
  • By exploring other worlds we safeguard this one. By itself, I think this fact more than justifies the money our species has spent in sending ships to other worlds. It is our fate to live during one of the most perilous and, at the same time, one of the most hopeful chapters in human history.
  • Exactly the same technology can be used for good and for evil.
  • You can use your technology to destroy yourselves or to carry you to the planets and the stars. It's up to you.
Sunny Jackson

Ignosticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/Ignosticism

info Wiki

shared by Sunny Jackson on 03 Jul 13 - Cached
  • if that definition is unfalsifiable, the ignostic takes the theological noncognitivist position that the question of the existence of God (per that definition) is meaningless
  • a coherent definition of God must be presented before the question of the existence of God can be meaningfully discussed
  • the concept of God is not considered meaningless; the term "God" is considered meaningless
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  • "What is meant by 'God'?"
  • Some philosophers have seen ignosticism as a variation of agnosticism or atheism,[1] while others have considered it to be distinct.
  • An ignostic maintains that they cannot even say whether they are a theist or an atheist until a sufficient definition of theism is put forth.
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