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Belief Quotes

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Belief Quotes

“Anthropology has reached that point of development where the careful investigation of facts shakes our firm belief in the far-reaching theories that have been built up. The complexity of each phenomenon dawns on our minds, and makes us desirous of proceeding more cautiously. Heretofore we have seen the features common to all human thought”

Source: A Franz Boas Reader: The Shaping of American Anthropology, 1883-1911

“What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.”

Ifs Way May Seems Would Be Young Belief Atheism Balance Careful Positive Atheism Favors Unhappy Conclusion Odd Thinker Elders Free Thinkers

Book:The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery

Source: The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery

“Science ... warns me to be careful how I adopt a view which jumps with my preconceptions, and to require stronger evidence for such belief than for one to which I was previously hostile. My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonize with my aspirations.”

Trying Facts Science Belief Views Teach Atheism Evidence Stronger Careful Aspiration Be Careful Conform Hostile Preconceptions

Book:Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley, by His Son, Leonard Huxley

Source: Life and Letters of Thomas Huxley, by His Son, Leonard Huxley

“Our inner weighing of evidence is not a careful mathematical calculation resulting in a probabilistic estimate of truth, but more like a whirlpool blending of the objective and the personal. The result is a set of beliefs - both conscious and unconscious - that guide us in interpreting all the events of our lives.”

Belief Results Our Lives Events Conscious Evidence Careful Guides Objectives Mathematical Unconscious Calculations Interpreting Weighing Conscious And Unconscious Whirlpools

Book:War of the Worldviews: Where Science and Spirituality Meet -- and Do Not

Source: War of the Worldviews: Where Science and Spirituality Meet -- and Do Not