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Evidence Quotes

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Evidence Quotes

“The world is like a courtroom, with God as our judge. We are called upon to fulfill our covenant with God, who asked, "Am I not your Lord?" To which we answered, "Yea." And since here on earth we are on trial, our every word and action form the witness to and the evidence of that agreement.”

World Action Earth Form Lord Awareness Judging Evidence Trials Witness Agreement Covenant Courtroom Words And Actions Covenant With God

Author:Rumi

“The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as a trade secret of Paleontology. Evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils.”

Form Secret Records Tree Evolution Evidence Trade Extremes Data Branches Reasonable Persist Fossils Textbooks Inference Rarity Paleontology Creation Science Creation And Evolution

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“Specialness as a primary mode of death transcendence takes a number of other maladaptive forms. The drive for power is not uncommonly motivated by this dynamic. One's own fear and sense of limitation is avoided by enlarging oneself and one's sphere of control. There is some evidence, for example, that those who enter the death-related professions (soldiers, doctors, priests, and morticians) may in part be motivated by a need to obtain control over death anxiety.”

Needs May Form Numbers Example Anxiety Evidence Doctors Soldier Oneself Profession Primaries Limitation Related Priests Motivated Spheres Transcendence Avoided Specialness Morticians

Author:Irvin D. Yalom

“Every age manifests itself by some external evidence. In a period such as ours when only a comparatively few individuals seem to be given to religion, some form other than the Gothic cathedral must be found. Industry concerns the greatest numbers-it may be true, as has been said, that our factories are our substitute for religious expression.”

May Has Beens Said Seems Age Form Found Individual Given Religious Numbers Expression Industry Periods Evidence Concern Being True Substitutes Factories Gothic Cathedrals

Book:Charles Sheeler: across media

Source: Charles Sheeler: across media

“We should listen less to the opinions of those who either overtly promote or stubbornly reject complementary and alternative medicine without acceptable evidence. The many patients who use complementary and alternative medicine deserve better. Patients and healthcare providers need to know which forms are safe and effective. Its future should (and hopefully will) be determined by unbiased scientific evaluation.”

“It is wiser, I believe, to arrive at theory by way of evidence rather than the other way around.... It is more rewarding, in any case, to assemble the facts first and, in the process of arranging them in narrative form, to discover a theory or a historical generalization emerging of its own accord.”

Way Firsts Believe Facts Form I Believe Process Cases Atheism Theory Evidence Historical Positive Atheism Narrative Wiser Accord Emerging Generalization Arranging

Book:Practicing History: Selected Essays

Source: Practicing History: Selected Essays

“There is a good deal of evidence that the United States is moving to the right, and that the main force behind the movement is a resurgence, in a new form, of racial prejudice.”

States Moving Form Force United Deals Behinds United States Movement Racism Evidence Prejudice Racial Prejudice Resurgence

Author:Shirley Chisholm

“A letter is not a dialogue or even an omniscient exposition. It is a fabric of surfaces, a mask, a form as well suited to affectations as to the affections. The letter is, by its natural shape, self-justifying; it is one's own evidence, deposition, a self-serving testimony. In a letter the writer holds all the cards, controls everything about himself and about those assertions he wishes to make concerning events or the worth of others. For completely self-centered characters, the letter form is a complex and rewarding activity.”

Source: Seduction and Betrayal: Women and Literature

“[T]he true natural sciences lock together in theory and evidence to form the ineradicable technical base of modern civilization. The pseudosciences satisfy personal psychological needs... but lack the ideas or the means to contribute to the technical base.”

Needs Mean Ideas Together Form Religion Natural Modern Theory Civilization Evidence Psychological Locks Natural Science Pseudoscience Modern Civilization Psychological Needs

Author:E. O. Wilson

“No matter what eyewitness testimony is in the court of law, it is the lowest form of evidence in the court of science.”

Matter Form Law Culture Evidence No Matter What Court Lowest Testimony Eyewitnesses

Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson

“There are, however, exceptions to this reliance on feelings as evidence of truth: if, for instance, your feelings lead to disbelief instead of belief, they're apt to be dismissed as some form of denial. This is not a common problem. Usually intellectualism, not feeling reality, is blamed for disbelief. But, some angel experts suggest, there may be emotional as well as intellectual barriers to belief: unwillingness to believe in angels can reflect low self-esteem.”

“The debate can be put in the form of the question: Resolved, that the best of money managers cannot be demonstrated to be able to deliver the goods of superior portfolio-selection performance. Any jury that reviews the evidence, and there is a great deal of relevant evidence, must at least come out with the Scottish verdict: Superior investment performance is unproved.”

Able Form Deals Evidence Performances Investment Investing Debate Superiors Managers Goods Reviews Relevant Selection Jury Scottish Verdict Portfolios Superior Performance

Author:Paul Samuelson

“The pretense that humans are superior to nonhumans is entirely unsupportable. I have seen no compelling evidence that humans are particularly more "intelligent" than any other creature. I have had long and fruitful relationshis with many nonhuman animals, both domesticated and wild, and have reveled in the bouquet of radically different intelligences - different forms, not different "quantities" that they have introduced to me, each in his or her own time, in his or her own way.”

Way Humans Long Different Form Animal Creatures Evidence Intelligent Superiors Arrogance Quantity Compelling Pretense Bouquets

Book:Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos

Source: Thought to Exist in the Wild: Awakening from the Nightmare of Zoos

“Thought reflexes get conditioned very strongly, and they are very hard to change. And the also interfere. A reflex may connect to the endorphins and produce an impulse to hold that whole pattern forther. In other words, it produces a defensive reflex. Not merely is it stuck because it's chemically so well built up, but also there is a defensive reflex which defends against evidence which might weaken it. Thus it all happens, one reflex after another after another. It's just a vast system of reflexes. And they form a 'structure' as they get more rigid.”

Wells May Hard Whole Might Happens Form Produce Evidence Built Structure Patterns Stuck Impulse Very Strong Interfere Reflexes Endorphins

Author:David Bohm

“If all the evidence put forward for the authenticity of religious teachings originates in the past, it is natural to look round and see whether the present, about which it is easier to form judgements, may not also be able to furnish evidence of the sort. If by this means we could succeed in clearing even a single portion of the religious system from doubt, the whole of it would gain enormously in credibility.”

Source: The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud

“I have a counter-theory...I believe men built most things because women were shut out of political power, job opportunities, and education for most of history, and instead forced into servitude towards men in the home. I believe my theory has a lot of evidence for it, in the form of all of history.”

Men Believe Home Jobs Form Political Opportunity I Believe Theory Evidence Built Believe In Me Servitude Political Power Job Opportunities

Author:Amanda Marcotte

“The reason why life may be judged to be trivial although at certain moments it seems to us so beautiful is that we form our judgment, ordinarily, not on the evidence of life itself but of those quite different images which preserve nothing of life-and therefore we judge it disparagingly.”

May Different Reason Moments Seems Beautiful Form Certain Judging Judgment Evidence Preserves Reason Why Judged

Book:In Search of Lost Time, Volume VI: Time Regained (A Modern Library E-Book)

Source: In Search of Lost Time, Volume VI: Time Regained (A Modern Library E-Book)

“In fact, the new malleability of the image may eventually lead to a profound undermining of photography's status as an inherently truthful pictorial form... If even a minimal confidence in photography does not survive, it is questionable whether many pictures will have meaning anymore, not only as symbols but as evidence.”

Ifs May Doe Facts Form Photography Evidence Profound Symbols Truthful Questionable Undermining Pictorial

Author:Fred Ritchin

“God created two acts of folly. First, He created the Universe in a Big Bang. Second, He was negligent enough to leave behind evidence for this act, in the form of microwave radiation.”

Firsts Two Enough Bigs Form Universe Behinds Evidence Folly Radiation Bangs Microwaves

Author:Paul Erdos

“I believed in belief, for its own shining sake. To believe in the face of utter hopelessness, every article of evidence to the contrary, to ignore apparent catastrophe - what other choice was there? We do it every day, I realized. We are so much stronger than we imagine, and belief is one of the most valiant and long-lived human characteristics. To believe, when all along we humans know that nothing can cure the briefness of this life, that there is no remedy for our basic mortality, that is a form of bravery. To continue believing in yourself, believing in the doctors, believing in thetreatent, believing in whatever I chose to believe in, that was the most important thing.”

“The idea, therefore, that religious faith is somehow a sacred human convention—distinguished, as it is, both by the extravagance of its claims and by the paucity of its evidence—is really too great a monstrosity to be appreciated in all its glory. Religious faith represents so uncompromising a misuse of the power of our minds that it forms a kind of perverse, cultural singularity—a vanishing point beyond which rational discourse proves impossible.”

Source: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

“The Photograph is an extended, loaded evidence — as if it caricatured not the figure of what it represents (quite the converse) but its very existence ... The Photograph then becomes a bizarre (i)medium(i), a new form of hallucination: false on the level of perception, true on the level of time: a temporal hallucination, so to speak, a modest (o)shared(i) hallucination (on the one hand 'it is not there,' on the other 'but it has indeed been'): a mad image, chafed by reality.”

Ifs Hands Reality Form Speak Levels Existence Figures Perception Evidence Mad Photograph Mediums Modest Bizarre Loaded Converses Hallucinations

Author:Roland Barthes

“America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”

America Form Waiting Clear Gun Evidence Threat Finals Clouds Iraq Proof Smoking Gathering Peril Mushrooms Funny Bush

Author:George W. Bush

“Mood evidently affects the operation of System 1: when we are uncomfortable and unhappy, we lose touch with our intuition. These findings add to the growing evidence that good mood, intuition, creativity, gullibility, and increased reliance on System 1 form a cluster. At the other pole, sadness, vigilance, suspicion, an analytic approach, and increased effort also go together. A happy mood loosens the control of System 2 over performance: when in a good mood, people become more intuitive and more creative but also less vigilant and more prone to logical errors.”

Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow

“To suggest that war can prevent war is a base play on words and a despicable form of warmongering. The objective of any who sincerely believe in peace clearly must be to exhaust every honorable recourse in the effort to save the peace. The world has had ample evidence that war begets only conditions that beget further war.”

World Believe War Play Form Peace Effort Conditions Evidence Objectives Honorable Sincerely Begets Ubuntu Despicable Recourse Play On Words

Author:Ralph Bunche

“What makes fantastic declarations believable is, in part, the vehemence with which they're proffered. Again, in the world of spirituality as well as of pop psychology, intensity of personal belief is evidence of truth. It is considered very bad form - even abuse - to challenge the veracity of any personal testimony that might be offered in a twelve-step group or on a talk show, unless the testimony itself is equivocal... Whatever sells, whatever many people believe strongly, must be true.”

“Being myself animated by feelings of affection toward my fellowmen, I am saddened by the modern system of advertising. Whatever evidence it offers of enterprise, ingenuity, impudence, and resource in certain individuals, it proves to my mind the wide prevalence of that form of mental degradation which is called gullibility.”

Source: A Set of Six

“It is not possible to provide evidence of life after death to the five senses anymore than it is possible to provide the five senses with evidence of non-physical reality. It cannot be done. The five senses; sight,hearing, taste and smell together form a single sensory system whose object of detection is physical reality. This cannot detect non-physical reality. Humankind is beginning to be able to access data the 5 senses cannot provide.”

Done Reality Able Together Form Five Awareness Objects Taste Evidence Sight Hearing Smell Access Senses Data Humankind After Death Sensory Life After Death Five Senses Detection Taste And Smell

Author:Gary Zukav

“Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing either that they exist or that they do not exist, nor what sort of form they may have; there are many reasons why knowledge on this subject is not possible, owing to the lack of evidence and the shortness of human life.”

Humans May Mean Reason God Form Science Existence Knowledge Knowing Subjects Evidence Human Life Reason Why Owing Shortness

Author:Protagoras

“In order to understand what is meant by the word 'brain' as it is used by neuroscientists, we must bear in mind the evidence that this organ contains in some recorded form the basis of one's whole conscious life. It contains the record of all our aims and ambitions and is essential for the experience of all pleasures and pains, all loves and hates.”

Mind Whole Pain Form Used Hate Order Pleasure Brain Records Bears Essentials Ambition Conscious Evidence Bases Aim Organs Love And Hate Pain And Pleasure

Book:Philosophy and the brain

Source: Philosophy and the brain

“One area of the Book of Mormon that does bother some is what they see as anachronistic doctrine; that the Book of Mormon has Christian doctrine prior to the coming of Christ; that it has seemingly New Testament doctrines appearing centuries before Jesus arrives, and it seems to be representing a form of Christianity existing in the New World where there doesn't seem to be much evidence of that archaeologically. Christianity is invisible in the New World prior to the coming of Columbus, and so those things seem like clear anachronisms to people looking at it in that way.”

“There is the theory that all the living forms in the world have arisen from a single source which itself came from an inorganic form. This theory can be called the 'general theory of evolution,' and the evidence which supports this is not sufficiently strong to allow us to consider it as anything more than a working hypothesis.”

World Form Strong Support Theory Source Evolution Evidence Hypothesis Theory Of Evolution

Author:Gerald A. Kerkut

“The earliest signs of living things, announcing as they do a high complexity of organization, entirely exclude the hypothesis of a transmutation from lower to higher grades of being. The first fiat of Creation which went forth, doubtlessly ensured the perfect adaptation of animals to the surrounding media; and thus, whilst the geologist recognizes a beginning, he can see in the innumerable facts of the eye of the earliest crustacean, the same evidences of Omniscience as in the completion of the vertebrate form.”

Source: Siluria the History of the Oldest Known Rocks Containing Organic Remains, with a Brief Sketch of the Distribution of Gold Over the Earth by Roderick Impey Murchison

“The strongest wish of a vast number of earnest men and women to-day is for a basis of religious belief which shall rest, not upon tradition or external authority or historical evidence, but upon the ascertainable facts of human experience. The craving for immediacy, which we have seen to be characteristic of all mysticism, now takes the form of a desire to establish the validity of the God-consciousness as a normal part of the healthy inner life.”

“A rational process is a moral process. You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or you may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest - but if devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.”

Source: Atlas Shrugged

“There was a time when intellectual meant someone who uses reason and intellect. Today, people who call themselves intellectuals are in a form of mental death spiral: they search for, and find, those index cards that support their world view, and clutch little red books like rosaries in the face of all external evidence. They are ruled by appeals to authority. Their self-image and sense of emotional well-being trumps any and all objective evidence to the contrary.”

“I believe in you and me. I'm like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that I have a respect for life -- in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God. But I don't believe in a personal God to whom I look for comfort or for a natural on the next roll of the dice.”

Ifs Believe Looks Mean I Can Real Form Next I Believe Natural Sea Sky Comfort Bird Evidence Don't Believe I Believe In Believe In God Believe In You Dice I Believe In God I Believe In You

Author:Frank Sinatra

“It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved by probably some kind of Darwinian means to a very, very high level of technology- and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. And I suppose it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer.”

Ifs Looks Kind Mean Might Form Universe Levels Technology Planets Civilization Evidence Details Designer Biology Signatures High Level Biochemistry Molecular Biology

Author:Richard Dawkins

“To be guilty of the sin of prayerlessness is to be guilty of the worst form of practical atheism. It is actually saying we can get along without His help while the evidence is very clear on every hand that we cannot. Could it be that the sin of prayerlessness steams from our unbelief that he is a living God who exercises direct influence on the affairs of men?”

Men Helping Hands Form Prayer Sin Clear Atheism Influence Worst Exercise Evidence Direct Affair Practicals Guilty Steam Unbelief

Author:Bruce Willis