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Evidence Quotes

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Evidence Quotes

“The scientific method is designed to help investigators overcome the most entrenched human cognitive habit: the confirmation bias, the tendency to notice and remember evidence that confirms our beliefs or decisions, and to ignore, dismiss, or forget evidence that is discrepant. That's why we are all inclined to stick to a hypothesis we believe in. Science is one way of forcing us, kicking and screaming if necessary, to modify our views.”

“Not a shred of evidence supports the existence of matriarchy anywhere in the world at any time... The matriarchy hypothesis, revived by American feminism, continues to flourish outside the university.”

World Existence Support Feminism Evidence University Hypothesis Matriarchy

Book:Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson

Source: Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson

“Many modern philosophers claim that probability is relation between an hypothesis and the evidence for it.”

Modern Evidence Claims Relation Philosopher Probability Hypothesis

Book:The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference

Source: The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference

“Graphology is another in a long list of quack substitutes for hard work. It is appealing to those who are impatient with such troublesome matters as research, evidence analysis, reasoning, logic, and hypothesis testing.”

Long Matter Hard Hard Work Research Evidence Logic Lists Analysis Reasoning Working It Substitutes Hypothesis Testing Impatient Troublesome Quacks

Author:Robert Todd Carroll

“All things considered, I can see no reason to adopt the afterlife hypothesis. I am sure I shall remain in a minority for a long time to come, especially among experiencers, but for me the evidence and the arguments are overwhelming ... We are biological organisms, evolved in fascinating ways for no purpose at all and with no end in mind. We are simply here and this is how it is. I have no self and "I" own nothing. There is no one to die. There is just this moment, and now this, and now this.”

“Although efficient markets people still go around saying there is a "mountain" of evidence supporting their hypothesis, the truth of the matter is that it's a very old mountain that's now eroding rapidly into the sea.”

People Stills Matter Sea Mountain Evidence Efficient Hypothesis Efficient Markets

Author:Robert Haugen

“When I was younger, I'd get very empirical with myself. "I have a hypothesis about myself. I'll put myself in a situation, see what happens, then I'll draw a conclusion based on the empirical evidence. Hypothesis: I can play basketball." So I'd try. "Conclusion: I cannot play basketball."”

Trying I Can Play Happens Situation Basketball Draws Evidence Conclusion Hypothesis Empirical Evidence

Author:Demetri Martin

“I have a standing offer of $250,000 to anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for evolution. My $250,000 offer demonstrates that the hypothesis of evolution is nothing more than a religious belief.”

Giving Belief Religious Evolution Offers Evidence Standing Scary Proof Hypothesis Religious Belief Empirical Evidence

Author:Kent Hovind

“Experimental work provides the strongest evidence for scientific realism. This is not because we test hypotheses about entities. It is because entities that in principle cannot be 'observed' are manipulated to produce a new phenomena [sic] and to investigate other aspects of nature.”

Reality Science Principles Produce Evidence Aspect Tests Strongest Realism Entity Hypothesis Ontology

Author:Ian Hacking

“There is no other proposition in economics that has more solid empirical evidence supporting it than the Efficient Market Hypothesis... In the literature of finance, accounting, and the economics of uncertainty, the EMH is accepted as a fact of life.”

Facts Literature Evidence Economics Investing Accepted Finance Uncertainty Efficient Propositions Hypothesis Facts Of Life Accounting Empirical Evidence Efficient Markets

Author:Michael Jensen

“Look ... first and foremost, I'm a scientist. That means it's my responsibility to make observations and gather evidence before forming a hypothesis, not vice versa.”

Firsts Looks Mean Responsibility Evidence Scientist Vices Observation Hypothesis Vice Versa

Book:Hex

Source: Hex

“The hallmark of good science is the testing of a plausible hypothesis that is then either supported or rejected by the evidence.”

Evidence Rejected Hypothesis Testing Hallmark Plausible Good Science

Author:Willie Soon

“When I try to outline the history of ethical life, it's sometimes possible to find evidence for a hypothesis about how important transitions actually went. Often, however, that isn't so. There are many facts about human life in the Paleolithic we're never likely to know.”

Knows Trying Humans Important Sometimes Facts Evidence Human Life Ethical Transition Hypothesis Outlines

Author:Philip Kitcher

“... no scientific worker has a fixed level of significance at which from year to year, and in all circumstances, he rejects hypotheses; he rather gives his mind to each particular case in the light of his evidence and his ideas.”

Giving Years Mind Ideas Light Levels Cases Particular Circumstances Evidence Workers Fixed Rejects Significance Hypothesis

Author:Ronald Fisher

“If you have evidence that C1 is a cause of E, and no evidence as to whether C2 is also a cause of E, then C1 seems to be a better explanation of E than C1&C2 is, since C1 is more parsimonious. I call the version of Ockham's razor used here "the razor of silence." The better explanation of E is silent about C2; it does not deny that C2 was a cause. The problem changes if you consider two conjunctive hypotheses.”

Ifs Doe Two Problem Seems Used Causes Silence Evidence Silent Deny Versions Explanation Hypothesis Razors

Author:Elliott Sober

“Darwin repeatedly used the hypothesis of common ancestry as a platform on which to build his various ideas about testing hypotheses concerning natural selection. He also argued that adaptive similarities provide little or no evidence for common ancestry. Although this second claim needs to be fine-tuned, Darwin was right that ample evidence for common ancestry can exist even if none of the characteristics we observe were caused to evolve by natural selection.”

Ifs Needs Littles Ideas Used Natural Common Fine Evidence Claims Various Evolve Characteristics Platforms Hypothesis Selection Testing Similarity Natural Selection Ancestry Adaptive

Author:Elliott Sober

“When you look at any experimental work not directly related to economics, but trying to test rational behavior in other ways, experiments have conspicuously failed to show rational behavior. Macro evidence certainly suggests deviations from rationality, but I don't want to say the rationality hypothesis is completely wrong. If you have any introspective idea or experimental idea about people's behavior, it seems to be incompatible with the really full scale rational expectations.”

People Ifs Way Want Trying Looks Ideas Shows Seems Behavior Expectations Evidence Economics Tests Scales Experiments Rational Related Rationality Hypothesis Introspective Deviation Macro

Author:Kenneth Arrow

“Even facts become fictions without adequate ways of seeing "the facts". We do not need theories so much as the experience that is the source of the theory. We are not satisfied with faith, in the sense of an implausible hypothesis irrationally held: we demand to experience the "evidence".”

Way Needs Facts Fiction Seeing Theory Source Demand Evidence Satisfied Hypothesis Adequate

Book:The Politics of Experience

Source: The Politics of Experience

“...but then the general trouble with ignorance is always that the ignorant person has no idea that that's what they are. You can be ignorant and stupid and go through your whole life without ever encountering any evidence against the hypothesis that you're a genius.”

Persons Ideas Whole Trouble Stupid Ignorance Genius Evidence Whole Life Ignorant No Idea Hypothesis Ignorant Person

Author:Louis de Bernieres

“There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have relinquished belief only with regret. To this I reply: who wishes that there was a permanent, unalterable celestial despotism that subjected us to continual surveillance and could convict us of thought-crime, and who regarded us as its private property even after we died? How happy we ought to be, at the reflection that there exists not a shred of respectable evidence to support such a horrible hypothesis.”

Source: The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

“The hypotheses which we accept ought to explain phenomena which we have observed. But they ought to do more than this; our hypotheses ought to foretell phenomena which have not yet been observed; ... because if the rule prevails, it includes all cases; and will determine them all, if we can only calculate its real consequences. Hence it will predict the results of new combinations, as well as explain the appearances which have occurred in old ones. And that it does this with certainty and correctness, is one mode in which the hypothesis is to be verified as right and useful.”

Ifs Wells Doe Real Science Results Accepting Cases Acceptance Ought Evidence Consequence Determine Appearance Observation Certainty Combination Hypothesis Correctness

Author:William Whewell

“All interpretations made by a scientist are hypotheses, and all hypotheses are tentative. They must forever be tested and they must be revised if found to be unsatisfactory. Hence, a change of mind in a scientist, and particularly in a great scientist, is not only not a sign of weakness but rather evidence for continuing attention to the respective problem and an ability to test the hypothesis again and again.”

Ifs Mind Made Problem Science Found Ability Attention Forever Weakness Evidence Tests Scientist Interpretation Again And Again Continuing Tested Hypothesis Great Scientist Mind Changing

Author:Ernst Mayr

“No true geologist holds by the development hypothesis;-it has been resigned to sciolists and smatterers;-and there is but one other alternative. They began to be, through the miracle of creation. From the evidence furnished by these rocks we are shut down either to belief in miracle, or to something else infinitely harder of reception, and as thoroughly unsupported by testimony as it is contrary to experience. Hume is at length answered by the severe truths of the stony science.”

Source: The Foot-prints of the Creator: Or, The Asterolepis of Stromness

“The problem with intelligent-design theory, is not that it is false but that it is not falsifiable. Not being susceptible to contradicting evidence, it is not a testable hypothesis. Hence it is not a scientific but a creedal tenet - a matter of faith, unsuited to a public school's science curriculum.”

Matter Problem School Religion Atheism Design Theory Evidence Intelligent Hypothesis Public School Curriculum Susceptible Intelligent Design Contradicting

Author:George Will

“[The] first postulate of the Principle of Uniformity, namely, that the laws of nature are invariant with time, is not peculiar to that principle or to geology, but is a common denominator of all science. In fact, instead of being an assumption or an ad hoc hypothesis, it is simply a succinct summation of the totality of all experimental and observational evidence.”

Firsts Facts Law Science Common Principles Evidence Assumption Peculiar Ads Hypothesis Laws Of Nature Totality Geology Uniformity Common Denominator

Author:M. King Hubbert

“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

“After a lifetime in this subject, I have concluded that the extraterrestrial hypothesis is one reasonable tentative approach to putting the best-documented and most puzzling UFO reports into a scientifically defensible conceptual framework. By such reports I mean those with credible multiple or independent witnesses, instrumented observations, and physical evidence.”

Mean Subjects Approach Evidence Independent Lifetime Observation Witness Reasonable Reports Multiple Hypothesis Framework Ufo Credible Puzzling Extraterrestrial Conceptual Framework

Author:Jerome Clark