“Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.” TryingDoeReasonUseHandsUniverseBeliefReligiousAtheismPositionEvidenceBuiltUltimatePhilosophicalRemainsStructureBelieverNeverthelessLackingPersuasionRespectableAgnosticismReligious BeliefDogmaticTrue BelieverHeathenUltimate TruthUnyieldingDemolish Book:Pieces of Eight Pa Source: Pieces of Eight Pa
“One of the reasons people love sports is because it's non-political. And to the degree that Donald Trump puts sports organizations like golf tournaments in difficult positions, they won't want anything to do with him, i think all of this is evidence that Donald Trump is finding it a lot harder to be a candidate than he probably anticipated.” PeopleThinkingWantLoveReasonPoliticalSportsDifficultPositionTrumpDegreesFindingsEvidenceOrganizationHarderGolfCandidatesTournamentsGolf TournamentsNon Political Author:Ari Fleischer
“In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."” KnowsHappensScienceReligionChangePositionEvidenceArgumentScientistPainfulPhysicsSkepticismMistakenDnaScience And ReligionSkepticalSkepticScience And TechnologyArt And ScienceScientific MethodModern SciencePhilosophy Of ScienceNatural ScienceScience ReligionPhysical ScienceScientific TruthGreat ScienceScientific FactsScience PhysicsGod And SciencePale Blue DotScientific EvidenceGood ScienceSubtle AtheistScience LoveTheoretical PhysicsBest ScienceDiscovery In ScienceAdvances In ScienceNuclear Arms RaceInformation ScienceProgress In ScienceScientist LifeScience BooksEarth ScienceAdvancement Of ScienceFuture ScienceAtomic StructureScience FairImportance Of Science Author:Carl Sagan
“The art of the indirect approach can only be mastered, and its full scope appreciated, by study of and reflection upon the whole history of war. But we can at least crystallize the lessons into two simple maxims- one negative, the other positive. The first is that, in face of the overwhelming evidence of history, no general is justified in launching his troops to a direct attack upon an enemy firmly in position. The second, that instead of seeking to upset the enemy's equilibrium by one's attack, it must be upset before a real attack is, or can be successfully launched” FirstsArtTwoWarRealWholeFacesSimpleEnemyStudyPositionLessonsApproachReflectionEvidenceNegativeDirectSeekingUpsetOverwhelmingTroopsJustifiedMaximsAppreciatedScopeEquilibriumIndirectLaunching Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
“Later, I would realize that the position of most black students in predominantly white colleges was already too tenuous, our identities too scrambled, to admit to ourselves that our black pride remained incomplete. And to admit our doubt and confusion to whites, to open up our psyches to general examination by those who had caused so much of the damage in the first place, seemed ludicrous, itself an expression of self-hatred - for there seemed no reason to expect that whites would look at our private struggles as a mirror into their own souls, rather than yet more evidence of black pathology.” FirstsLooksSoulSelfReasonBlackRealizingWhiteStruggleDoubtIdentityPositionStudentsCollegeExpressionPrideEvidenceHatredMirrorsConfusionDamageNo ReasonExaminationIncompleteSelf HatredPathologyPsychBlack Pride Author:Barack Obama
“Once we have taken the backward step to an abstract view of our whole system of beliefs, evidence, and justification, and seen that it works only, despite its pretensions, by taking the world largely for granted, we are not in a position to contrast all these appearances with an alternative reality. We cannot shed our ordinary responses, and if we could it would leave us with no means of conceiving a reality of any kind.” IfsWorldKindMeanWholeRealityBeliefViewsStepsTakenPositionOrdinaryEvidenceResponseAppearanceDespiteGrantedAlternativesAbstractContrastJustificationShedPretensionConceiving Author:Thomas Nagel
“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.” KnowsShouldMindHumansSometimesHappensLastsScienceReligionChangeInterestingViewsLearningHappenedPositionHumilityEvidenceArgumentScientistPainfulPhysicsHeartacheRecallsSkepticismLast TimeMistakenDnaScience And ReligionSkepticalSkepticScience And TechnologyArt And ScienceScientific MethodModern SciencePhilosophy Of ScienceNatural ScienceScience ReligionPhysical ScienceScientific TruthGreat ScienceScientific FactsScience PhysicsGod And SciencePale Blue DotScientific EvidenceGood ScienceSubtle AtheistScience LoveTheoretical PhysicsBest ScienceDiscovery In ScienceAdvances In ScienceNuclear Arms RaceInformation ScienceProgress In ScienceScientist LifeScience BooksEarth ScienceAdvancement Of ScienceFuture ScienceAtomic StructureScience FairImportance Of Science Author:Carl Sagan
“So it is best to keep an open mind and be agnostic. At first sight that seems an unassailable position, at least in the weak sense of Pascal's wager. But on second thoughts it seems a cop-out, because the same could be said of Father Christmas and tooth fairies. There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies?” MindFirstsMaySaidSeemsScienceFatherAtheismPositionProveEvidenceGardenWeakSightBottomAtheistTeethFairyCopAgnosticOpen MindSecond ThoughtsKeep An Open MindPascalGod DelusionTooth FairyWagersFather Christmas Author:Richard Dawkins
“Atheists themselves used to be very comfortable in maintaining that the universe is eternal and uncaused. The problem is that they can no longer hold that position because modern evidence that the universe started with the Big Bang. So they can't legitimately object when I make the same claim about God - he is eternal and he is uncaused.” ProblemBigsUsedUniverseModernPositionObjectsComfortableEternalEvidenceClaimsAtheistUsed To BeMaintainingBangs Author:William Lane Craig
“But at the same time, there must never be the least hesitation in giving up a position the moment it is shown to be untenable. It is not going too far to say that the greatness of a scientific investigator does not rest on the fact of his having never made a mistake, but rather on his readiness to admit that he has done so, whenever the contrary evidence is cogent enough.” GivingDoeMadeDoneEnoughMomentsFactsScienceMistakeOpinionPositionGreatnessGiving UpEvidenceContraryMade A MistakeHesitationReadinessInvestigators Author:William Bayliss
“I would say the biggest handicap we have right now is some nutcases in our country that don't believe in global warming. I think they are going to change their position because of pressure from individuals, because the evidence of the ravages of global warming is already there.” ThinkingBelieveCountryIndividualPositionRight NowEvidencePressureDon't BelieveOur CountryGlobal WarmingHandicaps Author:Jimmy Carter
“I've talked with people of stature-of military and government credentials and position-and heard their stories, and their desire to tell their stories openly to the public. And that got my attention very, very rapidly.... The first hand experiences of these credible witnesses that, now in advanced years are anxious to tell their story, we can't deny that, and the evidence points to the fact that Roswell was a real incident, and that indeed an alien craft did crash, and that material was recovered from that crash site.” PeopleYearsFirstsRealFactsStoriesHandsGovernmentDesireAttentionHeardMilitaryPositionMaterialsEvidenceDenyCraftsWitnessAliensAnxiousCrashSiteIncidentsUfoStatureCredibleCredentialsFirst Hand Experience Author:Edgar Mitchell
“When has the world seen a phenomenon like this? a lonely uninstructed youth, coming from amid the moral darkness of Galilee, even more distinct from His age, and from every thing around Him, than a Plato would be rising up in some wild tribe in Oregon, assuming thus a position at the head of the world and maintaining it, for eighteen centuries, by the pure self-evidence of His life and doctrine.” WorldSelfWould BeAgeMoralDarknessCenturyPositionYouthPureEvidenceLonelyAssumingDoctrineRisingPhenomenonTribesPlatoNew BeginningsMaintainingEighteenOregonRising Up Book:The Character of Jesus Source: The Character of Jesus