Home / Topics / Evidence Quotes

Evidence Quotes

Browse 2987 quotes about Evidence.

Evidence Quotes

“If my interlocutor desires to convince me that Jupiter has inhabitants, and that his description of them is accurate, it is for him to bring forward evidence in support of his contention. The burden of proof evidently lies on him; it is not for me to prove that no such beings exist before my non-belief is justified, but for him to prove that they do exist before my belief can be fairly claimed. Similarly, it is for the affirmer of God's existence to bring evidence in support of his affirmation; the burden of proof lies on him.”

Source: The Origins of Theosophy (Routledge Revivals): Annie Besant - The Atheist Years

“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.”

“If there is a soul, what is it, and where did it come from, and where does it go? Can anyone who is guided by his reason possibly imagine a soul independent of a body, or the place of its residence, or the character of it, or anything concerning it? If man is justified in any belief or disbelief on any subject, he is warranted in the disbelief in a soul. Not one scrap of evidence exists to prove any such impossible thing.”

Source: Why I Am an Agnostic and Other Essays

“If there is no God or no evidence of God and certainly no evidence of a very morally engaged god, then whatever has to be done has to be done by us.”

Ifs Done Atheism Evidence Positive Atheism Engaged There Is No God Evidence Of God

Author:Barbara Ehrenreich

“The fact that all our ape cousins - chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans - can acquire signs - is powerful evidence that our hominid ancestors' first language was gestural and that the vocal version of language was a relatively recent development. My own guess is that vocal language began emerging about 200,000 years ago.”

“It is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what Agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism. That which Agnostics deny and repudiate, as immoral, is the contrary doctrine, that there are propositions which men ought to believe without logically satisfactory evidence; and that reprobation ought to attach to the profession of disbelief in such inadequately supported propositions.”

Source: Lectures and Essays

“The distrust and suspicion which men everywhere evidence toward their adversaries, at all states of historical development, may be regarded as the immediate precursor to the notion of ideology.”

Men May States Atheism Development Evidence Historical Notion Positive Atheism Ideology Suspicion Distrust Adversaries Precursor All State

Author:Karl Mannheim

“It does not seem to me that the evidence concerning the being of a God, and concerning immortality, is such as to enable us to assert anything in regard to either of these topics.”

Doe Seems Atheism Evidence Regard Positive Atheism Immortality Topics

Book:The Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton

Source: The Correspondence of John Ruskin and Charles Eliot Norton

“As Stephen Jay Gould pointed out in Time, in no other Western country is the teaching of Evolution regarded as controversial. Throughout the world, one way or another, most Christian denominations have managed to reconcile belief in God with belief in the mechanisms of natural selection. A French or German or Scandinavian politician who called for students to entertain as a reasonable deduction from existing evidence the proposition that Earth is at most 10,000 years old would be bundled off to a mental hospital.”

“I do not expect that the mere fact that I was once an evangelical apologist and now see things differently should itself count as evidence that I must be right. That would be the genetic fallacy. It would be just as erroneous to think that John Rankin must be right in having embraced evangelical Christianity since he had once been an agnostic Unitarian and repudiated it for the Christian faith.”

Thinking Should Facts Would Be Christian Christianity Atheism Evidence Mere Positive Atheism Agnostic Christian Faith Evangelical Fallacy Unitarian

Author:Robert M. Price

“Religion is based upon blind faith supported by no evidence. Science is based upon confidence that results from evidence - and that confidence can be modified and/or reversed by further observations and experimentation. Science approaches truth, closer and closer, by hard dedicated work. Religion already has it all decided, and it's in the book. It's dogma, unchangeable, and unaffected by reality and whatever facts we come upon in the real world.”

World Book Real Hard Facts Reality Results Atheism Approach Evidence Decided Blind Positive Atheism Observation Real World Dedicated Dogma Experimentation Blind Faith Unchangeable

Author:James Randi

“The Jews emerge into history, not a nation of keen spiritual aspirations and altruistic ethics, but that pagan people, worshipping rocks, sheep and cattle, and spirits of caves and wells, of whom the Old Testament, tending towards its higher ideal, gives fragmentary but convincing evidence.”

“The one function that most gods seem to have in common is to give human existence some ultimate purpose - and, while it is not possible to disprove an ultimate purpose, there does not seem to be any evidence for it. This is not to say, of course, that there is no purpose in life at all: we all make our own purposes as we go through life. And life does not lose its value simply because it it not going to last forever.”

Giving Humans Doe Seems Lasts Purpose Values Courses Loses Common Existence Forever Atheism Evidence Ultimate Function Positive Atheism Purpose Of Life Human Existence

Author:Barbara Smoker

“The idea of disembodied spirits is wholly unsupported by evidence, and I cannot accept it.”

Ideas Spirit Accepting Atheism Evidence Positive Atheism

Author:Herbert Spencer

“No evidence or proof of the existence of a God has been found in the phenomena of nature, based on experience.”

Has Beens Found Existence Atheism Evidence Positive Atheism Proof

Author:Charles Proteus Steinmetz

“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

“Yes, the natural sciences are telling us a great deal about human origins, the origins of our species the origins of our minds; we're on our way to explaining a large part of it. I'll accept an answer provided only by such means as obtaining and exploring, analyzing and arguing over the evidence - not because of a scribe's myopic view of the subject written 500 years before the birth of Christ!”

“Given the ambiguity of religious texts and teachings, the mixed historical record, and the empirical evidence, it would be foolhardy to assert that religious faith necessarily upholds democratic values.”

Would Be Values Given Religious Records Atheism Teaching Evidence Historical Democratic Positive Atheism Religious Faith Ambiguity Foolhardy Empirical Evidence Democratic Values Religious Texts

Book:Religion and Politics in the United States

Source: Religion and Politics in the United States

“I have hitherto followed the lines marked out by the Theist in his attempt to prove that there exists a mind behind natural phenomena, and that the universe as we have it is, at least generally, an evidence of a plan designed by this mind. I have also pointed out that the only datum for such a conclusion is the universe we know. We must take that as a starting point. We can get neither behind it nor beyond it. We cannot start with God and deduce the universe from his existence; we must start with the world as we know it, and deduce God from the world.”

Knows World Mind Universe Natural Lines Behinds Existence Plans Atheism Prove Evidence Starting Positive Atheism Conclusion Data Starting Point Theist Natural Phenomena

Author:Chapman Cohen

“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.”

“For years I've been stressing with regard to UFOs that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

Years Atheism Evidence Claims Stress Regard Extraordinary Positive Atheism Ufo

Book:Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

Source: Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

“The evidence, so far at least and laws of Nature aside, does not require a Designer. Maybe there is one hiding, maddeningly unwilling to be revealed.”

Doe Law Atheism Evidence Positive Atheism Designer Hiding Laws Of Nature Unwilling

Book:Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

“We should always keep an open mind about any new phenomenon in nature. To merely say that's impossible, therefore it doesn't exist, is to commit a serious error. A much better approach would be to say That's quite unlikely, but show me the evidence you have that says that it may be so. It would be the height of arrogance to think that man knows everything possible about the Universe or the Earth. There are many things yet to be discovered, and that is why we have scientific research (or any kind of research). That should be the rationalist's approach to parapsychology and the occult.”

“In making up my mind as to what Mr. Lincoln really believed, I do not take into consideration the evidence of unnamed persons or the contents of anonymous letters; I take the testimony of those who knew and loved him, of those to whom he opened his heart and to whom he spoke in the freedom of perfect confidence.”

Mind Heart Persons Perfect Atheism Evidence Letters Positive Atheism Consideration Spokes Testimony Making Up Anonymous Letters

Book:Ingersoll: Fifty Great Selections, Lectures, Tributes, After Dinner Speeches and Essays, Carefully Selected from the Twelve Volume Dresden Edition of Colonel Ingersoll's Complete Works

Source: Ingersoll: Fifty Great Selections, Lectures, Tributes, After Dinner Speeches and Essays, Carefully Selected from the Twelve Volume Dresden Edition of Colonel Ingersoll's Complete Works

“Miracles have no claim whatever to the character of historical facts and are wholly invalid as evidence of any revelation.”

Character Facts Atheism Evidence Miracle Claims Historical Positive Atheism Revelations Historical Facts

Book:Three Essays on Religion

Source: Three Essays on Religion

“People sometimes try to score debating points by saying, Evolution is only a theory. That is correct, but it's important to understand what that means. It is also only a theory that the world goes round the Sun - it's just a theory for which there is an immense amount of evidence. There are many scientific theories that are in doubt. Even within evolution, there is some room for controversy. But that we are cousins of apes and jackals and starfish, let's say, that is a fact in the ordinary sense of the word.”

“Vehemence is the expression of a blind effort to support and uphold something that can never stand on its own. Whether it is our own meaningless self we are upholding, or some doctrine devoid of evidence, we can do it only in a frenzy of faith.”

Self Can Do Effort Support Atheism Expression Evidence Blind Positive Atheism Doctrine Meaningless Frenzy Vehemence

Author:Eric Hoffer

“All creeds are fallible and uncertain evidences of evangelical piety.”

Atheism Evidence Positive Atheism Creeds Uncertain Piety Evangelical

Author:Daniel Webster

“Free societies...are societies in motion, and with motion comes tension, dissent, friction. Free people strike sparks, and those sparks are the best evidence of freedom's existence.”

People Existence Society Atheism Evidence Positive Atheism Strikes Tension Sparks Censorship Dissent Free Society Friction

Author:Salman Rushdie

“But I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created that a cat should play with mice.”

Source: Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution