Best evidence & propositions Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“The foundation of all morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.”

Giving Believe Done Lying Possibility Morality Giving Up Evidence Foundation Pretending Propositions

Book:Collected essays

Source: Collected essays

“Maintain a constant watch at all times against a dogmatical spirit: fix not your assent to any proposition in a firm and unalterable manner, till you have some firm and unalterable ground for it, and till you have arrived at some clear and sure evidence.”

Spirit Watches Clear Evidence Constant All Time Firm Propositions

Book:The Improvement of the Mind

Source: The Improvement of the Mind

“Minds fettered by this doctrine no longer inquire concerning a proposition whether it is attested by sufficient evidence, but whether it accords with Scripture; they do not search for facts as such, but for facts that will bear out their doctrine. It is easy to see that this mental habit blunts not only the perception of truth, but the sense of truthfulness, and that the man whose faith drives him into fallacies treads close upon the precipice of falsehood.”

Source: The Essays of George Eliot: Top Novelist Focus

“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

“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.”

“It is not true that a man can believe or disbelieve what he will. But it is certain that an active desire to find any proposition true will unconsciously tend to that result by dismissing importunate suggestions which run counter to the belief, and welcoming those which favor it. The psychological law, that we only see what interests us, and only assimilate what is adapted to our condition, causes the mind to select its evidence.”

Source: Problems of Life and Mind

“Even if the absence of evidence for a given god were not evidence of its absence, it would still be evidence that the belief in that god is unreasonable. That's the only proposition that any atheist of any kind has to demonstrate in order to win the argument. Because anything beyond that... is just having fun.”

Ifs Kind Stills Order Winning Belief Given Fun Evidence Argument Atheist Absence Having Fun Propositions Unreasonable Just Have Fun

Author:Scott Clifton

“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

“We reject creationism because there is no evidence to support it. By contrast, the notion that biology is at least partially the basis of gender is an empirically supportable, and even well-supported, proposition. The gender scholars reject it on ideological, not evidentiary, grounds.”

Wells Support Evidence Bases Notion Gender Rejects Biology Contrast Scholar Propositions Ideological Creationism

Author:Christina Hoff Sommers

“History offers no evidence for the proposition that the assignment of women to military combat jobs is the way to win wars, improve combat readiness, or promote national security.”

Way War Jobs Winning Security Military Offers Evidence Combat National Security Propositions Readiness Assignments

Author:Phyllis Schlafly

“When considering the truth of a proposition, one is either engaged in an honest appraisal of the evidence and logical arguments, or one isn't. Religion is one area of our lives where people imagine that some other standard of intellectual integrity applies.”

People Religion Our Lives Imagine Honest Integrity Intellectual Standards Evidence Areas Argument Engaged Logical Imagine That Considering Propositions Appraisal Logical Arguments

Book:Letter to a Christian Nation

Source: Letter to a Christian Nation

“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.”

Men Certain Produce Evidence Objectives Certainty Justify Propositions Objective Truth

Book:Lectures and Essays

Source: Lectures and Essays

“She believed not in divine salvation but in the proposition that we poor mortals are fully capable of saving ourselves, if conditions and inclinations are right, and the evidence of this potential is found in the smallest of gestures, like the uncertain resting of a large hand on a bony shoulder.”

Ifs Hands Found Poor Conditions Divine Capable Evidence Salvation Shoulders Saving Mortals Gestures Smallest Uncertain Propositions Inclination

Author:Jeffery Deaver

“Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.”

Mind Believe Doe Facts Causes Attitude Produce Ought Evidence Prejudice Favors Suits Propositions Hostility

Book:Why I Am Not a Christian

Source: Why I Am Not a Christian

“The essential difference between that knowledge which is, and that which is not conclusive evidence of Christian character, lies in this: the object of the one is the agreement of the several parts of a theological proposition; the object of the other is moral beauty, the intrinsic loveliness of God and Divine things. The sinner sees and hates; the saint sees and loves.”

Source: Essays on the distinguishing traits of Christian character

“I have carefully examined the evidences of the Christian religion, and if I was sitting as a juror upon its authenticity I would unhesitatingly give my verdict in its favor. I can prove its truth as clearly as any proposition ever submitted to the mind of man.”

“The first effect of the mind growing cultivated is that processes once multiple get to be performed in a single act. Lazarus has called this the progressive "condensation" of thought. ... Steps really sink from sight. An advanced thinker sees the relations of his topics is such masses and so instantaneously that when he comes to explain to younger minds it is often hard ... Bowditch, who translated and annotated Laplace's Méchanique Céleste, said that whenever his author prefaced a proposition by the words "it is evident," he knew that many hours of hard study lay before him.”

Mind Firsts Said Hard Science Process Hours Steps Study Growing Effects Mass Evidence Sight Relation Lays Progressive Thinker Multiple Evident Topics Propositions Lazarus Condensation

Author:William James

“By freethinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.”

Mean Use Force Understanding Liberty Judging Weakness Evidence Considering Propositions Seeming

Book:A Discourse of Free-thinking: Occasion'd by the Rise and Growth of a Sect Call'd Free-thinkers ...

Source: A Discourse of Free-thinking: Occasion'd by the Rise and Growth of a Sect Call'd Free-thinkers ...

“Liberalism is an attitude rather than a set of dogmas - an attitude that insists upon questioning all plausible and self-evident propositions, seeking not to reject them but to find out what evidence there is to support them rather than their possible alternatives.”

Self Attitude Support Evidence Seeking Alternatives Liberalism Rejects Questioning Dogma Evident Propositions Plausible

Book:The Faith of a Liberal

Source: The Faith of a Liberal

“The evidence is overwhelming that Planet Earth is being visited by intelligently controlled extraterrestrial spacecraft. In other words, SOME UFOs are alien spacecraft. Most are not. It's clear from the Opinion Polls and my own experience, that indeed most people accept the notion that SOME UFOs are alien spacecraft. The greater the education, the MORE likely to accept this proposition”

“A religion is a source of happiness and I would not deprive anyone of happiness. But it is a comfort appropriate for the weak, not for the strong--and you are strong. The great trouble with religion--any religion--is that the religionist, having accepted certain propositions by faith, cannot thereafter judge these propositions by evidence. One may bask at the warm fire of faith or choose to live in the bleak uncertainty of reason--but one cannot have both.”

May Reason Certain Religion Strong Fire Trouble Judging Source Comfort Evidence Weak Warm Accepted Uncertainty Appropriate Propositions Bleak Source Of Happiness

Author:Robert A. Heinlein

“Why is there such insistence that AGW has occurred and needs drastic solutions? This is a puzzle, but my short answer is that the IPCC has been built on the AGW proposition and of course keeps plugging it, whatever the data say. The IPCC has considerable clout. Most people shy off inspecting the evidence because it looks like science and must therefore be hard. The media have been captured by AGW (it makes for great stories), the environmental movement and the Greens love it, and business is reluctant to get involved.”

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