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Ignorance Quotes

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Ignorance Quotes

“Absurd, irreducible; nothing — not even a profound and secret delirium of nature — could explain it. Obviously I did not know everything, I had not seen the seeds sprout, or the tree grow. But faced with this great wrinkled paw, neither ignorance nor knowledge was important: the world of explanations and reasons is not the world of existence. A circle is not absurd, it is clearly explained by the rotation of a straight segment around one of its extremities. But neither does a circle exist. This root, on the other hand, existed in such a way that I could not explain it.”

Knows World Way Doe Important Reason Hands Grows Secret Existence Tree Ignorance Roots Profound Seeds Circles Absurd Explanation Paws Delirium Sprouts Extremity Nausea Rotation

Author:Jean-Paul Sartre

“The first principle, when you don't know anything about the subject of a thesis, is to let the candidate talk, nodding now and then with an ambiguous smile. He thinks you know, and are counting his mistakes, and it unnerves him... the second principle of conducting an oral, ... is to pretend ignorance, and ask for explanations of very simple points. Of course your ignorance is real, but the examinee thinks you are being subtle, and that he is making an ass of himself, and this rattles him.”

Thinking Knows Firsts Real Courses Asks Simple Mistake Principles Subjects Ignorance Ass Explanation Candidates Subtle Now And Then Counting Ambiguous Conducting Thesis Nodding

Author:Robertson Davies

“The argument from design is ultimately an appeal to miraculous causes, i.e., causes that do not, and cannot, occur in the natural course of events. This is why an explanation via design is not a legitimate alternative to scientific and other naturalistic modes of explanation. To refer to a miraculous cause is to refer to something that is inherently unknowable, and this sanctuary of ignorance explains nothing at all. However much it may soothe the imagination of the ignorant, it does nothing to satisfy the understanding of a rational person.”

Source: Why Atheism?

“And I will add this point of merely personal experience of humanity: when men have a real explanation they explain it, eagerly and copiously and in common speech, as Huxley freely gave it when he thought he had it. When they have no explanation to offer, they give short dignified replies, disdainful of the ignorance of the multitude.”

Men Giving Real Humanity Common Ignorance Offers Speech Add Explanation Multitudes Personal Experiences Huxley

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Science reveals where religion conceals. Where religion purports to explain, it actually resorts to tautology. To assert that "God did it" is no more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation.”

Atheism Ignorance Explanation Resorts Admission Tautology

Author:Peter Atkins

“It is so easy to hide our ignorance under such expressions as the plan of creation or unity of design, etc., and to think that we give an explanation when we only restate a fact.”

Thinking Giving Facts Easy Plans Design Creation Ignorance Expression Unity Explanation Etc

Book:On the Origin of Species

Source: On the Origin of Species

“Unfortunately, 19th-century scientists were just as ready to jump to the conclusion that any guess about nature was an obvious fact, as were 17th-century sectarians to jump to the conclusion that any guess about Scripture was the obvious explanation . . . . and this clumsy collision of two very impatient forms of ignorance was known as the quarrel of Science and Religion.”

Two Facts Form Known Century Ignorance Ready Scientist Obvious Scripture Conclusion Explanation Science And Religion Quarrels Impatient 19th Century Clumsy Collision 17th Century

Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton

“Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.”

Knows Looks May Problem Faces Wonder Knowing Mystery Ignorance Solutions Insight Staring Explanation Divided Not Knowing Bewilderment Increasing Knowledge

Author:Noam Chomsky

“Intelligent people know they are intelligent. They also know that one person cannot know all, hence a person is not stupid simply because he is ignorant of one thing or another. They know that, to another intelligent person, they will not appear stupid in asking for an explanation of what they do not know, and so their ignorance on any particular issue does not become an embarrassment.”

People Knows Persons Doe Issues One Thing Stupid Ignorance Particular Intelligent Asking Intelligence Ignorant Explanation Embarrassment Not Stupid That One Person Intelligent Person

Author:Lynsay Sands

“Scientists rightly resist invoking the supernatural in scientific explanations for fear of committing a god-of-the-gaps fallacy (the fallacy of using God as a stop-gap for ignorance). Yet without some restriction on the use of chance, scientists are in danger of committing a logically equivalent fallacy-one we may call the “chance-of-the-gaps fallacy.” Chance, like God, can become a stop-gap for ignorance.”

May Use Chance Danger Ignorance Scientist Explanation Gaps Restriction Fallacy Serendipity

Author:William A. Dembski

“IGNORANCE I didn’t know love would make me this crazy, with my eyes like the river Ceyhun carrying me in its rapids out to sea,where every bit of shattered boat sinks to the bottom. An alligator lifts its head and swallows the ocean, then the ocean floor becomes a desert covering the alligator in sand drifts. Changes do happen. I do not know how, or what remains of what has disappeared into the absolute. I hear so many stories and explanations, but I keep quiet, because I don’t know anything, and because something I swallowed in the ocean has made me completely content with ignorance.”

Knows Made Stories Happens Eye Bits Know How Sea Crazy Ignorance Quiet Ocean Rivers Absolutes Remains Bottom Boat Desert Lifts Explanation Sand Rapids Covering Shattered Alligators

Author:Rumi

“The pre-history of our species is hag-ridden with episodes of nightmarish ignorance and calamity, for which religion used to identify, not just the wrong explanation, but the wrong culprit. Human sacrifices were made preeminently in times of epidemics, useless prayers were uttered, bogus miracles attested to, and scapegoats - such as Jews or heretics or witches - hunted down and burned.”

Source: The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

“Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well.”

Wells Facts Would Be Religion Simple Existence Atheism Fields Ignorance Planets Evolution Creatures Deny Explanation Betray Elegant Living Creatures Lack Of Education

Author:Richard Dawkins