“The world is too big and too intricate to conform to our ideas of what it should be like... Just because we invent myths and theories to explain away the chaos we're still going to live in a world that's older and more complicated than we'll ever understand.” WorldShouldStillsIdeasBigsTheoryLogicChaosComplicatedMythCertaintyUncertaintyReasoningConformIntricateOntology Author:Moby
“Though he avoided outright endorsement of the view, fifth-century Church Father Saint Augustine was clearly familiar with the theory of the spherical earth: "They [those who believe that "there are men on the other side of the earth"] fail to observe that even if the world is held to be global or rounded in shape, or if some process of reasoning should prove this to be the case, it would still not necessarily follow that the land on the opposite side is not covered by masses of water."” IfsMenWorldShouldBelieveStillsEarthFatherProcessSidesWaterChurchViewsCasesFailingLandCenturyTheoryShapesProveMassOppositesSaintFamiliarReasoningCoveredFifthAvoidedEndorsementsAugustineChurch Fathers Author:Saint Augustine
“Though the theories of plate tectonics now provide us with a modus operandi, they still seem to me to be a periodic phenomenon. Nothing is world-wide, but everything is episodic. In other words, the history of anyone part of the earth, like the life of a soldier, consists of long periods of boredom and short periods of terror.” WorldLongStillsSeemsEarthScienceTheoryPeriodsSoldierTerrorWideBoredomPhenomenonPlatesModus Operandi Author:D. V. Ager
“The mere fact that so many who espouse such far-right views and beliefs still exist in this society is incarnate proof that Darwin's theories apply solely to biological processes and not to processes of the spirit.” StillsFactsSpiritPoliticsBeliefProcessViewsTheoryMereProofThis Society Author:Derek R. Audette
“[T]ruly grand and powerful theories [...] do not and cannot rest upon single observations. Evolution is an inference from thousands of independent sources, the only conceptual structure that can make unified sense of all this disparate information. The failure of a particular claim usually records a local error, not the bankruptcy of a central theory. [...] If I mistakenly identify your father's brother as your own dad, you don't become genealogically rootless and created de novo. You still have a father; we just haven't located him properly.” IfsStillsFatherPowerfulRecordsHavensInformationParticularBrotherTheorySourceEvolutionDadClaimsIndependentStructureErrorsLocalsObservationBankruptcyUnifiedInference Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“My main professional interest during the 1970s has been in the dramatic change of concepts and ideas that has occurred in physics during the first three decades of the century, and that is still being elaborated in our current theories of matter. The new concepts in physics have brought about a profound change in our world view; from the mechanistic conception of Descartes and Newton to a holistic and ecological view, a view which I have found to be similar to the views of mystics of all ages and traditions.” WorldFirstsHas BeensStillsIdeasMatterAgeThreeFoundInterestViewsCenturyTheoryConceptsTraditionProfoundCurrentsDecadesPhysicsDramaticOur WorldConceptionNewtonEcologicalHolisticWorld ViewDramatic Change Author:Fritjof Capra
“I can have little patience with those who oppose ... the theory of evolution or what are called "mechanistic" explanations of the phenomena of life because of certain moral consequences which at first seem to follow from these theories, and still less with those who regard it as irrelevant or impious to ask certain questions at all. By refusing to face the facts , the conservative only weakens his own position.” FirstsLittlesStillsI CanFactsSeemsFacesCertainAsksMoralPositionTheoryEvolutionConsequenceRegardConservativeExplanationPhenomenonIrrelevantTheory Of Evolution Author:Friedrich August von Hayek