“The scientist has to take 95 per cent of his subject on trust. He has to because he can't possibly do all the experiments, therefore he has to take on trust the experiments all his colleagues and predecessors have done. Whereas a mathematician doesn't have to take anything on trust. Any theorem that's proved, he doesn't believe it, really, until he goes through the proof himself, and therefore he knows his whole subject from scratch. He's absolutely 100 per cent certain of it. And that gives him an extraordinary conviction of certainty, and an arrogance that scientists don't have.” KnowsGivingBelieveDoneWholeScienceCertainBeliefSubjectsScientistExtraordinaryConvictionProofExperimentsCertaintyArroganceCentsMathematicianColleaguesScratchesPredecessorsTheorems Author:Christopher Zeeman
“The belief in potential human virtue underlies the whole idea of the Bill of Rights; the document is a very tough guardian of that belief.” HumansIdeasWholeBeliefVirtueRightsToughBillsDocumentsGuardianBill Of Rights Author:Roger Rosenblatt
“I am not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually the case.” IfsThinkingWholeStoriesWould BeBeliefWishChurchReligiousCasesAtheismInfluenceEffectsClaimsAtheistEnvyBelieverTalesVersionsMiserableFaithfulFairyFairy TaleSentimentalPositivelyReligious BeliefRelievedSinisterUntruth Book:Letters to a Young Contrarian Source: Letters to a Young Contrarian
“a large percentage of bright young men and women locate the impetus behind their career choice in the belief that they are fundamentally different from the common run of man, unique and in certain crucial ways superior, more as it were central, meaningful - what else could explain the fact that they themselves have been at the exact center of all they've experienced for the whole 20 years of their conscious lives? - and that they can and will make a difference in their chosen field simply by the fact of their unique and central presence to it...” MenWayYearsHas BeensDifferentWholeFactsRunningYoungCertainChoicesBeliefDifferencesCommonBehindsCareersFieldsUniqueConsciousMen And WomenMeaningfulChosenSuperiorsYoung ManMaking A DifferenceCrucialPercentagesImpetusCareers Choices Author:David Foster Wallace
“My philosophy and my belief was that there was a long way for us to go in improving what we had ever known before, that this country of ours was a country of constant improvement. And so I thought that, well, what my whole approach was based on the promise of a better America.” WayWellsLongCountryPhilosophyWholeAmericaBeliefKnownPromiseApproachConstantImprovementImprovingLong WayConstant Improvement Author:Ronald Reagan
“The degree of confirmation assigned to any given hypothesis is sensitive to properties of the entire belief system... simplicity, plausibility, and conservatism are properties that theories have in virtue of their relation to the whole structure of scientific beliefs taken collectively. A measure of conservatism or simplicity would be a metric over global properties of belief systems.” WholeWould BeBeliefGivenVirtueTakenTheoryDegreesRelationStructurePropertySimplicitySensitiveHypothesisConservatismBelief SystemsConfirmationMetrics Author:Jerry Fodor
“Way down deep the American people are afraid of an entangling relationship between formal religions - or whole bodies of religious belief - and government. Apart from constitutional law and religious doctrine, there is a sense that tells us it's wrong to presume to speak for God or to claim God's sanction of our particular legislation and his rejection of all other positions. Most of us are offended when we see religion being trivialized by its appearance in political throw-away pamphlets.” PeopleWayWholeBodyGovernmentLawPoliticalBeliefSpeakReligiousAtheismPositionParticularClaimsAppearancePositive AtheismDoctrineRejectionFormalLegislationOffendedSanctionsReligious BeliefConstitutional Law Author:Mario Cuomo
“The truth is that the whole system of beliefs which comes in with the story of the fall of man ... is gently falling out of enlightened human intelligence.” MenHumansWholeStoriesFallBeliefAtheismTruth IsPositive AtheismEnlightenedHuman IntelligenceFall Of Man Author:Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
“God, once imagined to be an omnipresent force throughout the whole world of nature and man. has been increasingly tending to seem omniabsent. Everywhere, intelligent and educated people rely more and more on purely secular and scientific techniques for the solution of their problems. As science advances, belief in divine miracles and the efficacy of prayer becomes fainter and fainter.” PeopleMenWorldHas BeensWholeProblemSeemsBeliefForcePrayerAtheismDivineSolutionsMiracleIntelligentPositive AtheismTechniqueWhole WorldEducatedRelySecularEfficacyMan And Nature Author:Corliss Lamont