16 quotes
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
Those two seemingly contradictory attitudes are, though, in some tension.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
Perhaps one per cent of the time, someone who has an idea that smells, feels and looks indistinguishable from the usual run of pseudoscience will turn out to be right.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
They were able to bring out the best in us.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
They were realistic and practical, and at the same time motivated by high principles. They were not checking the pollsters on what to think this week.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
They were well educated. Products of the European Enlightenment, they were students of history. They knew human fallibility and weakness and corruptibility.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
Books are patient where we are slow to understand, allow us to go over the hard parts as many times as we wish, and are never critical of our lapses. Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
I pick these claims not because I think they're likely to be valid (I don't), but as examples of contentions that might be true. The last three have at least some, although still dubious, experimental support. Of course, I could be wrong.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)
Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science — by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans — teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us.
The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995)