Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

There was a time when skepticism was an act of rebellion. Since to a degree I both believe in evolution and have faith, I can only conclude that, as prophesied, to have faith will someday...

Does a man of sense run after every silly tale of hobgoblins or fairies, and canvass particularly the evidence? I never knew anyone, that examined and deliberated about nonsense who did not believe it before...

It’s not true that skeptics consider nothing sacred. They consider freedom sacred.

People wrap themselves in their beliefs. And they do it in such a way that you can’t set them free. Not even the truth will set them free.

Take it with a whole shaker of salt, a grain won’t be close to enough.

For, from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pretence of succession to St. Peter, their whole hierarchy, or kingdom of darkness, may be compared not...

All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe.

He was the least spiritual of all the monks here, accepting nothing without proof. This skepticism was simultaneously his greatest asset and his greatest impediment.

The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it’s just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.

There exists in society a very special class of persons that I have always referred to as the Believers. These are folks who have chosen to accept a certain religion, philosophy, theory, idea or notion...

Scientific knowledge advances haltingly and is stimulated by contention and doubt.

To disbelieve is easy; to scoff is simple; to have faith is harder.

Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn’t there, and finding it.

I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it’s as if they can’t get past their emotions, and...

The real bible is not the work of inspired men, nor prophets, nor apostles, nor evangelists, nor of Christs. Every man who finds a fact, adds, as it were, a word to this great book....

If you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will train yourself to be a good skeptic.

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the...

The more media trailed him, the more space he tried to create. He cultivated alienation and used it as a whetstone to stay sharp.

… le religioni non sono altro che residuo dei vecchi tabu selvatici, sistemi di divieto con diverse sovrastrutture ideologiche.””… religions are nothing but remnant of the old wild taboos, prohibition systems with varying ideological superstructure.

It would be better for us to have some doubts in an honest pursuit of truth, than it would be for us to be certain about something that was not true.

I’d ask [God] why he keeps trying to kill us all with disease, pestilence, and natural disasters. I’d ask why 99% of all species there ever were are now extinct — if God works in...

To point out nonepistemic motives in another’s view of the world, therefore, is always a criticism, as it serves to cast doubt upon a person’s connection to the world as it is.

There is skepticism among unionists as the IRA is blamed for the huge Northern Bank robbery last year and the question they are asking is: Will that money be used as pensions for old IRA...

If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which...

One of the most important things one can do in life is to brutally question every single thing you are taught.

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs.

I’m convinced that most men don’t know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man’s atrocities, but wouldn’t dream of imprisoning a mother for...

[A] planet, wholly inhabited by spiders, (which is very possible)

We need sentiment and skepticism. Sentiment to be happy; skepticism to be free.

It seems all spirits need theatrics, eh? Even Christ himself requires incense and holy water. We’re a skeptical people. We need convincing.

There is a lot of skepticism,

See, I’m a great believer in the power of negative thought. And in an age of affirmation, of self-help and self-love, of the rebirth of wide-eyed idealism and the power of positive thinking — I’m...

The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to the realms of imagination.

My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at because the point of...

scepticism, as we know, can never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill

…Today the lack of faith is an expression of profound confusion and despair. Once skepticism and rationalism were progressive forces for the development of thought; now they have become rationalizations for relativism and uncertainty.

That Muhammad could predict certain events does not prove that he was a prophet: he may have been able to guess successfully, but this does not mean that he had real knowledge of the future....

Questioning our own motives, and our own process, is critical to a skeptical and scientific outlook. We must realize that the default mode of human psychology is to grab onto comforting beliefs for purely emotional...

. . . I don’t believe that celebrity spokeswomen get their hair colour from a box.

In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest...

To deny, to believe, and to doubt well, are to a man what the race is to a horse.

Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos...

Scepticism is the first step towards truth.

Great intellects are skeptical.

We must learn to live with contradictions, to have faith in skepticism, to advance toward the solution of a problem by admitting as a possibility that it may be insoluble.

Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.

I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.

Isn’t this enough? Just this world? Just THIS?

The linguistic and literary reality of the biblical tradition is folkloristic in essence. The concept of a benei Israel … is a reflection of no sociopolitical entity of the historical state of Israel of the...