Proof Quotes - Page 35

• If a large number of people who are convinced alien abductions are real are hypnotising even larger numbers of others who suspect they might be, then it is likely there will be many alien abduction narratives flying around, as, indeed, there are. Of course, this is not proof they are not true, but it does provide a persuasive context for a simple psychosocial explanation. Hypnotism is a technique that triggers a mass storytelling project in which all the stories are linked.

  Bryan Appleyard

  Real, Simple, Numbers

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• The commotions that have taken place in America, as far as they are yet known to me, offer nothing threatening. They are a proof that the people have liberty enough, and I could not wish them less than they have. If the happiness of the mass of the people can be secured at the expense of a little tempest now and then, or even of a little blood, it will be a precious purchase. 'Malo libertatem periculosam quam quietem servitutem.' Let common sense and common honesty have fair play, and they will soon set things to rights.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Honesty, Taken, Blood

  Thomas Jefferson (1861). “Correspondence”, p.77

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• Not thinking critically, I assumed that the successful prayers were proof that God answers prayer while the failures were proof that there was something wrong with me.

  Dan Barker

  Prayer, Successful, Thinking

  Dan Barker (1992). “Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist”, Freedom from Religion Fndtn

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• I have an Easter challenge for Christians. My challenge is simply this: tell me what happened on Easter. I am not asking for proof. My straightforward request is merely that Christians tell me exactly what happened on the day that their most important doctrine was born.

  Dan Barker

  Christian, Easter, Challenges

  "Easter Challenge". www.patheos.com. March 27, 2013.

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• If my interlocutor desires to convince me that Jupiter has inhabitants, and that his description of them is accurate, it is for him to bring forward evidence in support of his contention. The burden of proof evidently lies on him; it is not for me to prove that no such beings exist before my non-belief is justified, but for him to prove that they do exist before my belief can be fairly claimed. Similarly, it is for the affirmer of God's existence to bring evidence in support of his affirmation; the burden of proof lies on him.

  Annie Besant

  Lying, Burden Of Proof, Support

  Annie Besant (2014). “The Origins of Theosophy (Routledge Revivals): Annie Besant - The Atheist Years”, p.282, Routledge

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• Religious liberty in a nation is as real as the liberty of its least popular religious minority. Look not to the size of cathedrals or even to the words on the statute books for proof of the reality of religious freedom. Ask what is the fate of the Protestant in Spain, the Jew in Saudi Arabia, the Arab in Israel, the Catholic in Poland or the atheist in the United States.

  Paul Blanshard

  Religious, Atheist, Real

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• The influence of the leaders is due in very small measure to the arguments they employ, but in a large degree to their prestige. The best proof of this is that, should they by any circumstance lose their prestige, their influence disappears.

  Gustave Le Bon

  Leader, Atheism, Degrees

  Gustave Le Bon (2012). “The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind”, p.126, Courier Corporation

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• The universe displays no proof of an all-directing mind.

  Auguste Comte

  Mind, Atheism, Display

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• If it is to be established that there is a God, then we have to have good grounds for believing that this is indeed so. Until and unless some such grounds are produced we have literally no reason at all for believing; and in that situation the only reasonable posture must be that of either the negative atheist or the agnostic. So the onus of proof has to rest on the proposition of theism.

  Antony Flew

  Atheist, Believe, Atheism

  Antony Flew, John Shosky (1998). “Philosophical Essays”, p.6, Rowman & Littlefield

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• That God has managed to survive the inanities of the religions that do Him homage is truly a miraculous proof of His existence.

  Ben Hecht

  Atheism, Existence, Miraculous

  Ben Hecht (1954). “A child of the century”, Signet

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• The proofs of the existence of God are to such an extent fallen into discredit that they pass for something antiquated, belonging to days gone by.

  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  Days Gone By, Atheism, Existence

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• It is naïve to suppose that the acceptance of evolution theory depends upon the evidence of a number of so-called "proofs"; it depends rather upon the fact that the evolutionary theory permeates and supports every branch of biological science, much as the notion of the roundness of the earth underlies all geodesy and all cosmological theories on which the shape of the earth has a bearing. Thus antievolutionism is of the same stature as flat-earthism.

  Peter Medawar

  Acceptance, Numbers, Support

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• I worship nothing. Not a good lie nor a dark one. If nature is proof of God's amazing creation then I have truly seen the light, and the light is black. Nature is genius at its most cruel and savage. No benevolent God could have come up with such an outrage.

  Gary Numan

  Lying, Dark, Light

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• The very admission of the need to harmonize is an admission that the burden of proof is on the narratives, not on those who doubt them. What harmonizing shows is that despite appearances, the texts still might be true.

  Robert M. Price

  Burden Of Proof, Religion, Doubt

  Robert M. Price (2008). “Beyond Born Again: Toward Evangelical Maturity”, p.75, Wildside Press LLC

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• It is only by hearsay (by word of mouth passed down from generation to generation) that whole peoples adore the God of their fathers and of their priests: authority, confidence, submission and custom with them take the place of conviction or of proofs: they prostrate themselves and pray, because their fathers taught them to prostrate themselves and pray: but why did their fathers fall on their knees?

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Father, Fall, Atheism

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (2015). “The Necessity of Atheism”, p.8, Booklassic

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• A willingness to engage in the give and take of argument displays a commitment to cognitive egalitarianism - the proposition that all people should be treated as intellectual equals, and that no individual can legitimately claim a privileged immunity from the burden of proof.

  George H. Smith

  Commitment, Burden Of Proof, Egalitarianism

  George H. Smith (2000). “Why Atheism?”, Pyr Books

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• No evidence or proof of the existence of a God has been found in the phenomena of nature, based on experience.

  Charles Proteus Steinmetz

  Atheism, Found, Existence

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• The argument from design stands or falls on whether it can be demonstrated that some aspect of the universe such as its origin or biological life could not have come about naturally. The burden of proof is ... on the supernaturalist to demonstrate that something from outside nature must be introduced to explain the data.

  Victor J. Stenger

  Fall, Data, Burden Of Proof

  Victor J. Stenger (2003). “Has Science Found God?: The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe”, Pyr Books

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• In a Jewish theological seminar there was an hours-long discussion about proofs of the existence of God. After some hours, one rabbi got up and said, "God is so great, he does not even need to exist."

  Victor Frederick Weisskopf

  Long, Atheism, Doe

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• Experience supplies painful proof that traditions once called into being are first called useful, then they become necessary. At last they are too often made idols, and all must bow down to them or be punished.

  J. C. Ryle

  Idols, Lasts, Firsts

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• According to PhD astrophysicists and qualified American science professors, the odds of the more than 2,500 prophecies found in the Bible being fulfilled by chance are 1 with 2,000 zeros after it. According to the mathematical science of probability, if a number has more than 50 zeros after it, the odds of that happening by chance is virtually impossible. This is irrefutable proof that the Bible is inspired by God!

  Hugh Ross

  Odds, Numbers, Phds

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• The soul in sleep gives proof of its divine nature.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Sleep, Giving, Soul

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• Believers who have formulated such proofs [for God's existence] ... would never have come to believe as a result of such proofs

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Believe, Results, Existence

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• It is a strong proof of men knowing most things before birth, that when mere children they grasp innumerable facts with such speed as to show that they are not then taking them in for the first time, but are remembering and recalling them.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Strong, Children, Men

  Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pliny (2010). “Letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero with His Treatises on Friendship and Old Age: Letters of Pliny the Younger”, p.75, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Unfortunately, proof of a Jefferson-Hemings liaison was as fanciful as Professor Ellis' war service.

  Ann Coulter

  War, Liaison, Professors

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