Quotes About Skepticism

In our scientific age, a materialist picture of the world now holds many captive. Add to that the postmodern suspicion that all truth claims are in fact disguised bids for power and you get a potent mix of skepticism and cynicism, a cocktail guaranteed to make one's blood run old before its time.

You should demand extraordinary evidence in order to believe extraordinary claims.

The truth is no online database will replace your newspaper," he claimed. "Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure." Stoll captured the prevailing skepticism of a digital world full of "interacting libraries, virtual communities, and electronic commerce" with one word: "baloney.

Some people think technology has the answers.

Beware of geeks bearing gifts

The hardest thing is that you can't trust people now. You just can't.

What He really hates is the shit that gets carried out in his name. Wars. Bigotry. Televangelism. - Rufus, Dogma

people believe what they are told. I believe nothing, consider everything.

Maybe he thinks he can rescue me? No one is that stupid.

I was ever mindful not to allow open-mindedness to become gullibility nor to allow skepticism to become cynicism.

Very few people ever bother to find out what other people really think. They are willing to accept whatever they are told about anyone sufficiently distant.

When some folks agree with my opinions I begin to suspect I'm wrong.

The fellow that agrees with everything you say is either a fool or he is getting ready to skin you.

You strike me as a man who will only believe in what he can see or touch. (Callie) Exactly. (Sin) But you know, sometimes it's what you don't see that has the most power. (Callie)

And are you suspicious of me? (Maggie) Woman, I'm suspicious of anyone who acts altruistically. I've only known a handful of people in my entire life who were actually kind. The vast majority of people only help others when they know it'll benefit them in some manner. (Sin)

Even before I went to the stable to find your men dead, I knew them for villains. (Lutian) Oh, and what made you think that? The swords in their hands? (Christian)

Don't trust everything I say.

Yeah right. I'll believe you, thousands wouldn't. Want to borrow my mirror?

The Child's eyes flick back and forth between Kat and me. 'You are the Ones?' he asks skeptically. Kat catches my eye. 'OMG, does this mean I get to be a One, too?' she teases me.

There's a limit to my patience with anything that smacks of metaphysics. I squirm at the mention of "mind expansion" or "warm healing energy." I don't like drum circles, public nudity or strangers touching my feet.

It's official. Trust is dead.

There's no end to suspicion once you get going.

I'm consciously shedding the assumption that a skeptical point of view is the most intellectually credible. Intellect does not function in opposition to mystery; tolerance is not more pragmatic than love; and cynicism is not more reasonable than hope. Unlike almost every worthwhile thing in life, cynicism is easy. It's never proven wrong by the corruption or the catastrophe. It's not generative. It judges things as they are, but does not lift a finger to try to shift them.

I'm consciously shedding the assumption that a skeptical point of view is the most intellectually credible. Intellect does not function in opposition to mystery; tolerance is not more pragmatic than love; and cynicism is not more reasonable than hope. Unlike almost every worthwhile thing in life, cynicism is easy. It's