Quotes About Reasoning

From Plato to Hegel and beyond, some of the greatest philosophers have declared that what you think about death, and life beyond it, is the key to thinking seriously about everything else – and, indeed, that it provides one of the main reasons for thinking seriously about anything at all. This is something a Christian theologian should heartily endorse. So, without further delay, we plunge into

Law is not theater. Before we write laws reflecting gaudy and dramatic feelings, we must be very sure we understand the difference.

I knew the Almighty could and would do what He wished, when He wished to do it. Yet, pragmatic woman that I was, I wished to know His reasons. Actually, I longed for more than that. I wished God would listen to my advice and adjust His will to match mine.

a mind capable of forming an argument against God's existence constitutes evidence for his existence. That is, a conscious being with the ability to reason, weigh evidence, and argue logically must come from a source that has at least the same level of cognitive ability.

For when moral convictions are reduced to arbitrary preferences, then they can no longer be debated rationally.

to define what is rational solely by whether it fits the tenets of your own worldview is an invalid move because it rules out all other truth claims by definition. You do not even have to investigate the evidence. A serious search for truth does not start by stacking the deck.

Powerful logical or metaphysical reasons for supposing we can't have strong free will keep coming up against equally powerful psychological reasons why we can't help believing that we do have it.… It seems that we cannot live or experience our choices as determined, even if determinism is true.

Learning critical thinking is important not only for speaking to people outside the church but also for educating people on the inside

To be human is to write, to compose, to create, and to dream. So is to think, to test, and to know why.

a mind capable of forming an argument against God's existence constitutes evidence for his existence.

You don't reason with intellectuals. You shoot them

If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry a person, go on a trip), just don't do it. It does not mean that one reason is better than two, just that by invoking more than one reason you are trying to convince yourself to do something. Obvious decisions (robust to error) require no more than a single reason.

Drama is imagination limited by logic. Mathematics is logic limited by imagination.

Prayer—the art of believing what is denied by the senses—deals almost entirely with the subconscious. Through prayer, the subconscious is suggested into acceptance of the wish fulfilled, and, reasoning deductively, logically unfolds it to its legitimate end.

I do not imagine; detectives aren't allowed to imagine. They note probabilities. I

To analyze is to renounce yourself One can reason only in a circle One sees only what one wants to see Birth solves nothing I admit I'm crying.

Does optimizing for multitasking result in better functioning—that is, creativity, inventiveness, productiveness? The answer is, in more cases than not, no," says Grafman. "The more you multitask, the less deliberative you become; the less able to think and reason out a problem." You become, he argues, more likely to rely on conventional ideas and solutions rather than challenging them with original lines of thought.

The more you multitask, the less deliberative you become; the less able to think and reason out a problem.

Radicals either dismiss crimes committed by anti-Western forces as the inventions of Western propagandists or excuse them as the inevitable, if regrettably blood-spattered, consequences of Western provocation. The narcissism behind their reasoning is too glaring to waste time on.

Occam's razor, the philosophical basis of all science: assume the simplest natural cause. That answer might turn out not to be correct, but we should not resort to more complex reasoning unless it is shown to be necessary.

A paean to justice intoxicates us, because it seems to us to be an apology for the passion, just or unjust, which blinds us.

Men disagree less because they think differently than because they do not think.

Apologetics should mix skepticism and poetry. Skepticism to strangle idols, poetry to seduce souls.

No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical.