Wednesday 12 January 2011

Don't you believe in anything?

 

Don't you believe in flying saucers?, they ask me. Don't you believe in telepathy? - in ancient astronauts? - in the Bermuda triangle? - in life after death?

No, I reply. No, no, no, no and again no.

One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?"

"Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe in anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be".

 

- Isaac Asimov

 


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