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Who said: “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
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Home > Dictionary of Science Quotations > Scientist Names Index S > Victor J. Stenger Quotes

Victor J. Stenger
(29 Jan 1935 - )

American particle physicist and author who has published books for the lay reader not only in physics and cosmology, but also concerning religion, atheism and pseudoscience. He is outspoken in his criticism of so-called intelligent design.

Science Quotes by Victor J. Stenger (5 quotes)

[Shawn Lawrence Otto describes the damaging] strategy used to undermine science in the interest of those industries where science has pointed out the dangers of their products to individuals and human life in general … [It was] used a generation ago by the tobacco industry… First they manufacture uncertainty by raising doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence. Then they launder information by using seemingly independent front organizations to promote their desired message and thereby confuse the public. And finally they recruit unscrupulous scientific spokespeople to misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings and cherry-pick facts in an attempt to persuade the media and the public that there is still serious debate among scientists on the issue at hand.
— Victor J. Stenger
In 'Science Is Politics', Huffington Post (28 May 2014).
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Reality is what kicks back when you kick it. This is just what physicists do with their particle accelerators. We kick reality and feel it kick back. From the intensity and duration of thousands of those kicks over many years, we have formed a coherent theory of matter and forces, called the standard model, that currently agrees with all observations.
— Victor J. Stenger
In Has Science Found God?: The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe (2003), 41.
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Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.
— Victor J. Stenger
In The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason (2009), 59. As attributed on a web page using the quote as a title at web site of Richard Dawkins Foundation.
Science quotes on:  |  Building (158)  |  Flight (101)  |  Moon (252)  |  Religion (369)  |  Science And Religion (337)

The problem is that people think faith is something to be admired. In fact, faith means you believe in something for which you have no evidence.
— Victor J. Stenger
In God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science (2012), 18.
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Thought, without the data on which to structure that thought, leads nowhere.
— Victor J. Stenger
In Has Science Found God?: The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe (2003), 41.
Science quotes on:  |  Data (162)  |  Lead (391)  |  Nowhere (28)  |  Structure (365)  |  Thought (995)


Carl Sagan Thumbnail In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan
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