Mathematical reasoning may be regarded rather schematically as the exercise of a combination of two facilities, which we may call intuition and ingenuity.
Alan TuringRead
I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past. In the time of Galileo it was argued that the texts, 'And the sun stood still... and hasted not to go down about a whole day' (Joshua x. 13) and 'He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not move at any time' (Psalm cv. 5) were an adequate refutation of the Copernican theory.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the reliability of theological arguments in the face of scientific evidence.
Alan Turing expresses skepticism about theological arguments, suggesting that they have historically failed to provide satisfactory explanations or justifications in scientific debates. By referring to the historical conflict between religious texts and the Copernican theory, he highlights how reliance on scripture can impede the acceptance of scientific advancements, encouraging a more rational and evidence-based approach to understanding the universe.
Themes
TheologyScienceArgumentsEvidenceKnowledge
In practice
Example use cases
In a debate about faith and reason, this quote can illustrate the tension between religious beliefs and scientific understanding.
More from Alan Turing
All quotes →Instruction tables will have to be made up by mathematicians with computing experience and perhaps a certain puzzle-solving ability. There need be no real danger of it ever becoming a drudge, for any processes that are quite mechanical may be turned over to the machine itself.
Alan TuringRead
I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.
Alan TuringRead
Machines take me by surprise with great frequency.
Alan TuringRead
Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.
Alan TuringRead
It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.
Alan TuringRead
Similar quotes
And the end of the fight is tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, and the epitaph drear, "A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East."
Rudyard KiplingRead
Maybe if I didn't pick up that one person, I wouldn't have picked up forty-two thousand.
Mother TeresaRead
Identitarianism assumes that people are condemned to identify with the positive (ethnic/ gender/ nationalistic) predicates they possess, as if their subjectivity were exhausted by those properties. Exactly the opposite is the case: the authentic dimension of subjectivity consists not in any positive identity but in that which makes identifications.
Mark FisherRead
Sometimes a man hits upon a place to which he mysteriously feels that he belongs.
W. Somerset MaughamRead
Most men, after a little freedom, have preferred authority with the consoling assurances and the economy of effort it brings.
Walter LippmannRead
There is a solitude, which each and every one of us has always carried with him, more inaccessible than the ice-cold mountains, more profound than the midnight sea; the solitude of self. Our inner being, which we call ourself, no eye nor touch of man or angel has ever pierced.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead