I don't expect that the million will ever be won, simply because there is no confirming evidence for any paranormal claims to date.
James RandiRead
Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Science involves a systematic and logical approach to understanding the universe through evidence and is always open to revision.
In this quote, James Randi defines science as an organized effort to acquire knowledge about the universe based on rigorous examination and evidence. He emphasizes that science is a dynamic process, constantly evolving as new evidence emerges, contrasting it with magic, which he claims lacks the foundational basis of logical inquiry and does not yield reliable results.
Themes
ScienceKnowledgeEvidenceLogicUniverseCorrection
In practice
Example use cases
In a scientific presentation, I might quote Randi to emphasize the importance of evidence-based conclusions.
More from James Randi
All quotes →[Psychics] use exactly the same gimmicks that we magicians do - the same physical methods, the same psychological methods - and they effectively and profoundly deceive millions of people around the earth, to their detriment.
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Escapology has one thing going for it that probably made Harry Houdini such a superstar in his day and a legend in the present. Everyone wants to escape from something. Taxes, contracts, illness, work, the multitude of burdens that we chafe under are shadows from which we want to escape.
James RandiRead
There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.
James RandiRead
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Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. "Necessity is the mother of invention" is a silly proverb. "Necessity is the mother of futile dodges" is much closer to the truth. The basis of growth of modern invention is science, and science is almost wholly the outgrowth of pleasurable intellectual curiosity.
Alfred North WhiteheadRead
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Antoine LavoisierRead
In speaking of the Energy of the field, however, I wish to be understood literally. All energy is the same as mechanical energy, whether it exists in the form of motion or in that of elasticity, or in any other form. The energy in electromagnetic phenomena is mechanical energy.
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I don't believe in technological determinism, especially not in biology and medicine. We have strong laws to keep doctors from monkeying around with humans that will remain in place. It's simply not true that everything that is technologically possible gets done.
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The fact that all Mathematics is Symbolic Logic is one of the greatest discoveries of our age; and when this fact has been established, the remainder of the principles of mathematics consists of the analysis of Symbolic Logic itself.
Bertrand RussellRead