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Yet scientists are required to back up their claims not with private feelings but with publicly checkable evidence. Their experiments must have rigorous controls to eliminate spurious effects. And statistical analysis eliminates the suspicion (or at least measures the likelihood) that the apparent effect might have happened by chance alone.

Richard Dawkins#112

ScienceTruthEvidenceMethodResearchScientific methodStatistics

About this quote

What does it mean?
Scientific claims must rely on public evidence, rigorous controls, and statistical analysis rather than private feelings or chance.
In plain terms
Science needs public proof and strict tests, not just feelings.
What can you take from it?
Evidence must be public and rigorously tested to be valid.

Where it applies

  • conducting research
  • evaluating claims
  • academic debate

Putting it to work

  • require peer review
  • design controlled experiments

Questions to consider

  • How do we verify truth in uncertain times?
  • What counts as enough evidence?

Another view

Strict adherence to these standards can slow down useful but preliminary discoveries.

More from Richard Dawkins

  1. Scorpio could go retrograde up Uranus and it wouldn't make any difference.

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  2. Paranormal phenomena have a habit of going away whenever they are tested under rigorous conditions. This is why the ?740,000 reward of James Randi, offered to …

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  3. Scientific truth is too beautiful to be sacrificed for the sake of light entertainment or money. Astrology is an aesthetic affront. It cheapens astronomy, like…

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