Freeman Dyson quotes - page 5

What was needed was a little more human charity, a little more willingness to listen rather than to lay down the law, a little more humility. Scientists stand in need of these Christian virtues just as much as preachers do. (Freeman Dyson)
There is no easy solution to the conflict between fundamentalist Christian dogma and the facts of biological evolution. View quote
Freeman Dyson
To talk about the end of science is just as foolish as to talk about the end of religion. Science and religion are both still close to their beginnings, with no ends in sight. View quote
Freeman Dyson
The right way to ask the question is: How does the concept of a point fit into the logical structure of Euclid's geometry? ...It cannot be answered by a definition. View quote
Freeman Dyson
In the time of Jesus and for many centuries afterwards, there was a free market in human bodies. The institution of slavery was based on the legal right of slave-owners to buy and sell their property in a free market. Only in the nineteenth century did the abolitionist movement, with Quakers and other religious believers in the lead, succeed in establishing the principle that the free market does not extend to human bodies. View quote
Freeman Dyson
Like many other crucially important technologies, hay emerged anonymously during the so-called Dark Ages. View quote
Freeman Dyson
The dominance of grey technology is now coming to an end. View quote
Freeman Dyson
I have to clear away a few popular misconceptions about space as a habitat ... It is generally considered that planets are important. Except for Earth, they are not. View quote
Freeman Dyson
The progress of science requires the growth of understanding in both directions, downward from the whole to the parts and upward from the parts to the whole. View quote
Freeman Dyson
I am saying to modern scientists and theologians: don't imagine that our latest ideas about the Big Bang or the human genome have solved the mysteries of the universe or the mysteries of life. Here are Bacon's words again: "The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding". View quote
Freeman Dyson
I don't say that this personal theology is supported or proved by scientific evidence. I only say that it is consistent with scientific evidence. (Freeman Dyson)
It is something that gives people an illusion of illimitable power, and it is, in some ways, responsible for all our troubles - this, what you might call technical arrogance, that overcomes people when they see what they can do with their minds. View quote
Freeman Dyson
The biggest breakthrough in the next 50 years will be the discovery of extraterrestrial life. View quote
Freeman Dyson
There is no such thing as a unique scientific vision, any more than there is a unique poetic vision. Science is a mosaic of partial and conflicting visions. View quote
Freeman Dyson
It belongs to everybody who is willing to make the effort to learn it. And what is true of science is true of poetry. ... Poetry and science are gifts given to all of humanity. View quote
Freeman Dyson
I am neither a saint nor a theologian. To me, good works are more important than theology. We all know that religion has been historically, and still is today, a cause of great evil as well as great good in human affairs. View quote
Freeman Dyson
Our grey technology of machines and computers will not disappear, but green technology will be moving ahead even faster. View quote
Freeman Dyson
I am saying that green technology could do all these good things, bringing wealth to the tropics, bringing economic opportunity to the villages, narrowing the gap between rich and poor. I am not saying that green technology will do all these good things. "Could" is not the same as "will". To make these good things happen, we need not only the new technology but the political and economic conditions that will give people all over the world a chance to use it. To make these things happen, we need a powerful push from ethics. View quote
Freeman Dyson
It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom. The universe as a whole is also weird, with laws of nature that make it hospitable to the growth of mind. I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension. View quote
Freeman Dyson
Religion will always remain a powerful force in the history of our species. To me, the meaning of progress in religion is simply this, that as we move from the past to the future the good works inspired by religion should more and more prevail over the evil. View quote
Freeman Dyson
God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension. (Freeman Dyson)
The PhD system is the real root of the evil of academic snobbery. People who have PhDs consider themselves a priesthood, and inventors generally don't have PhDs. View quote
Freeman Dyson
The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise people's hopes. View quote
Freeman Dyson
It's as great a part of the human adventure to invent things as to understand them. John Randall wasn't a great scientist, but he was a great inventor. There's been lots more like him, and it's a shame they don't get Nobel Prizes. View quote
Freeman Dyson
The pain of childbirth is not remembered. It's the child that's remembered. View quote
Freeman Dyson