Lawrence M. Krauss Quotes
-
90% of the mass in your body comes from empty space.
→ -
What science is all about is a process. It's like saying, "Well, is it important for people to know that World War II happened?" Well it's part of what makes us who we are. And so, there's basic bits of science we need to know.
→ -
In this sense, science, as physicist Steven Weinberg has emphasized, does not make it impossible to believe in God, but rather makes it possible to not believe in God.
→ -
In 5 billion years, the expansion of the universe will have progressed to the point where all other galaxies will have receded beyond detection. Indeed, they will be receding faster than the speed of light, so detection will be impossible. Future civilizations will discover science and all its laws, and never know about other galaxies or the cosmic background radiation. They will inevitably come to the wrong conclusion about the universe......We live in a special time, the only time, where we can observationally verify that we live in a special time.
→ -
There is a maxim about the universe which I always tell my students: That which is not explicitly forbidden is guaranteed to occur.
→ -
Religious leaders need to be held accountable for their ideas.
→ -
The root cause of the looming energy problem - and the key to easing environmental, economic and religious tensions while improving public health - is to address the unending, and unequal, growth of the human population. And the one proven way to reduce fertility rates is to empower young women by educating them.
→ -
Now, since the time of Newton there had been a debate about whether light was a wave - that is, a traveling disturbance in some background medium - or a particle, which travels regardless of the presence of a background medium. The observation of Maxwell that electromagnetic waves must exist and that their speed was identical to that of light ended the debate: light was an electromagnetic wave.
→ -
Empirical explorations ultimately change our understanding of which questions are important and fruitful and which are not.
→ -
Discerning the merits of competing claims is where the empirical basis of science should play a role. I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false. What fails the test of empirical reality, as determined by observation and experiment, gets thrown out like yesterday's newspaper.
→ -
Aside from communications satellites, space is devoid of industry.
→ -
The ultimate goal of physicists is to arrive at an equation that explains everything and could fit on a t-shirt. That may happen but the t-shirt would have to be 10-dimensional.
→ -
People are interested in science, but they don't always know they're interested in science, and so I try to find a way to get them interested.
→ -
Now, almost one hundred years later, it is difficult to fully appreciate how much our picture of the universe has changed in the span of a single human lifetime. As far as the scientific community in 1917 was concerned, the universe was static and eternal, and consisted of a one single galaxy, our Milky Way, surrounded by vast, infinite, dark, and empty space. This is, after all, what you would guess by looking up at the night sky with your eyes, or with a small telescope, and at the time there was little reason to suspect otherwise.
→ -
For the record: Quantum mechanics does not deny the existence of objective reality. Nor does it imply that mere thoughts can change external events. Effects still require causes, so if you want to change the universe, you need to act on it.
→ -
You shouldn't be afraid of science. Accepting the reality of nature makes life more exciting and even more precious.
→ -
Forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.
→ -
A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa.
→ -
The universe is the way it is, whether we like it or not.
→ -
The universe does not care what we want.
→ -
Philosophy used to be a field that had content, but then natural philosophy became physics, and physics has only continued to make inroads. Every time theres a leap in physics, it encroaches on these areas that philosophers have carefully sequestered away to themselves, and so then you have this natural resentment on the part of philosophers.
→ -
I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.
→ -
A universe without purpose should neither depress us nor suggest that our lives are purposeless. Through an awe-inspiring cosmic history we find ourselves on this remote planet in a remote corner of the universe, endowed with intelligence and self-awareness. We should not despair, but should humbly rejoice in making the most of these gifts, and celebrate our brief moment in the sun.
→ -
The universe is the way it is , whether we like it or not. The existence or nonexistence of a creator is independent of our desires . A world without God or purpose may seem harsh or pointless, but that alone doesn ' t require God to actually exist.
→ -
The lack of understanding of something is not evidence for God. It's evidence of a lack of understanding.
→ -
A significant fraction of evangelical voters appear more likely to ignore the candidates' specific economic and foreign policy platforms in favor of concerns about gay marriage or abortion.
→ -
Science is only truly consistent with an atheistic worldview with regards to the claimed miracles of the gods of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Moreover, the true believers in each of these faiths are atheists regarding the specific sacred tenets of all other faiths. Christianity rejects the proposition that the Quran contains the infallible words of the creator of the universe. Muslims and Jews reject the divinity of Jesus.
→ -
The illusion of purpose and design is perhaps the most pervasive illusion about nature that science has to confront on a daily basis.
→ -
The ultimate arbiter of truth is experiment, not the comfort one derives from one's a priori beliefs, nor the beauty or elegance one ascribes to one's theoretical models.
→ -
What people believe impacts on what they do. And it's not as if religion is universally bad. Of course it's responsible for many peoples doing good actions.
→
Related Authors
-
Brian Cox Physicist -
Sean M. Carroll Scientist -
William Lane Craig Philosopher -
Michio Kaku Physicist -
Richard Dawkins Ethologist -
Brian Greene Theoretical Physicist -
David Albert Author -
Michael Shermer Writer -
Bill Nye Educator -
Bill Maher Comedian -
Sam Harris Author -
Stephen Hawking Physicist -
Richard P. Feynman Physicist -
James Randi Magician -
Ray Comfort Evangelist -
Christopher Hitchens Author -
Daniel Dennett Philosopher -
Penn Jillette Illusionist -
Neil deGrasse Tyson Astrophysicist -
Carl Sagan Astronomer