John Piper Quotes

Irrationality interests me more than anything: sometimes it's very dangerous, but it can be incredibly beautiful.

I'm against fashionable thinking.

When any one tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived, or that the fact, which he relates, should really have happened. I weigh the one miracle against the other; and according to the superiority, which I discover, I pronounce my decision, and always reject the greater miracle.

There is nothing so strange and unbelievable that it has not been said by one philosopher or another

There are some people who can receive a truth by no other way than to have their understanding shocked and insulted.

We're living in interesting times, where people seem to be able to say things which are contrary to what you would call rationalism.

The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others to do so as well, seeking to free ourselves from constraints imposed by coercive institutions, dogma, irrationality, excessive conformity and lack of initiative and imagination, and numerous other obstacles.

The claim is also sometimes made that science is as arbitrary or irrational as all other claims to knowledge, or that reason itself is an illusion. As Ethan Allen said Those who invalidate reason ought seriously to consider whether they argue against reason with or without reason; if with reason, then they establish the principle that they are labouring to dethrone. If they argue without reason, which they must do, in order to be consistent with themselves, they are out of reach of rational conviction, nor do they deserve a rational argument.

Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason.

You must develop the habit of skepticism, not swallow every piece of superstition you are told by witch-doctors and professors.

The primary problem is not to provide the public with the knowledge of how far it is to the nearest star and what genes are made of .. Rather, the problem is to get them to reject irrational and supernatural explanations of the world, the demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus, Science, as the only begetter of truth.

Forbear to spew out reason from your mind, but rather ponder everything with keen judgment; and if it seems true, own yourself vanquished, but, if it is false, gird up your loins to fight.

I took the batteries out my mysticism / 
And put them in my thinking cap

To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought.

The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical, to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts.

Extreme skepticism and extreme gullibility are two equal ways of not having to think at all. And I don't think I'm the first to say that.

Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion .. . and the discovery of a standard of judgement.

I do know the Bible very well from a Protestant point of view - which is what, along with my reason, entitles me to refute it. You can't rationally reject something until you know all about it.

What is reasoned has nothing to do with what is reasonable.

The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff.

No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.

There are misfortunes in life that no one will accept; people would rather believe in the supernatural and the impossible.

Skepticism is not a position; it's a process.

Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect.

There is no faith, without a critical mind