Survival machines that can simulate the future are one jump ahead of survival machines who can only learn on the basis of overt trial and error. The … - Richard Dawkins

همه‌چیز را بسنج؛ همواره باورهای خود را با واقعیات باز آزما، و آماده‌باش تا حتی عزیزترین باورهایت را هم که با واقعیت نمی‌خوانند کنار نهی. عقاید خود را مستقلاً و بر مبنای خرد و تجربه‌ی خود برگزین؛ نگذار دیگران تو را به پیروی کورکورانه بکشانند.

The individual selectionist would admit that groups do indeed die out, and that whether or not a group goes extinct may be influenced by the behaviour of the individuals in that group. He might even admit that if only the individuals in a group had the gift of foresight they could see that in the long run their own best interests lay in restraining their selfish greed, to prevent the destruction of the whole group. How many times must this have been said in recent years to the working people of Britain? But group extinction is a slow process compared with the rapid cut and thrust of individual competition. Even while the group is going slowly and inexorably downhill, selfish individuals prosper in the short term at the expense of altruists. The citizens of Britain may or may not be blessed with foresight, but evolution is blind to the future.

Evidence is the only good reason to believe anything