Mordechai Ben-Ari Quotes

Mordechai Ben-Ari is a professor of computer science education at the Weizmann Institute of Science.Ben-Ari has published numerous textbooks in computer science, developed software tools for teaching Computer Science, and written many influential papers in computer science education. His primary focus has been on books and tools for learning theoretical concepts in computer science, such as concurrency and mathematical logic.In collaboration with the University of Joensuu in Finland, his group has developed the Jeliot program animation system for teaching elementary computer science and programming.

Ben-Ari received the 2004 ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contributions for Computer Science Education and was named an ACM Distinguished Educator in 2009. Wikipedia  

✵ 11. December 1948
Mordechai Ben-Ari: 28   quotes 0   likes

Famous Mordechai Ben-Ari Quotes

“Scientists refuse to study astrology, not because of prejudice or because there is a conspiracy afoot, but simply because there is not a shred of evidence that would justify the expenditure of valuable time from a career.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 5, “Pseudoscience: What Some People Do Isn’t Science” (p. 93)

“If ghosts and witches are not yet altogether exploded, it is the fault, not so much of the ignorant people, as of the law and the government that have neglected to enlighten them.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 5, “Pseudoscience: What Some People Do Isn’t Science” (p. 96; quoting Charles Mackay)

“The statement “I don’t see how X could have evolved” simply means that you cannot see how X evolved, not that X could not have evolved.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 2, “Just a Theory: What Scientists Do” (p. 36)

“Enormous resources are invested in pseudoscience that could be better invested in improving the health and education of the public.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 5, “Pseudoscience: What Some People Do Isn’t Science” (p. 95)

“It is clear today that modern science developed when people stopped debating metaphysical questions about the world and instead concerned themselves with the discovery of laws that were primarily mathematical.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 11, “Logic and Mathematics: Scientists Like It Clear and Precise” (p. 184)

Mordechai Ben-Ari Quotes about science

“Just because people doing science are embedded in a particular social and cultural milieu, it doesn’t follow that science is not universal.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 6, “The Sociology of Science: Scientists Do It as a Group” (p. 111)

“The charm of our studies, the enchantment of science, is that, everywhere and always, we can give the justification of our principles and the proof of our discoveries.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 5, “Pseudoscience: What Some People Do Isn’t Science” (p. 98; quoting Louis Pasteur)

“The scientific point of view is that such claims of postmodernism are a travesty that comes from mixing ideology and politics with science.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 7, “Postmodernist Critiques of Science: Is Science Universal?” (p. 128)

Mordechai Ben-Ari Quotes

“Concise and coherent is not the same as “simple and obvious.””

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 2, “Just a Theory: What Scientists Do” (p. 26)

“Modern science explicitly and emphatically rejects teleology.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 2, “Just a Theory: What Scientists Do” (p. 24)

“Until creationists accept that their claims must be falsifiable and show how they could be falsified, creationism cannot be said to be a scientific theory.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 4, “Falsificationism: If It Might Be Wrong, It’s Science” (p. 75)

“Unfortunately, the universe does not come with an instructor’s manual and technical support is as hard to get as it is for some software packages.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 4, “Falsificationism: If It Might Be Wrong, It’s Science” (p. 69)

“ID (intelligent design) is essentially a total failure of the imagination; just because you do not see how something could have evolved, doesn’t mean that it didn’t.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 2, “Just a Theory: What Scientists Do” (p. 38)

“We can define a fact as an observation backed up by such a preponderance of evidence that no useful purpose would be served by doubting it.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 3, “Words Scientists Don’t Use: At Least Not the Way You Do” (p. 46)

“Intelligent Design is simply a dead end; it does not deserve to be called a theory.”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 2, “Just a Theory: What Scientists Do” (p. 41)

“To brand evolution as “just a theory” is the finest compliment one can confer on it!”

Source: Just a Theory: Exploring the Nature of Science (2005), Chapter 2, “Just a Theory: What Scientists Do” (p. 38)

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