“Thus the creationist's favourite question "What is the use of half an eye?" Actually, this is a lightweight question, a doddle to answer. Half an eye is just 1 per cent better than 49 per cent of an eye.”

—  Richard Dawkins

Part 2: "The Virus of Faith"
The Root of All Evil? (January 2006)

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English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author 1941

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“Thus the creationist's favourite question "What is the use of half an eye?"”

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“The US wants only 51 per cent adherence as against 100 per cent adherence demanded by Russia.”

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“The paper is perhaps 5 per cent empirical information and 95 per cent speculation, some of it possibly tainted by wishful thinking.”

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Source: "Economic growth and income inequality," 1955, p. 26
Context: The paper is perhaps 5 per cent empirical information and 95 per cent speculation, some of it possibly tainted by wishful thinking. The excuse for building an elaborate structure on such a shaky foundation is a deep interest in the subject and a wish to share it with members of the Association. The formal and no less genuine excuse is that the subject is central to much of economic analysis and thinking; that our knowledge of it is inadequate; that a more cogent view of the whole field may help channel our interests and work in intellectually profitable directions; that speculation is an effective way of presenting a broad view of the field; and that so long as it is recognized as a collection of hunches calling for further investigation rather than a set of fully tested conclusions, little harm and much good may result

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