“Confirmation of a person’s unreliable statement by another unreliable person makes the statement even less reliable.”

Part 2 “Four Subjective Arguments”, Chapter 2 “The Argument from Prophecy (and the Bible Codes)” (p. 65)
Irreligion: A Mathematician Explains Why the Arguments for God Just Don’t Add Up (2008)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Confirmation of a person’s unreliable statement by another unreliable person makes the statement even less reliable." by John Allen Paulos?
John Allen Paulos photo
John Allen Paulos 48
American mathematician 1945

Related quotes

Idries Shah photo
David Lange photo

“The statement which has been made by the Leader of the Opposition was that the intelligence has stopped. I don't know whether that was a personal confession or whether it was a statement of position.”

David Lange (1942–2005) New Zealand politician and 32nd Prime Minister of New Zealand

Referring to Jim McLay's comments on the effect of the nuclear ships ban on the exchange of military intelligence with New Zealand's allies.
Source: Gliding on the Lino: The Wit of David Lange, compiled by David Barber, 1987.

Karl Pearson photo

“No statements of mere averages... are of the least avail against our statistics. Fluctuations from the averages are the sole reliable test...”

Karl Pearson (1857–1936) English mathematician and biometrician

"The Scientific Aspect of Monte Carlo Roulette" (1894)

William Kingdon Clifford photo

“We may believe the statement of another person, when there is reasonable ground for supposing that he knows the matter of which he speaks, and that he is speaking the truth so far as he knows it.”

William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) English mathematician and philosopher

The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Limits Of Inference
Context: p>We may believe what goes beyond our experience, only when it is inferred from that experience by the assumption that what we do not know is like what we know. We may believe the statement of another person, when there is reasonable ground for supposing that he knows the matter of which he speaks, and that he is speaking the truth so far as he knows it.It is wrong in all cases to believe on insufficient evidence; and where it is presumption to doubt and to investigate, there it is worse than presumption to believe.</p

Larry Correia photo

“My personal philosophy is that all writers need to put GET PAID in their mission statement. All that artistic creative stuff is nice too, but make sure GET PAID is in there”

Larry Correia (1977) American fantasy writer

in all caps
"How Authors Get Paid, part 2", Monster Hunter Nation http://monsterhunternation.com/2015/06/25/how-authors-get-paid-part-2/, 2015-06-15

Otto Neurath photo
Umaru Yar'Adua photo
Sandra Fluke photo

“I think his statements that he made on the air about me have been personal enough. so I’d rather not have a personal phone call from him.”

Sandra Fluke (1981) American women's rights activist and lawyer

The View. March 5, 2012.
Media interviews

Graham Chapman photo

Related topics