D. A. Carson Quotes

There is no policy too sensitive to question, and no subject so taboo that you cannot even mention it

I believe that people should be able to question things.

The true test of liberty is the right to test it, the right to question it, the right to speak to my neighbors, to grab them by the shoulders and look into their eyes and ask, “Are we free?” I have thought that if we are free, the answer cannot hurt us. And if we are not free, must we not hear the answer?

If our hard-earned liberty, our desire to be irreverent of the old and to question the new, can be reduced to one, basic and indispensable right, it must be the right to free speech.

I believe in a free market of ideas and not shying away from debate.

Science is very vibrant. There are always new observations to be found. And it's all in the interest in challenging the authority that came before you. That's consistent with the punk rock ethos that suggests that you should not take what people say at face value.

The goal of higher education should be to champion the airing of all honest viewpoints. Nothing less is acceptable.

Socrates was executed … not for his megalomania or grandiose propositions or certitudes, but for stubbornly doubting the absolute truths of others.

I am not so much concerned with the right of everyone to say anything he pleases as I am about our need as a self-governing people to hear everything relevant

We should not live in fear, we should all enjoy being able to express our views freely and openly, challenge each other on issues.

I just want to say what I think and encourage others to say what they think.

I don't want to be a didactic voice. I like to ask more questions than I answer, just to get people thinking and to make it safe to access art.

I was 7 years old, and I challenged everything. I never accepted answers on face value.

That kind of skeptical, questioning, "don't accept what authority tells you" attitude of science - is also nearly identical to the attitude of mind necessary for a functioning democracy. Science and democracy have very consonant values and approaches, and I don't think you can have one without the other.

Irreverence is a most necessary ingredient of religion. Not to speak of its importance in philosophy. Irreverence is the only way left to us for testing our universe.

Without the freedom to criticize, there is no true praise.

I'm not going to sit around an pretend I'm not thinking things on my blog when I am thinking them and when I'm open to rebuttal.

A dangerous book will always be in danger from those it threatens with the demand that they question their assumptions. They'd rather hang on to the assumptions and ban the book.

To doubt has more of faith ... than that blank negation of all such thoughts and feelings which is the lot of the herd of church-and-meeting trotters.

Bein logical gave me a reason to doubt

Great intellects are skeptical.

Yes, and you should question your government.

I don't want you to trust me, I want you to question everything I say.

Everybody has the right to express what he thinks. That, of course, lets the crackpots in. But if you cannot tell a crackpot when you see one, then you ought to be taken in.

All I care about is free speech and free expression; I want people to be able to be, do, and say anything.