Faith versus evidence



Now the row over what evidence was genuine and what intelligence was ‘sexed up’ to drive public opinion towards war - and possibly mislead Parliament and Congress respectively - has become a trans-oceanic scandal in the making and now Hans Blix has said Blair made a serious mistake with his forty five minute speech. As Blair’s government foolishly continues its attacks on the BBC for airing the concerns in the first place (which is after all their job) and leaders on both sides of the Atlantic ignore demands for independents judicial enquiries I was reminded of this timely quotation from that great Scottish philosopher of the Enlightenment:



"A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence."

David Hume



While perusing the Quotations Finder website I also found this rather pertinent line from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace (and possibly the last decent man to sit in the Oval Office), Jimmy Carter:



“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."