full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Naomi Oreskes: Why we should trust scientists

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So why should we believe the science? Well, ssteiitcns don't like tniklag about science as a matter of beleif. In fact, they would contrast scicnee with faith, and they would say belief is the domain of faith. And faith is a separate thing apart and distinct from science. Indeed they would say religion is bsead on faith or maybe the calculus of Pascal's wager. Blaise Pascal was a 17th-century mathematician who tried to binrg scinfietic reasoning to the question of whether or not he should believe in God, and his wager went like this: Well, if God doesn't exist but I decide to believe in him nothing much is really lost. Maybe a few hours on Sunday. (Laughter) But if he does exist and I don't believe in him, then I'm in deep tlourbe. And so Pascal said, we'd better believe in God. Or as one of my college professors said, "He clutched for the handrail of faith." He made that leap of faith leaving science and rationalism behind.

Open Cloze


So why should we believe the science? Well, __________ don't like _______ about science as a matter of ______. In fact, they would contrast _______ with faith, and they would say belief is the domain of faith. And faith is a separate thing apart and distinct from science. Indeed they would say religion is _____ on faith or maybe the calculus of Pascal's wager. Blaise Pascal was a 17th-century mathematician who tried to _____ __________ reasoning to the question of whether or not he should believe in God, and his wager went like this: Well, if God doesn't exist but I decide to believe in him nothing much is really lost. Maybe a few hours on Sunday. (Laughter) But if he does exist and I don't believe in him, then I'm in deep _______. And so Pascal said, we'd better believe in God. Or as one of my college professors said, "He clutched for the handrail of faith." He made that leap of faith leaving science and rationalism behind.

Solution


  1. trouble
  2. talking
  3. science
  4. scientists
  5. based
  6. bring
  7. scientific
  8. belief

Original Text


So why should we believe the science? Well, scientists don't like talking about science as a matter of belief. In fact, they would contrast science with faith, and they would say belief is the domain of faith. And faith is a separate thing apart and distinct from science. Indeed they would say religion is based on faith or maybe the calculus of Pascal's wager. Blaise Pascal was a 17th-century mathematician who tried to bring scientific reasoning to the question of whether or not he should believe in God, and his wager went like this: Well, if God doesn't exist but I decide to believe in him nothing much is really lost. Maybe a few hours on Sunday. (Laughter) But if he does exist and I don't believe in him, then I'm in deep trouble. And so Pascal said, we'd better believe in God. Or as one of my college professors said, "He clutched for the handrail of faith." He made that leap of faith leaving science and rationalism behind.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
stellar parallax 5
computer simulation 3
greenhouse gases 3
modern automobile 3
climate change 2
scientific claims 2
famous examples 2
ptolemaic system 2
accurate predictions 2
textbook model 2
auxiliary hypotheses 2
copernican model 2
wellington boots 2
physical models 2
dramatic increase 2
scientific knowledge 2
special kind 2
blind trust 2


Important Words


  1. based
  2. belief
  3. blaise
  4. bring
  5. calculus
  6. clutched
  7. college
  8. contrast
  9. decide
  10. deep
  11. distinct
  12. domain
  13. exist
  14. fact
  15. faith
  16. god
  17. handrail
  18. hours
  19. laughter
  20. leap
  21. leaving
  22. lost
  23. mathematician
  24. matter
  25. pascal
  26. professors
  27. question
  28. rationalism
  29. reasoning
  30. religion
  31. science
  32. scientific
  33. scientists
  34. separate
  35. sunday
  36. talking
  37. trouble
  38. wager