--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's…" description: "\"Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's a way of thinking about things. It's a way of looking for natural explanations for all phenomena.\" — Michael ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d9d/michael-shermer-2567_explanation_science-is-not-a-thing-it-s-a-verb-it-s_1645466.jpg" --- # Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's a way of… ![“Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's a way of thinking about things. It's a way of looking for natural explanations for all phenomena.” quote by Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d9d/michael-shermer-2567_explanation_science-is-not-a-thing-it-s-a-verb-it-s_1645466.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d9d/michael-shermer-2567_explanation_science-is-not-a-thing-it-s-a-verb-it-s_1645466.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d9d/michael-shermer-2567_explanation_science-is-not-a-thing-it-s-a-verb-it-s_1645466.jpg) > “Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's a way of thinking about things. It's a way of looking for natural explanations for all phenomena.” [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Science is an active process of questioning and seeking natural explanations, not a static fact. **In simple terms:** Science is a method of inquiry. Key Takeaway Embrace curiosity and critical thinking. Themes science critical thinking methodology Mood inquisitive analytical Type philosophical motivational When to use this quote - education - research - problem solving - daily decision making Key Concepts empiricism philosophy of science Questions to Reflect On - What assumptions do you challenge daily? - How can you apply scientific thinking to personal problems? A Different Perspective Science can be limited by current knowledge and biases. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Explanation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/explanation/) [Explanations Phenomena](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/explanations-phenomena-605405/) [Looking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/looking/) [Natural](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/natural/) [Science](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science/) [Science Thing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/science-thing-605403/) [Thing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thing/) [Thing Verb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thing-verb-605404/) [Things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/things/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Verb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/verb/) [Verbs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/verbs/) [Way](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way/) [Way of thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/way-of-thinking/) ## Related quotes > [Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-hawking/science-is-beautiful-when-it-makes-simple-explanations-of-phenomena-2/) [Stephen Hawking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-hawking/) > [Science is beautiful when it makes simple explanations of phenomena or connections between different observations. Examples include the double helix in biology and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-hawking/science-is-beautiful-when-it-makes-simple-explanations-of-phenomena/) [Stephen Hawking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-hawking/) > [“This book intends to make the case for explanation by reduction to physics and mechanical engineering, to this alternative realm of explanation: not to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-vogel/this-book-intends-to-make-the-case-for-explanation-by-reduction-to/) [Steven Vogel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-vogel/) > [parenting isn't a noun but a verb--an ongoing process instead of an accomplishment. And that no matter how many years you put into the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jodi-picoult/parenting-isn-t-a-noun-but-a-verb-an-ongoing-process-instead-of-an/) [Jodi Picoult](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jodi-picoult/) > [I am a verb. I am that I amNouns exist because there is a created universe and physical reality, but if the universe is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-p-young/i-am-a-verb-i-am-that-i-amnouns-exist-because-there-is-a-created/) [William P. Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-p-young/) > [If you are using an adverb, you have got the verb wrong.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kingsley-amis/if-you-are-using-an-adverb-you-have-got-the-verb-wrong/) [Kingsley Amis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kingsley-amis/) > [I want to rethink 'surrender' as an active verb.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-eno/i-want-to-rethink-surrender-as-an-active-verb/) [Brian Eno](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-eno/) > [Theater used to be a verb; it used to be an act. But nowadays it is just a noun. It is a place.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/martha-graham/theater-used-to-be-a-verb-it-used-to-be-an-act-but-nowadays-it-is/) [Martha Graham](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/martha-graham/) > [Happiness is not a noun or a verb. It's a conjunction. Connective tissue.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eric-weiner/happiness-is-not-a-noun-or-a-verb-it-s-a-conjunction-connective-tissue/) [Eric Weiner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eric-weiner/) > [I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-buckminster-fuller/i-live-on-earth-at-present-and-i-don-t-know-what-i-am-i-know-that-i/) [R. Buckminster Fuller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-buckminster-fuller/) > [Mother is a verb, not a noun.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shonda-rhimes/mother-is-a-verb-not-a-noun/) [Shonda Rhimes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shonda-rhimes/) > [Someone has written, Love is a verb. It requires doing -not just saying and thinking. The test is in what one does, how one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-b-haight/someone-has-written-love-is-a-verb-it-requires-doing-not-just-saying/) [David B. Haight](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-b-haight/) > [Whatever you want to say, there is only one word to express it, only one verb to give it movement, only one adjective to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/guy-de-maupassant/whatever-you-want-to-say-there-is-only-one-word-to-express-it-only/) [Guy de Maupassant](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/guy-de-maupassant/) > [The verb that's been enforced on girls is to please. Girls are trained to please...I want us all to change the verb. I want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/eve-ensler/the-verb-that-s-been-enforced-on-girls-is-to-please-girls-are-trained/) [Eve Ensler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/eve-ensler/) > [A sentence can offer a moment of quiet, it can crackle with energy or it can just lie there, listless and uninteresting. What makes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/constance-hale/a-sentence-can-offer-a-moment-of-quiet-it-can-crackle-with-energy-or/) [Constance Hale](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/constance-hale/) ## More by Michael Shermer > [I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/i-m-a-skeptic-not-because-i-do-not-want-to-believe-but-because-i-want/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [“According to Dembski, for example, “scientific creationism has prior religious commitments whereas intelligent design does not.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/according-to-dembski-for-example-scientific-creationism-has-prior/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [The first-cause and prime-mover argument, brilliantly proffered by St. Thomas Aquinas in the fourteenth century (and brilliantly refuted by David Hume in the eighteenth…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/the-first-cause-and-prime-mover-argument-brilliantly-proffered-by-st/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [“Mind is just a word we use to describe neural activity in the brain. No brain, no mind. We know this because if a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/mind-is-just-a-word-we-use-to-describe-neural-activity-in-the-brain/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [Through no divine design or cosmic plan, we have inherited the mantle of life's caretaker on the earth, the only home we have ever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/through-no-divine-design-or-cosmic-plan-we-have-inherited-the-mantle/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [I always accepted the libertarian position of minimum regulation in the sale and use of firearms because I placed guns under the beneficial rubric…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/i-always-accepted-the-libertarian-position-of-minimum-regulation-in/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [If spirituality is the sense of awe and humility in the face of the creation, what could be more awesome and humbling than the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/if-spirituality-is-the-sense-of-awe-and-humility-in-the-face-of-the/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [We know evolution happened not because of transitional fossils such as A. natans but because of the convergence of evidence from such diverse fields…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/we-know-evolution-happened-not-because-of-transitional-fossils-such/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [“Yet basically, libertarians are for freedom and liberty for individuals, while recognizing that in order to be free we must also be protected. Your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/yet-basically-libertarians-are-for-freedom-and-liberty-for/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [Scientists like Bjorn Lomborg in The Skeptical Environmentalist have, in my opinion, properly nailed environmental extremists for these exaggerated scenarios.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/scientists-like-bjorn-lomborg-in-the-skeptical-environmentalist-have/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [When religious believers invoke miracles and acts of creation ex nihilo, that is the end of the search for them, whereas for scientists, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/when-religious-believers-invoke-miracles-and-acts-of-creation-ex/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/darwin-matters-because-evolution-matters-evolution-matters-because/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [What can be more soul shaking than peering through a 100-inch telescope at a distant galaxy, holding a 100-million-year-old fossil or a 500,000-year-old stone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/what-can-be-more-soul-shaking-than-peering-through-a-100-inch/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [Skepticism is not a position that you stake out ahead of time and stick to no matter what.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/skepticism-is-not-a-position-that-you-stake-out-ahead-of-time-and/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) > [“Neuroscientist David Comings drew out the larger implications of such hallucinations for the relationship between our rational and spiritual brains: The psychedelic drugs like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-shermer/neuroscientist-david-comings-drew-out-the-larger-implications-of-such/) [Michael Shermer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) [Explore all 160 Michael Shermer quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-shermer/) ## More Explanation quotes > [Let us remember that every worldview-not just Christianity's-must give an explanation or an answer for evil and suffering...this is not just a problem distinctive…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ravi-zacharias/let-us-remember-that-every-worldview-not-just-christianity-s-must/) [Ravi Zacharias](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ravi-zacharias/) > [Yesterday's truth is today's bullshit. Even yesterday's liberating insight is today's jail of stale explanation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brad-blanton/yesterday-s-truth-is-today-s-bullshit-even-yesterday-s-liberating/) [Brad Blanton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brad-blanton/) > [Before I had kids, I thought you should never lie to a kid. But now I've had them, I realize you almost lie to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emma-donoghue/before-i-had-kids-i-thought-you-should-never-lie-to-a-kid-but-now-i/) [Emma Donoghue](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emma-donoghue/) > [To prevent discussion of any other explanations of human origins is hardly what I would expect from open-minded educators.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-campolo/to-prevent-discussion-of-any-other-explanations-of-human-origins-is/) [Tony Campolo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-campolo/) > [ They \[scientists of centuries past\] call on God only from the lonely and precarious edge of incomprehension. 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