Sentences with phrase «defies understanding»

While actuarial science is considered by many to be a dark art that defies understanding, it's really just using statistics to predict type and amount of future losses and using that data to make sure that policies are sold at prices appropriate to the level of risk.

In placing us at a remove from our relationships to familiar, domestic objects and environments, the labor - intensive work of Robert Gober (born 1954) defies our understanding of accepted conventions and draws attention to the movement of meaning between materials and across personal histories.

If you take a close look at the reward chart you may notice something that, to me, defies understanding.

Ashley's score defies all understanding of who she is as an educator.

The galaxy, which has been extensively observed using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, is exhibiting behavior that defies our understanding of how galaxies like Markarian 1018 should behave.

He added: «Let light triumph over all that is rotten, that is desperate and that defies our understanding.»

He is so thoroughly disgusting, and defies understanding of any kind.

It defies understanding.

To many people, both today and when the encyclical was promulgated on July 25, 1968, the notion simply defies understanding.

Quantum computing defies understanding in part because it's not just insanely complicated; it also doesn't obey any of the laws of physics we encounter in our daily lives.

In reality, nothing is so complex that it defies understanding.

There are doubtless many things in the Revelation which defy understanding, but the central truth remains crystal clear — Christ is the Victor Christ.

Or a plant will fail for reasons that defy my understanding.

«This discovery defied our understanding of how faults accumulate and release stress over time.

Frequent school shootings have been a major concern in American society for decades, but the causes have defied understanding.

Now, publisher Henry Holt and Co. is about to release his book, The Party of the First Part: The Curious World of Legalese, in which, according to Publishers Weekly, he «offers a cornucopia of hilarious, offbeat and downright bizarre examples of simple concepts contorted into words that defy understanding.»

Not exact matches

We bring justice by defying stereotypes and statistics, opening eyes, and fostering understanding, which leads to life - giving connections and opportunities.

The whole deal with miracles is that by nature they can not be proven because miracles defy the laws of nature or at least what we understand to be the laws of nature.

As metaphor is a means of understanding, so is prayer, though it defies rational analysis.

Biblical literalism requires an understanding of divine inspiration that denies the humanity of the authors and defies common sense.

Our task is to work hard, master the arguments (scientific, ethical, philosophical, social), understand the history of how we arrived here, defy the temptation to give up through boredom, build a coherent movement of defiance, and thereby prepare if not ourselves, then at least the next generation, for the moment when the revolution collapses under the weight of its own delusions and contradictions.

«44 This statement exhibits an mischaracterization of Bergson so extreme it defies words; if ever there was a more persistent opponent of Descartes» conception of natural science than Bergson, I do not know who it might be — with the possible exception of Bergson's process blood brothers — Peirce, Dewey, James, Whitehead and Hartshorne.45 In Lowe's defense it might be said that the eight or ten books that do the most to establish just how non-Cartesian, and indeed revolutionary Bergson's view of science was were all published after Understanding Whitehead.

How in this case man can be said to be free is one of the paradoxes which Niebuhr holds defies rational understanding.11 But if we accept the paradox, while we may say there is an ideal possibility that we could assert our human will to power in history without sinning and thus bring in the Kingdom of love, this is no actual possibility.

Well, it seems to have been «not so muc... a supernatural external miracle but... the dawning internal realization that this life of Jesus reflected a new image of God, an image that defied the conventional wisdom, an image that called into question the exalted king as the primary analogy by which God could be understood.»

What those ancient Greeks (who also had some understanding of philosophy) regarded as a task for a whole lifetime, seeing that dexterity in doubting is not acquired in a few days or weeks, what the veteran combatant attained when he had preserved the equilibrium of doubt through all the pitfalls he encountered, who intrepidly denied the certainty of sense - perception and the certainty of the processes of thought, incorruptibly defied the apprehensions of self - love and the insinuations of sympathy — that is where everybody begins in our time.

He says that the number of nuclear weapons has now reached «levels of redundancy of such grotesque dimensions as to defy rational understanding.»

It is filled with mysteries, miracles, and plenty of events that defy logic or understanding, and rife with internal contradictions along the way.

But when we look out from the earth to seek to understand the universe of which our planet is such an infinitesimal part, and to ask how it all began, we find ourselves in a bewilderingly vast space which just defies our imagination.

Furthermore, it is not obvious to me that nonbelievers are repulsed by what is foreign, odd or «mystical» — not when Hollywood movies gross billions precisely by delivering symbols that defy easy assimilation and require work to understand.

At last week's memorial service in Tucson for the victims of the Arizona shooting, President Obama said that «scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding.

But I defy such nonsense and refuse to be limited or labeled simply because I can not be understood by most people.

We understand energy drinks are a popular topic, but to blatantly ban industry from participating defies common sense and flies in the face of open, rigorous and transparent debate on issues» said the Council's CEO, Mr Geoff Parker.

Understanding what is behind your child's behavior is an important part of addressing the problem of a child who seems to be defying you.

The newfound object NGC 1052 - DF2 defies easy explanation, and could lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve

Last year, Gehl published research on Dark Web social networking, a phenomenon that defies popular understanding.

On the basis of our current understanding, much archaeal diversity still defies genomic exploration.

It defies current accepted scientific understanding of the efficiency of carbon - capturing CO2, and has the potential to be of significant commercial and governmental value in helping the UK meet its CO2 emissions reduction promises.

For now, the perfect - glass model is a theoretical proof of concept, though an intriguing one that defies current understandings of glass.

This is not the first time astronomers have spotted objects that defy conventional understanding.

It was the inescapable conclusion that must be drawn based on the studies I was reading that behavioral and neurodegenerative disorders are not deep, dark mysterious entities that defy even a basic understanding that would lead to prevention and, possibly, resolution or amelioration of certain symptoms.

Miracles often defy logical and rational explanation precisely because their occurrence is not something that can be reproduced, scientifically studied, or fully understood.

But as a series, it defies us to understand anything about it, much less care about it or anyone in it who moves on less than four legs.

Defying everything scientists understand about oversaturation, TT Games» licensed Lego adventures have lost little of their charm over the last 12 years despite inundating us with nearly 30 releases, from Lego Star Wars to Lego Dimensions.

- Barnes and Noble «This debut novel defies genres while delivering humor and oddball characters... Like the best storytellers, Lundgren understands that his job is to ask questions, not answer them.

To this day, however, it defies many traditionalists» efforts to understand it.

Certainly read enough in your genre to understand what readers expect (even if your goal is to defy expectations).

Understand that less expensive food features less expensive ingredients like guidelines; acknowledgment that old beliefs seem to defy common sense; and questions to help make you think more about what you feed your dog.

Solutions to puzzles may indeed be truly barmy and defy our own, every day brand of common sense, but once you understand how Rufus» energetic mind works things begin to fall into place, and carefully placed hints within character dialogue and item descriptions help you unravel even the most absurd methods.

Demi persists, traversing levels, allowing her to experience multiple endings: will Demi learn to understand and accept her new world, or question her reality and learn to defy it?

In the mid-1970s, the artist began using the photocopy machine as a new type of photographic lens through which she created series of works that defy an accepted understanding of the limitations of the photocopier.