According to Richard Dawkins, a distinction between agnosticism and atheism is unwieldy and depends on how close to zero we are willing to rate the probability of existence for any given god-like entity.

According to the Hipparcos satellite, Arcturus is 36. 7 light years ( 11. 3 parsecs ) from Earth, relatively close in astronomical terms.

According to Brazilian law, BCG is given again to professionals of the health sector and to people close to patients with tuberculosis or leprosy.

According to the Rettig commission and the Valech Report, close to 3, 200 were executed or " disappeared ", and at least 29, 000 imprisoned and tortured.

According to biographer Keay Davidson, Sagan's " inner war " was a result of his close relations with both his parents, who were in many ways " opposites ".

According to Tacitus, Mucianus was not keen on this prospect but since he considered Domitian a liability in any capacity that was entrusted to him, he preferred to keep him close at hand rather than in Rome.

According to a March 2004 BBC profile, politics within the country are dominated by tensions between Obiang's son, Teodorin, and other close relatives with powerful positions in the security forces.

According to the FSM U. N. deputy ambassador, Micronesia has since sought close bilateral relations with Israel in areas such as agriculture, technical training and health care training.

According to Stones ' confidant and close friend of Parsons, Phil Kaufman, the twosome would sit around for hours, playing obscure country records and trading off on various songs with their guitars.

According to Cyrus Vance's close aide Marshall Shulman " the State Department worked hard to dissuade the Soviets from invading.

According to Mark Kurlansky, " Smoked foods almost always carry with them legends about their having been created by accident — usually the peasant hung the food too close to the fire, and then, imagine his surprise the next morning when …".

According to Ernst Hanfstaengl, who was a close friend of Hitler throughout the later 1920s and early 1930s, Riefenstahl tried to begin a relationship with Hitler early on but was turned down by him.

According to Weber, the city as a politically autonomous organization of people living in close proximity, employed in a variety of specialized trades, and physically separated from the surrounding countryside, only fully developed in the West and to a great extent shaped its cultural evolution:

According to his own account, Agnagna claimed to have seen a Mokèlé-mbèmbé at close distance for about 20 minutes.

According to Captain Carbajal, who descended the Pongo de Manseriche in the little steamer " Napo ," in 1868, it is a vast rent in the Andes about 600 m ( 2000 ft ) deep, narrowing in places to a width of only 30 m ( 100 ft ), the precipices " seeming to close in at the top.

According to Captain Carbajal, who descended the Pongo in the little steamer Napo, in 1868, it is a vast rent in the Andes about 2000 ft ( 600 m ) deep, narrowing in places to a width of only 100 ft ( 30 m ), the precipices " seeming to close in at the top.

According to musician and author Albin Zak, the combination of the studio — engineered by Bill Porter, who experimented with close miking the doo-wop backup singers — production by Foster, and accompanying musicians, gave Orbison's music a " polished, professional sound ... finally allow ( ing ) Orbison's stylistic inclinations free rein ".

According to Kapila, " The government has a close knowledge of what's going on-and can influence the Arab militia.

According to a study by Menna Jones, " gene flow appears extensive up to ", meaning a high assignment rate to source or close neighbour populations " in agreement with movement data.

According to the Virgin Islands ' Department of Labor, close to 50, 000 people make the local workforce and are associated with various small and large businesses.

According to Procopius, they maintained close links with their kinsmen in Thule ( Scandinavia ).

According to ATRAC engineers, ATRAC algorithms were developed in close cooperation with LSI development engineers within Sony in order to deliver on a tangible product that could encode at high speeds and with minimal power consumption.

According to these early recorded stories, gods and kings, like the 7th century BC scholar-king Assurbanipal, paid close attention to dreams.

According to Zhou's own account, he was very close to his adoptive mother and acquired his lasting interest in Chinese literature and opera from her.

According to the Star Trek: New Frontier book series ( which, like all novels, are not considered canon ), the Great Awakening caused many wars and conflicts to occur amongst various Vulcan tribes ; those who supported Surak's cause would become separated from friends and even close family members who did not.

According to the historian Herodotus, the poet threw away his shield to make good his escape from the victorious Athenians then celebrated the occasion in a poem that he later sent to his friend, Melanippus.

According to the story recounted by Hermippus, he arrived at the house of Solon and said, " I have traveled here from afar to make you my friend.

According to the biography, Penicillin Man: Alexander Fleming and the Antibiotic Revolution by Kevin Brown, Alexander Fleming, in a letter to his friend and colleague Andre Gratia, described this as " A wondrous fable.

According to Capp ’ s longtime friend Milton Caniff, Capp was “ charming ” when he chose to be, but he added, “ He could be very difficult if he didn ’ t like you .” Frank Frazetta described Capp as " exasperating, infuriating, domineering, obnoxious, loud, lots of fun, acidic and lovable.

According to Elaine Hoffman, Gropius had approached the Dutch architect Mart Stam to run the newly founded architecture program, and when Stam declined the position, Gropius turned to Stam's friend and colleague in the ABC group, Hannes Meyer.

According to a 2010 interview on Blog Talk Radios, Lessons Learned, Rick Tocquigny, when asked if Mumy was a Jonathan Harris fan, before Mumy's first meeting with Harris on Lost in Space, he said at age 5, he was too young to watch his mentor's show The Third Man which was probably late at night, but was old enough to watch The Bill Dana Show ( which also starred Harris's real-life best friend Don Adams ).

According to Fuller, as quoted in Wood biography Nightmare of Ecstasy ( 1992 ), she first met Ed Wood when she attended a casting call with a friend for a movie he was supposed to direct called Behind Locked Doors: it has also been stated that they met in a restaurant.

According to a letter Fahrenheit wrote to his friend Herman Boerhaave, his scale was built on the work of Ole Rømer, whom he had met earlier.

According to Dick Cavett's New York Times blog, when the elderly Groucho visited an old friend in the hospital, he said to the elevator attendant, as if in a department store, " Men's tonsils, please.

According to Livy, Hannibal much later said that when he came upon his father and begged to go with him, Hamilcar agreed and demanded that he swear that as long as he lived he would never be a friend of Rome.

According to a modern history of the regiment, the idea for creating this unique force was proposed by Jacques Prevost, a Swiss soldier and adventurer who was a friend of The Duke of Cumberland ( William, who was the King's second son and was Commander-in-Chief of the Forces.

According to Plutarch, Antony threw her out of his house in Rome, because she slept with his friend, the tribune Publius Cornelius Dolabella.

According to the Talmud, Obadiah is said to have been a convert to Judaism from Edom, a descendant of Eliphaz, the friend of Job.

According to the foreword of Ubik: The Screenplay ( by Tim Powers, a friend of Dick's and fellow science fiction writer ), Dick had an idea for the film which involved " the film itself appearing to undergo a series of reversions: to black-and-white, then to the awkward jerkiness of very early movies, then to a crookedly jammed frame which proceeds to blacken, bubble and melt away, leaving only the white glare of the projection bulb, which in turn deteriorates to leave the theater in darkness, and might almost leave the moviegoer wondering what sort of dilapidated, antique jalopy he'll find his car-keys fitting when he goes outside.

According to Roman tradition, Hannibal had been made to swear by his father never to be a friend of Rome, and he certainly did not take a conciliatory attitude when the Romans berated him for crossing the river Iberus ( Ebro ) which Carthage was bound by treaty not to cross.

According to long-time friend and colleague Marc Lalonde, the clerically influenced dictatorships of António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal ( the Estado Novo ), Francisco Franco in Spain ( the Spanish State ), and Marshal Philippe Pétain in Vichy France were seen as political role models by many youngsters educated at elite Jesuit schools in Quebec.

According to his friend, the theologian Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, More once seriously contemplated abandoning his legal career to become a monk.

According to Dave Wilson, in his book Rock Formations, the name They Might Be Giants had been used and subsequently discarded by a friend of the band who had a ventriloquism act.

According to Nicks, friend and former musical partner Tom Petty was responsible for convincing her to write music again when he rebuffed her request that he write a song with her.

According to his autobiography, Mein Leben, Wagner decided to dramatise the Tristan legend after his friend, Karl Ritter, attempted to do so, writing that:

According to the New York Times, Berger had become his " friend and confessor " during the last weeks of his life.

According to his friend Vaughan Williams, Holst once told him two things about art " that ought to be recorded ":

According to Rushton's widow, his last words included a message to his long-time friend and comedy partner, Barry Cryer: " Tell Bazza he's too old to do pantomime.