Starting my next book, and I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I have never read this before: I really do not understand how I have allowed this state of affairs to happen #Goodreads #ReadingChallenge #CurrentlyReading #Bibliophile #Bookworm #CarlSagan #TheDemonHauntedWorld #ScienceAsaCandleInTheDark #BookLovers
Saturday is the 90th anniversary of the birth of Carl Sagan. 
He's best known as an astronomer, author, and documentary presenter. But I consider him to be a philosopher of reason. His clear-mindedness and logic are needed more than ever these days.
I'm attatching an excerpt from his book The Demon-Haunted World. It's from a chapter called "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection". Save it, share it, and use it!
The Demon-Haunted World” by Carl Sagan, the “Dragon in My Garage” allegory illustrates the importance of skepticism and empirical evidence. Sagan presents a scenario where someone claims to have a dragon in their garage but provides excuses to avoid any examination. This story emphasizes the necessity of critical thinking, the burden of proof, and the dangers of accepting claims without evidence.
@ai6yr 3/3
"Science arouses a soaring sense of wonder. But so does pseudoscience.
A kind of Gresham's Law prevails in popular culture by which bad science drives out good.
Whose interest does .this. ignorance serve?
The standards of argument, what passes for evidence, are much more relaxed with pseudoscience. In part for these same reasons, it is much easier to present pseudoscience to the general public than science."
@ai6yr 2/3
"Maybe Mr."Buckley" should know to be more skeptical about what's dished out to him by popular culture. But apart from that, it's hard to see how it's his fault. He simply accepted what the most widely available and accessible sources of information claimed was true.
For his naivete, he was systematically misled and bamboozled."
