Quotessence
Home / Books / Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Book by Carl Sagan · 50 quotes · Religion, Pseudoscience, Ifs

Filter quotes by topic

AllReligionPseudoscienceIfsScienceAtheistHumansCosmosHas BeensThinkingWorldDoeErrorsEvidenceIgnoranceLittlesPeopleSuperstitionsAtheismFactsFindings

Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Quotes

“If we teach only the findings and products of science - no matter how useful and even inspiring they may be - without communicating its critical method, how can the average person possibly distinguish science from pseudoscience?”

IfsMayPersonsMatterPainTeachProductsFindingsMethodAverageCommunicateCriticalTherapyInjuryAverage PersonPseudoscience
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“In the middle 1970s an astronomer I admire put together a modest manifesto called "Objections to Astrology" and asked me to endorse it. I struggled with his wording, and in the end found myself unable to sign, not because I thought astrology has any validity whatever, but because I felt (and still feel) that the tone of the statement was authoritarian.”

FeelsStillsEndsTogetherFoundFeltAtheismMiddlePositive AtheismStatementsAdmireToneModestAstrologyObjectionsValidityAstronomersManifestosWording
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“Science arouses a soaring sense of wonder. But so does pseudoscience. Sparse and poor popularizations of science abandon ecological niches that pseudoscience promptly fills. If it were widely understood that claims to knowledge require adequate evidence before they can be accepted, there would be no room for pseudoscience.”

IfsDoeWould BePoorRoomsWonderUnderstoodEvidenceClaimsAcceptedAbandonSoarAdequateNicheEcologicalSense Of WonderPseudoscience
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.”

SelfAgePastPurposeChallengesSelf EsteemHabitPrejudiceFamiliarEsteemCosmosNervesCosmicFanaticismScarcityPseudoscience
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“The impediment to scientific thinking is not, I think, the difficulty of the subject. Complex intellectual feats have been mainstays even of oppressed cultures. Shamans, magicians and theologians are highly skilled in their intricate and arcane arts. No, the impediment is political and hierarchical.”

ThinkingHas BeensArtPoliticalCultureSubjectsIntellectualDifficultyComplexesOppressedTheologianMagicianIntricateFeatsImpedimentsArcane
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs.”

GivingBeliefChallengesHighestErrorsRewardsSeekingAlternativesExplanationContradictionPersistentHeresyResidual
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.”

ScienceDeathReligionUniverseStuffAtheismDyingHumorousAtheistWittyThriveCosmosDelusionSatisfyingSkepticismPersistAgnosticSkepticalSkepticCosmologyThere Is No GodAgnosticismAtheisticFreethinkerReassuringIf There Is A GodPseudoscienceFamous MotivationalThere Being No GodChristian AtheistAnti ReligionAnti AtheistAnti GodSubtle AtheistAstronomy And UniverseSmall CreaturesSatisfying Work
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.”

MightMotivationalFacesEducationTechnologyIgnoranceBlowDisasterProgrammingGet AwaySooner Or LaterMixturesPrescriptionsScience And Technology
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality.”

PhilosophyGodSpiritualScienceReligionSpiritualityAtheismSourceScientistProfoundMetaphysicsScience And ReligionInterfaithScience And TechnologyCompatibleImmensityPseudoscienceScience ReligionDisserviceScience Vs ReligionIntricacyGreat ScienceScience TechnologyScientist LifeProfound Spiritual
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“An extraterrestrial being, newly arrived on Earth - scrutinizing what we mainly present to our children in television, radio, movies, newspapers, magazines, the comics, and many books - might easily conclude that we are intent on teaching them murder, rape, cruelty, superstition, credulity, and consumerism. We keep at it, and through constant repetition many of them finally get it.”

ChildrenBookMightEarthTeachingTelevisionMurderOur ChildrenConstantRadioNewspapersCrueltyMagazinesSuperstitionsConsumerismRepetitionCredulityExtraterrestrial
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

IfsGivingLongEnoughScienceReligionTakenLessonsFindingsEvidenceScientistPainfulCorruptionAcknowledgeRejectsOver YouCapturedSaddestCharlatansFinding Out The TruthCorrupt PowerPower And CorruptionPower CorruptionBamboozle
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“One of the reasons for its success is that science has a built-in, error-correcting machinery at its very heart. Some may consider this an overbroad characterization, but to me every time we exercise self-criticism, every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science. When we are self-indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.”

WorldHeartMayIdeasSelfReasonFactsExerciseBuiltCriticismTestsErrorsSuperstitionsMachinerySlidesOutside WorldCorrectingPseudoscienceCharacterizationSelf CriticismSelf Indulgent
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“Science is an attempt, largely successful, to understand the world, to get a grip on things, to get hold of ourselves, to steer a safe course. Microbiology and meteorology now explain what only a few centuries ago was considered sufficient cause to burn women to death.”

WorldCoursesCausesSuccessfulCenturySafeSufficientSteersMeteorologyMicrobiology
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“There is much that science doesn't understand, many mysteries still to be resolved. In a Universe tens of billions of light-years across and some ten or fifteen billion years old, this may be the case forever. We are constantly stumbling on new surprises”

YearsMayStillsLightUniverseCasesForeverMysteryTenSurpriseBillionsFifteenStumblingLight Years
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule.”

PeopleCountryGovernmentIgnoranceTaughtHabitCostSafeEssentialsResponsibleLeavingSkepticismNeverthelessCitizenshipPrerequisitesCost Of Education
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.”

PeopleThinkingHumansReasonScienceReligionBeliefSupportInstitutionsPositive AtheismRelyProphecyVagueAccuracyPropsPropheticReliabilityScience Vs Religion
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“I also wish that the Pledge of Allegiance were directed at the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as it is when the President takes his oath of office, rather than to the flag and the nation”

NationsWishPresidentRightsOfficeConstitutionBillsCivil RightsFlagsPledgeAllegianceOathBill Of RightsPledge Of AllegianceNigeria IndependenceOath Of Office
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“(When asked merely if they accept evolution, 45 percent of Americans say yes. The figure is 70 percent in China.) When the movie Jurassic Park was shown in Israel, it was condemned by some Orthodox rabbis because it accepted evolution and because it taught that dinosaurs lived a hundred million years ago-when, as is plainly stated at every Rosh Hashonhan and every Jewish wedding ceremony, the Universe is less than 6,000 years old.”

IfsYearsReligionUniverseAcceptingMillionsFiguresTaughtEvolutionPercentHundredYears AgoAtheistIsraelChinaAcceptedParksOrthodoxCeremonyDinosaursRabbiWedding CeremonyJurassic Park
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote. As with the face on Mars and alien abductions, better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.”

IfsRealHardFacesReligionFantasyEvidenceMereAtheistAliensDataBeing RealMarsComfortingAfter DeathLife After DeathAnecdotesHard TruthsAbductionAlien Abduction
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image

“In Italy, the Inquisition was condemning people to death until the end of the eighteenth century, and inquisitional torture was not abolished in the Catholic Church until 1816. The last bastion of support for the reality of witchcraft and the necessity of punishment has been the Christian churches.”

PeopleHas BeensEndsRealityChristianLastsReligionChurchSupportCenturyCatholicAtheistPunishmentTortureWitchcraftCatholic ChurchCondemningInquisitionChristian Church
Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Create image