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

Book by Carl Sagan · 12 quotes · Religion, Pseudoscience, Ifs

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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
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“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
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“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
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“(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
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“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
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“In college, in the early 1950s, I began to learn a little about how science works, the secrets of its great success, how rigorous the standards of evidence must be if we are really to know something is true, how many false starts and dead ends have plagued human thinking, how our biases can colour our interpretation of evidence, and how often belief systems widely held and supported by the political, religious and academic hierarchies turn out to be not just slightly in error, but grotesquely wrong.”

IfsThinkingKnowsHumansLittlesEndsPoliticalTurnsBeliefReligiousSecretCollegeStandardsEvidenceErrorsColourInterpretationAcademicHierarchyGreat SuccessBelief SystemsDead Ends
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