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

Book by Carl Sagan · 3 quotes · Science, Skepticism, Pseudoscience

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

“Occasionally, I get a letter from someone who is in “contact” with extraterrestrials. I am invited to “ask them anything.” And so over the years I’ve prepared a little list of questions. The extraterrestrials are very advanced, remember. So I ask things like, “Please provide a short proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem.” Or the Goldbach Conjecture. And then I have to explain what these are, because extraterrestrials will not call it Fermat’s Last Theorem. So I write out the simple equation with the exponents. I never get an answer. On the other hand, if I ask something like “Should we be good?” I almost always get an answer.”

AliensSkepticismExtraterrestrialsUfosFermat S Last TheoremGoldbach Conjecture
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“Just as there are those who accept every UFO report at face value, there are also those who dismiss the idea of alien visitation out of hand and with great passion. It is, they say, unnecessary to examine the evidence, and “unscientific” even to contemplate the issue. I once helped to organize a public debate at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science between proponent and opponent scientists of the proposition that some UFOs were spaceships; whereupon a distinguished physicist, whose judgment in many other matters I respected, threatened to sic the Vice President of the United States on me if I persisted in this madness. (Nevertheless, the debate was held and published, the issues were a little better clarified, and I did not hear from Spiro T. Agnew.)”

ScienceExtraterrestrialsUfosCarl SaganScientific DebateSprio Agnew
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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“Another of Mack’s patients says that the aliens have been taking eggs from her since she was sexually mature, and that her reproductive system baffles her gynecologist. Is it baffling enough to write the case up and submit a research paper to The New England Journal of Medicine? Apparently it’s not that baffling.”

ScienceResearchEvidenceSkepticismExtraterrestrialsAlien AbductionJournal Of Medicine
Book:The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
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