Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
At the extremes it is difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from rigid, doctrinaire religion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Both pseudoscience and rigid religion can present dogmatic beliefs that are hard to differentiate despite their differing foundations.
Carl Sagan's quote highlights the challenges of distinguishing between pseudoscience and rigid, doctrinaire religion when beliefs become extreme. Both can operate with a set of unyielding ideas that reject empirical evidence and critical thinking, blurring the lines between scientific inquiry and fervent faith.
Themes
PseudoscienceReligionDoctrineBeliefScience
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing the differences between science and religion in a lecture about critical thinking.
More from Carl Sagan
All quotes βIn more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
Carl SaganRead
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
Carl SaganRead
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
Carl SaganRead
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
Carl SaganRead
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Carl SaganRead
Similar quotes
Nobody spends any money on smallpox unless they worry about a bio-terrorist recreating it.
Bill GatesRead
We often say that our science is objective and accurate, but we don't often say that our science is incomplete - that although the established parts of natural science are very well tested and the evidence makes a compelling case for things being as they've been described, there nevertheless are open questions that we cannot answer.
Jim PeeblesRead
No machines will ever truly fully figure the brain out, because the brain's performance is constantly altered or else constrained by this inanimate, rogue artifact you can't control, namely, speech.
Tom WolfeRead
Science has to be understood in its broadest sense, as a method for apprehending all observable reality, and not merely as an instrument for acquiring specialized knowledge.
Alexis CarrelRead
There is enough information capacity in a single human cell to store the Encyclopedia Britannica, all 30 volumes of it, three or four times over.
Richard DawkinsRead
What is it that keeps you so interested in the telomere? It's so intricate and complicated, and you want to know how it works.
Elizabeth BlackburnRead