QuoteProject
Religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. ... near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry.
Carl Sagan
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on the nature of religious beliefs and their resilience against rational scrutiny.

Carl Sagan's insight reveals the tension between religious doctrines and rationality, suggesting that faith often stands firm against empirical challenge. He argues that religions either avoid falsifiable claims or adapt swiftly when proven wrong, highlighting an intrinsic aspect of spirituality that resists logical examination.

Themes

ReligionFaithRationalityBeliefDoctrine

In practice

Example use cases

In a philosophical debate about the validity of religious beliefs.

More from Carl Sagan

Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
In 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

All earthly joy begins pleasantly, but at the end it gnaws and kills.
Thomas A KempisRead
Their sighing, canting, grace-proud faces, their three-mile prayers, and half-mile graces.
Robert BurnsRead
My personal feeling, if I can interject a political note, is that I don't think it is right that basic health care is a privilege. It shouldn't be. It should be a right of all human beings. And certainly in the richest country in the world.
Bryan CranstonRead
Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.
J. I. PackerRead
If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive
Audre LordeRead
Racism is a moral catastrophe, most graphically seen in the prison industrial complex and targeted police surveillance in black and brown ghettos rendered invisible in public discourse.
Cornel WestRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Carl Sagan | QuoteProject