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

This is what a city is, bits and pieces that supplement each other and support each other.
Jane JacobsRead
It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it's true.
Bertrand RussellRead
People who study the way religions develop have shown that if you have a charismatic teacher, and you don't have an institution develop around that teacher within about a generation to transmit succession within the group, the movement just dies.
Elaine PagelsRead
All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things
Stephen CoveyRead
There are times when sorrow seems to me to be the only truth.
Oscar WildeRead
Since the death instinct exists in the heart of everything that lives, since we suffer from trying to repress it, since everything that lives longs for rest, let us unfasten the ties that bind us to life, let us cultivate our death wish, let us develop it, water it like a plant, let it grow unhindered. Suffering and fear are born from the repression of the death wish.
Eugene IonescoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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