I try not to think with my gut. If I’m serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it’s okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.
-Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1995, p. 180.
Tag: Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan on Arguments from Authority in Science
One of the great commandments of science is, “Mistrust arguments from authority.” (Scientists, being primates, and thus given to dominance hierarchies, of course do not always follow this commandment). Too many such arguments have proved too painfully wrong. Authorities must prove their contentions like everybody else.
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, 2011, p. 28.
The Fact That Some Geniuses Were Laughed At . . .
“The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.”
–Carl Sagan, Boca’s Brain, 1979, p.64.