Carl Sagan's "Does Truth Matter"

Today is Carl Sagan's birthday. November 12th is International Carl Sagan Day.

Thanks Carl, for all you did.
Read the full essay, of which this is a small excerpt:
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/does_truth_matter_science_pseudoscience_and_civ...

Category:

Education

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• Carl
• Sagan
• Day
• 2011
• Does
• Truth
• Matter
• pseudoscience

[Laoch111]

The world became a lot poorer the day Carl Sagan died.

Carl Sagan: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

[Pitfytr]

@wwwTrueFreethinker That would be a representation of his propensity for factually based truths. Btw, he also said the universe is beautiful, which also is not a scientific statement.

[eriksports]

Great reading! Thank you very much for posting this.

[wwwTrueFreethinker]

Sadly, many people turn “science” into a worldview rather than what it really is, a tool whereby to explore the material realm. A tool which was historically premised upon Judeo-Christian theology and which due to its purpose cannot come to conclusions which are not materialistic such as, for example, that “The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be.” His statements about the grandeur of his view is merely an expression of his esthetic preferences.

[wwwTrueFreethinker]

Sadly, Sagan had a propensity towards non-sequiturs & self-serving conclusions as his “science” suffered from his adherence to atheism: it was constantly biased towards his materialistic ends. For example, he claims to know the universe as it “really is” but held that “The cosmos is all there is or ever was or ever will be,” which is not a scientific statement.

[crankycactus]

fucking goosebumps... i feel like i just experienced a progressive metal transition...

[JamesMorlan]

@OddityDK Precisely. Agnostic is about knowledge. When applied to theistic claims, it can be used to qualify "theist" or "atheist" to indicate whether one's chosen position is based on knowledge or not, as you described. For example, the agnostic theist who BELIEVES a god exists, but does not KNOW. It breaks down a bit, though, when applied to "atheist", because the "atheist" label can include people who believe there is no god, as well as people who do not have a belief about any god.

[OddityDK]

@JamesMorlan

From Wiki:

"Agnosticism is the view that the truth value of certain claims—especially claims about the existence or non-existence of any deity, but also other religious and metaphysical claims—is unknown or unknowable."

" Within agnosticism there are agnostic atheists (who do not believe any deity exists, but do not deny it as a possibility) and agnostic theists (who believe a God exists but do not claim to know that)."

And there is of course the Gnostic version too.

[OddityDK]

@JamesMorlan

"What are you agnostic about? Whether or not a god exists?"

That doesn't make sense.

You don't seem to understand the difference between theism/atheism and gnosticism/agnosticism. One deals with "belief", the other with "knowledge". Agnosticism (without knowledge) is the position that it is impossible to know if God exists. It doesn't define whether one believes he does..that would be atheism/theism. You can be any combination. Agnostic atheist/theist, Gnostic atheist/theist.