Exactly
--- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "letitgrow69" <letitgrow69_at_...> wrote:
>
> Too much openness and you accept every notion, idea, and hypothesis -- wh=
ich is tantamount to knowing nothing. Too much skepticism -- especially_ al=
ly rejection of new ideas before they are adequately tested -- and you're n=
ot only unpleasantly grumpy, but also closed to the advance of science. A j=
udicious mix is what we need. - Carl Sagan
>
> Probably my favorite line from the essay.
> Timbuktu
>
>
> --- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "Tim Wilson" <thegoodjob_at_> wrote:
> >
> > Indeed, if it is Sagan you mean. Also at the forefront of skeptical sci=
entists and associated with one of my mentors and good friends, Barry Beyer=
stein who helped me to learn scientific method over 35 years ago.
> >
> > http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/saganws.htm
> >
> > "I hold there's a kind of Gresham's Law that applies in the confrontati=
on of science and pseudoscience: In the popular imagination, at least, the =
bad science drives out the good. What I mean is this: If you are awash in l=
ost continents and channeling and UFOs and all the long litany of claims so=
well exposed in the Skeptical Inquirer, you may not have intellectual room=
for the findings of science. You're sated with wonder. Our culture in one =
way produces the fantastic findings of science, and then in another way cut=
s them off before they reach the average person. So people who are curious,=
intelligent, dedicated to understanding the world, may nevertheless be (in=
our view) enmired in superstition and pseudoscience. You could say, Well, =
they ought to know better, they ought to be more critical, and so on; but t=
hat's too harsh. It's not very much their fault, I say. It's the fault of a=
society that preferentially propagates the baloney and holds back the ambr=
osia."
> >
> >
> > "Science involves a seemingly self-contradictory mix of attitudes: On t=
he one hand it requires an almost complete openness to all ideas, no matter=
how bizarre and weird they sound, a propensity to wonder. As I walk along,=
my time slows down; I shrink in the direction of motion, and I get more ma=
ssive. That's crazy! On the scale of the very small, the molecule can be in=
this position, in that position, but it is prohibited from being in any in=
termediate position. That's wild! But the first is a statement of special r=
elativity, and the second is a consequence of quantum mechanics. Like it or=
not, that's the way the world is. If you insist that it's ridiculous, you =
will be forever closed to the major findings of science. But at the same ti=
me, science requires the most vigorous and uncompromising skepticism, becau=
se the vast majority of ideas are simply wrong, and the only way you can di=
stinguish the right from the wrong, the wheat from the chaff, is by critica=
l experiment and analysis."
> >
> > ~Carl Sagan
> >
> > --- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, "letitgrow69" <letitgrow69_at_> wrote:
> > >
> > > One of the great thinkers of our time.
> > >
> > >
> > > Went to the well but the water was dry
> > > Dipped my bucket in the clear blue sky
> > > Looked in the bottom and what did I see?
> > > The whole damned world looking back at me - Robert Hunter
> > >
> > > --- In compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com, Patrick Kennedy <mixelpix86_at_> wro=
te:
> > > >
> > > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_966RzTF6k&feature=youtube_gdat=
a_player
> > > >
> > >
> >
>
Received on Sat Feb 04 2012 - 15:24:26 EST