Quotes from Carl Sagan

La pseudociencia colma necesidades emocionales poderosas que la ciencia suele dejar insatisfechas

La verdad puede ser confusa o contraria a la intuición. Puede contradecir creencias profundas. Experimentando, llegamos a controlarla.

we completely decrypt it, how good could the translation be? You know the opinion of Cervantes? He said that reading a translation is like examining the back of a piece of tapestry.

Pseudoscience speaks to powerful emotional needs that science often leaves unfulfilled. It caters to fantasies about personal powers we lack and long for (like those attributed to comic book superheroes today, and earlier, to the gods). In some of its manifestations, it offers satisfaction of spiritual hungers, cures for disease, promises that death is not the end. It reassures us of our cosmic centrality and importance.

Under Communism, both religion and pseudoscience were systematically suppressed—except for the superstition of the state ideological religion. It was advertised as scientific, but fell as far short of this ideal as the most unselfcritical mystery cult.

There was a time before television, before motion pictures, before radio, before books. The greatest part of human existence was spent in such a time.

A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.

the credibility is a consequence of the method.

Un asombroso declive de la expectativa de vida, el aumento de la mortalidad infantil, las violentas epidemias de enfermedades, las condiciones sanitarias por debajo del mínimo y la ignorancia de la medicina preventiva se unen para elevar el umbral a partir del cual se dispara el escepticismo de una población cada vez más desesperada

Assim como as crianças tremem e têm medo de tudo na escuridão cega, também nós, à claridade da luz, às vezes tememos o que não deveria inspirar mais temor do que as coisas que aterrorizam as crianças no escuro... Lucrécio, Sobre a natureza das coisas (cerca de 60 a.C.)

Einstein's prohibition against travelling faster than light may clash with our common sense, but, on this question, why should we trust common sense? Why should our experience at 10 kilometers-an-hour constrain the laws of nature at 300,000 kilomters per second? Relativity does set limits on what humans can ultimately do, but the universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition.

So in an age when traditional religions have been under withering fire from science, is it not natural to wrap up the old gods and demons in scientific raiment and call them aliens?

Placebos can be astonishingly effective, especially for colds, anxiety, depression, pain, and symptoms that are plausibly generated by the mind. Conceivably, endorphins—the small brain proteins with morphinelike effects—can be elicited by belief. A placebo works only if the patient believes it's an effective medicine. Within strict limits, hope, it seems, can be transformed into biochemistry. As

Out yonder there was this huge world, which exists independently of us human beings and which stands before us like a great, eternal riddle, at least partially accessible to our inspection and thinking. The contemplation of this world beckoned like a liberation Ã¢â'¬Â¦ The road to this paradise was not so comfortable and alluring as the road to the religious paradise; but it has proved itself as trustworthy, and I have never regretted having chosen it.

There are many hypotheses in physics of almost comparable brilliance and elegance that have been rejected because they did not survive such a confrontation with experiment. In my view, the human condition would be greatly improved if such confrontations and willingness to reject hypotheses were a regular part of our social, political, economic, religious and cultural lives.

Experiences which are out of line with the teachings of Scripture must always be renounced as fallacious. The Bible has a monopoly on the truth.

Polybius:     Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate, and reckless of consequences, they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods, and the belief in punishment after death.

She consented to rote memorization, but knew that it was at best the hollow shell of an education. She did the minimum work necessary to do well in her courses, and pursued other matters.

Önümde ölüm ve sürekli kölelik bulunduÄŸuna göre, y?ld?zlar?n gizlerini araÅŸt?rma zahmetine neden gireyim?

No Satan, no God.

It is precisely our plasticity, our long childhood, that prevents a slavish adherence to genetically preprogrammed behavior in human beings more than in any other species… Some substantial adjustment of the relative role of each component of the triune brain is well within our powers.

Parte del proceso de toma de decisiones que influyen en el futuro de nuestra civilización está sencillamente en manos de charlatanes.

Humans everywhere share the same goals when the context is large enough. And the study of the Cosmos provides the largest possible context.

John 6:53) "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.