The Demons begin to stir… “The Demon-Haunted World”
Aug 25, 2008 | candle kits
“We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces… I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us - then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls. The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.” ~Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark)
(When asked merely if they accept evolution, 45 percent of Americans say yes. The figure is 70 percent in China.) When the movie Jurassic Park was shown in Israel, it was condemned by some Orthodox rabbis because it accepted evolution and because it taught that dinosaurs lived a hundred million years ago–when, as is plainly stated at every Rosh Hashonhan and every Jewish wedding ceremony, the Universe is less than 6,000 years old. [p. 325]
This is Carl’s last interveiw (1996)
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afo3WT4A_K0
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark is a book by Carl Sagan intended to explain the scientific method to laymen, and to encourage people to learn critical or skeptical thinking. It explains methods to help distinguish between ideas that are considered valid science, and ideas that can be considered pseudoscience. Sagan states that when new ideas are offered for consideration, they should be tested by means of skeptical thinking, and should stand up to rigorous questioning.
Sagan said if a new idea continues in existence after an examination of the propositions, it should then be acknowledged as a supposition. Skeptical thinking essentially is a means to construct, understand, reason, and recognize valid and invalid arguments. Wherever possible, there must be independent validation of the concepts whose truth should be proved. He believed that reason and logic would succeed once the truth is known. Conclusions emerge from premises, and the acceptability of the premises should not be discounted or accepted because of bias.
Sagan presents a set of tools for skeptical thinking which he calls the “baloney detection kit”. Skeptical thinking consists both of constructing a reasoned argument and recognizing a fallacious or fraudulent one. In order to identify a fallacious argument, Sagan suggests the employment of such tools as independent confirmation of facts, quantification and the use of Occam’s razor. Sagan’s “baloney detection kit” also provided tools for detecting “the most common fallacies of logic and rhetoric”, such as argument from authority and statistics of small numbers.
Through these tools, the benefits of a critical mind and the self-correcting nature of science can take place. Sagan provides a skeptical analysis of several kinds of superstition, fraud, pseudoscience and religious beliefs, such as gods, witches, UFOs, ESP & faith healing.
Inherit the Wind:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/SCO_INHE.HTM
Duration : 0:8:11
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
In what shape or …
In what shape or form would you like evolutionary biology to be presented to you? This is the issue that Carl Sagan was exactly talking about in his book ‘The Demon-haunted World”.
The onus has been met, the evidence is in, but the complexity of evolution and other scientific studies is far too complex for one sentence and for some very difficult to believe. To be fully honest, the burden of proof has been met, but ignorance of the proof is what keeps people in denial.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Skepticism is a …
Skepticism is a benefit to a scientist, but all science truly needs is a physical natural world to understand. For humans, all we have is this physical natural world, and we are limited to this.
Faith however is the belief in claims without the requierment for truth or evidence. This of course can bring humans to believe just about anything. Which is why faith claims take so many ambiguous, long winded and contradictory forms YET scientific claims are very concise and unanimous.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
im sorry, but that …
im sorry, but that kid has it right.
science requires skepticism. when that is taken away from the equation its not longer science, its propaganda.
religion requires faith, not proof. so the burden is on evolutionists to explain with proof how it began. not on us.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
The movie is ‘ …
The movie is ‘Inherit The Wind’, about the Scopes-Monkey Trial.
That little boy is a gifted orator, reminiscent of Hitler with his flares and gesticulation. Quite influential for such a young age.
Flat Eart, Young Earth, Hollow Earth, what next?
Ken Ham…what needs to be said about this dunderhead…not much.
Pat Robertson + Ben Stein in the same room could drive Jesus back up on the cross.
Btw, humans have 48 chromosomes as well, two pairs fused, giving us our ‘46′.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
It is painful to …
It is painful to listen to Ben Stein speak.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
That must be you.
…
That must be you.
That’s impossible for the rest of the humans. We have 46 chromossomes; the chimps have 48. Bananas (Musa genus) have less than 35 chromossomes (varies depending on the species).
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
whysers,
When I …
whysers,
When I studied Physics I learned how to calculate the positions of the planets, magnets and electron based on the Law of Universal Gravity. That’s needed to build computers, rockets and satellites, calculate when will happen the next eclipse, the positions of the planets at a determined time, if a car would fall on a curve, etc. That’s elementary on Physics.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
What movie is at …
What movie is at the beginning of this?
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Humans share about …
Humans share about 98 to 99 percent of their DNA with bananas too.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I want to put all …
I want to put all these people in shackles, because i do not like those who are not educated, who are not skeptics, who do not think and are servile. They wish to put me and my type(agnostic, though i would be labeled heretic, atheist, or a demon) in shackles as well, but they would say they have the power to shackle me or kill me because God gave them the power. That’s “righteousness”, but to me its schizophrenia. Either way both parties its wickedness and cruelty.. i’ll never do it, they may.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Newton’s law of …
Newton’s law of universal gravitation, or Einstein’s general relativity, you can pick one.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
agreed
agreed
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
so then you explain …
so then you explain then?
cleary you know since you critisize
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Sorry but I find it …
Sorry but I find it hard to believe that sad little kid that he even have any understanding of what evolution even is let alone wipe his at that age. It’s sad what his parents are forcing on him. Want to bet he’ll be atheist when he is older?
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Humans and …
Humans and chimpanzees share about 98 to 99 percent of their DNA.
The world is round we have rockets and satalites that have taken video and pictures.
Carbon dateing is spot on.
And hitler was super religious the swastica is a religious symbol!
Also WWII began because of the aftermath of WWI wich began because Franz Ferdinand was assassinated and everyone had secret treaties with everyone else.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Carl Sagan was a …
Carl Sagan was a genius!
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
“we don’t know how …
“we don’t know how the planets stay in their orbit”? WTF, I knew Ben was stupid, but god he’s a complete incompetent fool!!!
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
looks like you …
looks like you disagree.. so it shoudl be you who should prove your case
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
I sometimes think …
I sometimes think that humans accept lies, they accept them as a race. Maybe the foundation of civilisation is based on lies. Religion is a lie and people in power used this lie to tell other people(inferior class) what to do.Political ideology is very similar. Maybe it should just go this way. Maybe reason should give up to the bullshit so we’ll continue to build this fake civilisation on lies.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Excellent!!! ‘ …
Excellent!!! ‘Demon-Haunted World’ should be required reading in every high school in America.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Google- Richard …
Google- Richard Lenski E Coli
You will bee able to explore the research that demonstrates (in real time) the evolution of e coli to be able to ingest citrates. It requires three separate mutations, the first of which had no apparent use at all but mutated again to allow some ingestion, and again to allow the bacteria to flourish. Interesting to watch the ‘fake-science’ take place before our eyes.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
My Proof is your …
My Proof is your own eyeballs they actually change in seconds when there is light or no light.
Thats a muscle responce, not a mutation of the eye. The eye is simply adjusting itself based on the ambient light.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
You missed my point …
You missed my point, variations happen immediately and mutations happen randomly and consistently with every new offspring. Let this happen over a period of millions of years and you have evolution, organisms changing so much that they become different species alltogether. And no the possibility of humans or the universe being only 6000 years old is not possible by any means no matter what your ancient book says.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Yes and organisms …
Yes and organisms who do not develop such useful adaptations die as a result. This is called natural selection. Not every organism is perfectly adapted to it’s environment when it is born, that is why 99% of all species that ever walked the earth are now extinct. If dinosaurs were so perfectly sophisticated to fit the earth’s environment, where are they now? Why wasn’t the “designer” nice enough to let them spontaniously adapt to the changes in the environment which led to their extinction?
August 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Actually mutations …
Actually mutations are a result of DNA’s inability to duplicate itself and it’s millions of codes perfectly each time, and if it did then organisms would be cloning themselves everytime they mated. To think that this is the result of a magical being when DNA is perfectly capeable of duplicating itself with no evidence of a guided hand, then the burden of proof lies on YOU to prove this being’s existance and explain the methods it uses to achieve said actions.