The Dragon In My Garage by Carl Sagan

[Ichingcarpenter]

The following is an excerpt from "The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In the Dark" by Carl Sagan, a Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author.




"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage."

Suppose I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!

"Show me", you say, and I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle - but no dragon

"Where's the dragon", you ask.

"Oh, she's right here", I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon".

You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints. "Good idea", I say, "but this dragon floats in the air". Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. "Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless", I say. You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. "Good idea, except she's an incorporeal (bodyless) dragon and the paint won't stick!"

And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.

Now what is the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? You're inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.

More of the parable: http://www.godlessgeeks.com/LINKS/Dragon.htm

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Kind of like "memes"

--p!

[BlueJazz]

2. God Made imperfect Humans and then Sends them to Hell 'cause He builds them wrong.

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[Lint Head]

3. Would God not have made us perfect from the beginning?

If that were true we would all be experiencing eternal bliss right now and forever.
God wouldn't have to create us because we would have always existed in this eternal bliss that has no beginning or end.

[BlueJazz]

4. I could do Eternal Bliss