Carl Sagan. The demon haunted world. Headline Book Publishing. 1996.

Chapter 2.

The dumbing down of America is

most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the
enormously influential media.

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 – ABOUT PSEUDOSCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION.

Scientists
hardly believe their knowledge of Nature to be
complete.

The scientific way of thinking is at once imaginative and

disciplined.

'Mistrust arguments
from authority'.

its findings may

not in all cases be immediately comprehensible or satisfying. ON SCIENCE.

In its encounter with Nature, science invariably elicits a sense of

reverence and awe.

The cumulative worldwide build-up of

knowledge over time converts science into something only a little
short of a trans-national, trans-generational meta-mind.

When we
grasp the intricacy, beauty and subtlety of life, then that soaring
feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely
spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music
or literature, or of acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those
of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr.

Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic

accuracy and reliability of science?

We insist on
independent and - to the extent possible - quantitative verification
of proposed tenets of belief: ENCOURAGING HERESY.

This is one of the reasons that the organized religions do not

inspire me with confidence. ABOUT THE LACK OF AUTOCRITIC IN RELIGION.
Chapter 3.

Each field of science has its own complement of pseudoscience.

Pseudoscientific doctrines, they

share the possibility that human perceptual and cognitive imperfections
play a role in deceiving us on matters of great import.

Dramatist and surrealist

theoretician Antonin Artaud under the influence
of peyote, saw in the patterns on the outsides of rocks erotic
images, a man being tortured, ferocious animals and the like.

Scientists tend to be effervescent and uncontainable. They

have an indomitable compulsion to share new data. Only through
prior agreement, not ex post facto, do scientists abide military
secrecy. I reject the notion that science is by its nature secretive.
Its culture and ethos are, and for very good reason, collective,
collaborative and communicative.

This
kind of hypothesis is falsifiable, a property that brings it well into
the scientific arena.

Scepticism must be a component of the explorer's toolkit, or we

will lose our way.

Chapter 7. The Demon Haunted World.

Buenísimo capítulo.

Chapter 8. On the Distinction between

True and False Visions.

The answer depends very much on my environment, friends,

loved ones and culture. (About sobrenatural things).

Hypnosis is an unreliable way to

refresh memory.

Memory can be
Contaminated.

It is not hard to imagine serious public dangers

emerging out of instances in which political, military, scientific or religious leaders are unable to distinguish
fact from vivid
fiction.

These facts are relevant in evaluating the societal effects of

advertising and of national propaganda.

Parallels between Marian apparitions and

alien abductions.

The content of the communication is, despite its

purported celestial origin, mundane.

Chapter 9. Therapy.

Chapter 10. The Dragon in My Garage.

An so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a

special explanation of why it won't work.
Now, what's 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? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at
all the same thing as proving it true.

Chapter 11. The City of Grief.

Chapter 12. The Fine Art of Baloney Detection.

Cita de Francis Bacon.

Chapter 13. Obsessed with Reality.

Chapter 14. Antiscience.

Some
of the habits of our age will doubtless be considered barbaric by
later generations. keeping pets; or eating
animals and jailing chimpanzees; or criminalizing the use of
euphoriants by adults.

Chapter 15. Newton´s Sleep.

Chapter 16. When Scientists Know Sin.

Chapter 17. The Marriage of Scepticism

and Wonder.