If science were explained to the average person in a way that is accessible
and exciting, there would be no room for pseudoscience. But there is a kind
of Gresham's Law by which in popular culture the bad science drives out the
good. And for this I think we have to blame, first, the scientific community
ourselves for not doing a better job of popularizing science, and second, the
media, which are in this respect almost uniformly dreadful. Every newspaper
in America has a daily astrology column. How many have even a weekly
astronomy column? And I believe it is also the fault of the educational
system. We do not teach how to think. This is a very serious failure that
may even, in a world rigged with 60,000 nuclear weapons, compromise the human
future.
-- Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer,
-- Vol. 12, Fall 87
and exciting, there would be no room for pseudoscience. But there is a kind
of Gresham's Law by which in popular culture the bad science drives out the
good. And for this I think we have to blame, first, the scientific community
ourselves for not doing a better job of popularizing science, and second, the
media, which are in this respect almost uniformly dreadful. Every newspaper
in America has a daily astrology column. How many have even a weekly
astronomy column? And I believe it is also the fault of the educational
system. We do not teach how to think. This is a very serious failure that
may even, in a world rigged with 60,000 nuclear weapons, compromise the human
future.
-- Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer,
-- Vol. 12, Fall 87
Related:
- I believe that part of what propels science is the thirst for wonder.
It's a very powerful emotion. All children feel it... - I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience.
And in addition, to whatever measure this term has... - I'm often asked the question, "Do you think there is extraterrestrial
intelligence?" I give the standard arguments -
there are a lot of places out there, and use the word... - Another writer again agreed with all my generalities,
but said that as an inveterate skeptic I have closed... - A serious public debate about the validity of astrology?
A serious believer in the White House? Two of them... - Open Source Irrational Constant
BREEZEWOOD, PA -- In a revelation that could rock the foundations of
science,
a researcher in Pennsylvania has discovered that the... - saga n.
[WPI] A cuspy but bogus raving story about N
random broken people.
Here is a classic example of the saga form, as told... - bug n.
An unwanted and unintended property of a program or
piece of hardware,
esp. one that causes it to malfunction. Antonym... - David Brinkley: The daily astrological charts are precisely where,
in my judgment, they belong, and that is on the comic...
From the same category:
- Old MacDonald had an agricultural real estate tax
abatement... - SMILEY
8-)
wide-eyed... - In Illinois, to cut hair requires a license for which the holder must
qualify by months of expensive study.
That same person can walk and and plunk down a few... - IOWA -
Idiots Out Wandering... - You can depend on nothing,
you see...
