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Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

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THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD<br />

those who make them up from scratch, bypassing any formal<br />

sceptical scrutiny, and available at low cost in every supermarket,<br />

grocery store and convenience outlet in the land. One of the<br />

pretences of the tabloids is to make science, the very instrument of<br />

our disbelief, confirm our ancient faiths and effect a convergence<br />

of pseudoscience and pseudoreligion.<br />

By and large, scientists' minds are open when exploring new<br />

worlds. If we knew beforehand what we'd find, it would be<br />

unnecessary to go. In future missions to Mars or to the other<br />

fascinating worlds in our neck of the cosmic woods, surprises -<br />

even some of mythic proportions - are possible, maybe even<br />

likely. But we humans have a talent for deceiving ourselves.<br />

Scepticism must be a component of the explorer's toolkit, or we<br />

will lose our way. There are wonders enough out there without<br />

our inventing any.<br />

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