Sagan was denied tenure at Harvard for being, according to Zabel, a little too “out there.” But today, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb openly discusses his thoughts on ETs and UFOs in popular science venues. And, in what sounds like a helpful move, NASA is seeking standards for ET life claims, rather than just denying or avoiding them altogether.
Tag: Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan: Did he pack “3 lies into 12 words”?
Art Battson: Apparently, nobody told him that either the Cosmos or its Creator has always existed and it’s not the Cosmos. Given the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics alone, he should have been well aware of that fact.
Jonathan McLatchie: What about Carl Sagan’s claim about “extraordinary evidence?”
McLatchie: The problem with the word “extraordinary” here is that it is rarely clearly defined. The mantra that I would adopt instead is that all claims require sufficient evidence.
Was Sagan wrong about “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence”? UPDATED!
Deming: Claims that are merely novel or those which violate human consensus are not properly characterized as extraordinary. Science does not contemplate two types of evidence. The misuse of ECREE to suppress innovation and maintain orthodoxy should be avoided as it must inevitably retard the scientific goal of establishing reliable knowledge.
Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos and “the artistic license to lie”
One thing readers may not know is that, in a series that leaned heavily on the supposed conflict between religion and science, obvious and widely noted misrepresentations were excused in the service of a “greater truth”