“The Fine Art of Baloney Detection” by Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan writer of the post, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection”, ponders on the notion of a supernatural reunion. Carl Sagan says that he can feel this connection he has with his deceased parents as if they are still with him and not dead. The a single point we say as the overpowering realization is attempting to cope with one’s death especially loved ones. We, humans, make this mistake of not admitting we lost someone or that someone is gone and will not come back to us.

To emphasize a lot more on his point, he tends to make Sagan introduces other scholar writers that share their point of view. Sagan in his post doesn’t willingly think in mediums who claim to channel the spirits of the deceased. He is aware the practice is complete of fraudulent mediums who prey on people wanting to think their loved ones will speak to them from the afterlife. He makes use of an example of another scholar named, J. C. Knight, who supposedly channels a 35,000-year-old person named Rathma. He does not think any individual other than what Knight is speaking since he thinks knight should speaking the truth. His argument is that if we have been actually speaking with the deceased, why wouldn’t they give us verifiable data? For example, why does not Alexander the Great tell us the place of his tomb? John Wilkes Booth tell us about the Lincoln assassination conspiracy? He feels folks want to think the mediums simply because it would imply there is life soon after death, or life eternal.

The British scientist, J. B. S. Haldane, proposed a type of eternal life referred to as the “Consolation of Haldane” (pg two). He imagined far into the future when the stars go dark and space is filled with a thin, cold gas that more than a lengthy period of time will fluctuate in density. More than “immense periods of time” the fluctuations will rebuild a universe a lot like our personal (Haldane, pg2). If the Universe is infinitely old, there will be an infinite quantity of reconstitutions. This would imply there would be an infinite quantity of appearances of stars, planets, galaxies, and life, so an identical Earth must reappear on which we, and our deceased loved ones, will be reunited (Haldane, pg2). Sagan said if this were to come about, he would be able to see his parents once more over and more than but he feels it’s not as comforting as religion. But if we do not keep in mind our last life, how can we keep in mind this life the next time? Sagan tells the reader that his parents are deceased and he wants to believe they are in some way still in existence, somewhere. He wonders how they are and sometimes dreams that they are still alive only to wake and grieve for their deaths once more. He understands why somebody would check out they’re departed at a cemetery and speak with them as if they were there.

Over a third of Americans really feel they have contacted the deceased on some level. He states that scientists are given a “baloney detection kit” during coaching. If the new idea passes the baloney tests in the kit, it could be accepted, but not as a forever definite idea. Some of the tools are Independent confirmation of the facts. Encourage debate by knowledgeable proponents of the concept, don’t take the opinion of “authorities.” They may possibly not be authorities and even specialists can be wrong. Come up with a lot more than just 1 hypothesis because yours may be disproven or become stronger. Don’t get attached to a hypothesis due to the fact it is yours. Disprove it if you can simply because others will. Quantify what you can so it has a measure to evaluate & contrast to other hypotheses. If good evidence for life after death was presented, Sagan would be eager to examine it but it would have to be actual scientific information, not data presented from a individual account or experience. Sagan tells us to think skeptically when we encounter data and not often what’s in front of your or the study behind it because occasionally sit can be fraud.