UPDATED: The Fine Art of Bamboozle Detection by Carl Sagan

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this:

If we’ve been bamboozled long enough,

we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle.

We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth.

The bamboozle has captured us.

It’s simply too painful to acknowledge,

even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken.

Once you give a charlatan power over you,

you almost never get it back.”

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark



Finding the occasional straw of truth
awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle
requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication, and courage.
But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought,
we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us
--- and we risk becoming a nation of suckers,
up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark


“At the heart of science is an essential balance 

between two seemingly contradictory attitudes

--an openness to new ideas, 

no matter how bizarre

or counter intuitive they may be,

and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny 

of all ideas, old and new.

This is how deep truths are winnowed 

from deep nonsense.”

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Of course, scientists make mistakes
in trying to understand the world,
but there is a built-in error-correcting mechanism:
The collective enterprise
of creative thinking and skeptical thinking together
keeps the field on track.
Carl Sagan, "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection," 
Parade, February 1, 1987