The dragon in my garage.
Offline This is an excerpt from Carl Sagan's book "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark."
I'm posting it because it does such a fantastic job of explaining the skeptical point of view.
The Dragon In My Garage
by
Carl Sagan"A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage"
Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!
"Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle--but no dragon.
"Where's the dragon?" you ask.
"Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon."
You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints.
"Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floats in the air."
Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.
"Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless."
You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.
"Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick."
And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work.
Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.
The only thing you've really learned from my insistence that there's a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You'd wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then, why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I've seriously underestimated human fallibility.
Imagine that, despite none of the tests being successful, you wish to be scrupulously open-minded. So you don't outright reject the notion that there's a fire-breathing dragon in my garage. You merely put it on hold. Present evidence is strongly against it, but if a new body of data emerge you're prepared to examine it and see if it convinces you. Surely it's unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative-- merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of "not proved."
Imagine that things had gone otherwise. The dragon is invisible, all right, but footprints are being made in the flour as you watch. Your infrared detector reads off-scale. The spray paint reveals a jagged crest bobbing in the air before you. No matter how skeptical you might have been about the existence of dragons--to say nothing about invisible ones--you must now acknowledge that there's something here, and that in a preliminary way it's consistent with an invisible, fire-breathing dragon.
Now another scenario: Suppose it's not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you're pretty sure don't know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages--but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we're disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I'd rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren't myths at all.
Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they're never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself. On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon's fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such "evidence" -- no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it -- is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future physical data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
- Login to post comments
Carl Sagan just doesn't understand the meaning of faith in dragons. If he would only give belief in dragons a try, he would find that he believed in dragons. Also, it's ridiculous to test for dragons since, in my personal opinion, the dragon legends and therefore the existence of dragons are axiomatic.
*edit*
Woah! In the time it took me to make this post, your one hot avatar changed into an even hotter avatar of anime lesbians making out!
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
I came
alrighty then, enough derail
Carl Sagan was the wisest man who ever lived.
The fact that life and this universe exists is proof that the dragon in my garage exists or else how did we and the universe get here? You have no answer for that - do you? Dragon belief does. I have no "article" or "study" that provides "evidence" because I don't need one. Common sense and logic tells us that the dragon in my garage created the universe. I pity "devout atheists" because they have eyes but can't see. They are blind. You believe that there is no such thing as a dragon in my garage but your whole life revolves around denying the dragon.
You spend all your time creating websites that deny dragon creation, writing articles denying dragon creation, blaspheming the dragon in my garage. You may spend the time saying and writing that He doesn't exist but, nevertheless, your whole life is consumed by your denial of the dragon in my garage. How ironic.
The dragon in your garage does not exist because only the dragon in my garage exists. That’s why I do not bother talking or writing about the dragon in your garage. What for? It is obvious that he doesn't exist. I know the dragon in my garage exists so this is why I talk to Him, pray to Him, talk about Him, contemplate His word, discuss Him with others, love him, feel his love for me and I have a personal relationship with him. That is why he lives in my heart.
I suspect the reason you spend all your time trying to refute the dragon in my garage and not other imaginary beings is for the same reason. Deep inside, you know that the dragon in my garage really exists. You just don't like it. Or else you would spend equal amount of time persecuting believers of other imaginary beings. But you don't. It is almost exclusively attacks against the dragon in my garage.
when you say "faith" I think "evil lies"
when you say "god" I think "santa clause"
Hehehe. You guys are good.
Boy I sure hope this thread gets read and understood by a few theists.
LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!! LALALALA
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
If someone told me they had a fire-breathing dragon in their garage that I couldn't see, hear, smell, touch, or detect in any other way, then I would probably reply with: "So, what good is that?"
ciarin.com
I've made that point many a time. If something is impervious to detection and has no effect on anything, it might as well not exist.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
The dragon in my garage is incidentally very similar to the dragon once played by Sean Connery. (The only difference being that mine is real.) My dragon and I share a heart, though we have very different minds. My dragon is an immortal creature that can only die if slain, and since we share a heart, I will live as long as my dragon lives, and I will defend him my every waking moment. You can clearly see how important and meaningful my dragon is to me. He loves me so much that he sacrificed a bit of himself so that I might have eternal life. And I'll be damned if I'm just going to stand around and listen to you talk shit about him and dishonor him by saying that he doesn't even exist! Try to ridicule me all you like. Try to show me all your precious "evidence" that supposedly "proves" my dragon isn't there, and I'll just laugh at you. My dragon is a part of me, so I have evidence that you will never have access to, and it is the best evidence of all.
I SAID GOOD DAY, SIR!!!
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
I liked the story and shared it with some of my friends. Thanks for posting it. If there is any other part of that book you think makes reasonable contridictions of religion please post it. I'm interested.
I strongly recommend buying it (or checking it out of your local library) it's a marvelous look at the scientific method.
I won't be posting any more excerpts, because I think I've pushed the fair use envelope too much already. =o.0=
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Maybe, if the dragon posed a problem, Sagan should have moved to a new house and let the dragon in the garage be someone else's problem.
"With its enduring appeal to the search for truth, philosophy has the great responsibility of forming thought and culture; and now it must strive resolutely to recover its original vocation." Pope John Paul II
I prefer the pink elephants to dragons. At least I have a frame of reference as to what a pink elephant would look like since elephants exist.
Tip back a few beers, and I guarantee you'll see pink elephants, a sailboat, an ocean and maybe some of those big-titted mermaids doing some of that lesbian shit!
dragons exist too btw.
ciarin.com
Mr. Bearded Dragon says...
"I declare! My dear, I do not breathe fire nor do I eat small children, though I might frighten them at times in pet stores!"
Mr. Komodo agrees.
ciarin.com
Sean Connery does not.
ORLY?
ciarin.com
Yes, really.
touche
You have to believe in order to fly
Wow. I had NO idea this skeleton lived in Sean's closet! Is this from a movie or a weird party?
Definitely NOT sexy....though I would like the boots for mySELF! Yaarrrrgh.
It is really bizzare, but incredibly entertaining.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
Actually, that one is pretty easy. There are no such thing as dragons. The whole universe was made by cats. Here is how this works:
Many billions of years ago, cats decided that they felt like having can opener slaves and that pretty much needed them to make a thing that they chose to call a universe. So they got together in various working committees to hammer out the details and what they came up with required four dimensions to be modified from the available 33 dimensions that they had to work with (string theorists take note, you guys are not as strange as cats, so you can just stop now).
After doing that and causing the big bang, which was not the invisible paw of fluff BTW but really a Siamese fart (Those who have been owned by a Siamese know exactly what that is about), they sat back and let the thing cook for a few billion years.
About 25 MYA, conditions were finally right and they began to interact with the universe, right when the first feilidae fossils show up. At that point, they began to have an active role in our evolution. At that point, our distant ancestors were actually quite rodent like and had yet to take to the trees. The whole point was that moving into the trees was a way to avoid predation and thus we were encouraged by our feline masters to develop arms to hold them with.
Then, somewhere about 10 MYA, we came down from the trees only to find that our feline masters were still around and still had plans for us. Those of us who could only walk on all fours could not out run them and thus were eaten far more than those who could stand upright and run away. Thus was born the invention of the shoulder on which cats can be held. Also, arms came about in a proper fashion at the same time, thus providing a place for kittens to sleep.
Eventually, we were forced to use tools to deal with our environment (again, because cats wished us to) and we started hunting for ourselves. Tools lead to agriculture. Agriculture leads to civilization. Civilization leads to canned cat food.
So here we are today. We exist to open can for our feline masters and we are bound and determined to hold and pet them. All because this is what cats decided we ought to be doing.
=
So, I guess it must be so.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
The dragon that lives in my garage is the one true garage dragon!
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace
OK but what color is it?
=
"I've yet to witness circumstance successfully manipulated through the babbling of ritualistic nonsense to an imaginary deity." -- me (josh)
If god can do anything, can he make a hot dog so big even he can't eat all of it?
You stay the Hell outta my garage! The one true Garage Dragon speaks through me alone! ...oh, and I'll be passing around the collection plate...
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace
"I've yet to witness circumstance successfully manipulated through the babbling of ritualistic nonsense to an imaginary deity." -- me (josh)
If god can do anything, can he make a hot dog so big even he can't eat all of it?
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace
"I've yet to witness circumstance successfully manipulated through the babbling of ritualistic nonsense to an imaginary deity." -- me (josh)
If god can do anything, can he make a hot dog so big even he can't eat all of it?
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace