The Dragon in My Garage by Carl Sagan, an overview as it appears on Rational Wiki: A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage Suppose (Im following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely youd 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. Wheres the dragon? you ask. Oh, shes right here, I reply, waving vaguely. I neglected to mention that shes an invisible dragon. You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragons footprints. Good idea, I say, but this dragon floats in the air. Then youll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless. Youll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. Good idea, but shes an incorporeal dragon and the paint wont stick. And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it wont work. Now, whats the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If theres 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 Im asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 22:31:58 +0000