Related:

• At the heart of science is an essential tension between two seemingly contradictory attitudes -- an openness to new idea
  o matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new....
• Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
  -- Carl Saga...
• Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
  -- Carl Sagan (1934- ) quoted in Time 20 Oct. 1980...
• 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....
• 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....
• Another writer again agreed with all my generalities, but said that as an inveterate skeptic I have closed my mind to the truth.
  Most notably I have ignored the evidence for an Earth that is six thousand years old....
• Originality does not mean thinking something that was never thought before
  it means putting old ideas together in new ways....
• The inability to benefit from feedback appears to be the primary cause of pseudoscience.
  Pseudoscientists retain their beliefs and ignore or distort contradictory evidence rather than modify or reject a flawed theory....
• If science were explained to the average person in a way that is accessible and exciting, there would be no room for pseudoscience.
  But there is a kind of Gresham's Law by which in popular culture the bad science drives out the good....