by NADEEM F. PARACHA
In his book The Demon-Haunted World, the renowned scientist late Carl Sagan wrote that many people go out of their way to forestall any intellectual/rational inquiry into magical/supernatural claims. Sagan explained this nature of forestalling through an allegorical example.
Imagine if a person claims that there were a fire-breathing dragon in his garage. When a visitor asks him to show the dragon, he is taken to the garage. But when the visitor sees nothing, he is told that the dragon is actually invisible.
The visitor suggests throwing flour on the floor so they can see the invisible dragon’s footsteps. The response to this is that the dragon actually floats in the air and his feet rarely touch the ground. When the visitor suggests using an infrared camera to see the dragon’s invisible fire, he is told that the creature’s fire was heatless and hence would be invisible to an infrared camera.
The visitor then suggests spray-painting the dragon so he would become visible. The response to this is that the dragon was incorporeal and the paint won’t stick.
Sagan wrote that, on many occasions, no matter how sincerely one tries to test a claim through scientific means, the ones making fantastical claims go to any length to ‘prove’ that the claims are untestable and simply need to be accepted as true.
Often, well-meaning folk advise that, instead of outrightly rejecting claims and theories that look or sound incredibly implausible or even utter rubbish, they should be discussed with those making them. But what if the claim-makers are simply interested in deflecting your queries through more fibs?
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