Via The Marginalian: "The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking"

Maria Popova, creative genius behind "the marginalian" (previously "brain pickings") writes:

Carl Sagan (November 9, 1934–December 20, 1996) was many things — a cosmic sage, voracious reader, hopeless romantic, and brilliant philosopher. But above all, he endures as our era’s greatest patron saint of reason and critical thinking, a master of the vital balance between skepticism and openness. In The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (public library) — the same indispensable volume that gave us Sagan’s timeless meditation on science and spirituality, published mere months before his death in 1996 — Sagan shares his secret to upholding the rites of reason, even in the face of society’s most shameless untruths and outrageous propaganda.

In a chapter titled “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan reflects on the many types of deception to which we’re susceptible — from psychics to religious zealotry to paid product endorsements by scientists, which he held in especially low regard, noting that they “betray contempt for the intelligence of their customers” and “introduce an insidious corruption of popular attitudes about scientific objectivity."

Continue reading about Carl Sagan's rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking ->  https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/01/03/baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan/

The Baloney Detection Kit: Carl Sagan’s Rules for Bullshit-Busting and Critical Thinking

This will also be referenced in the 2-session class scheduled for the Senior Center (and virtual) on how to detect misinformation online ->    https://www.franklinmatters.org/2022/07/how-to-spot-misinformation-online-2.html