Carl Sagan

"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence"

This quote, widely attributed to Carl Sagan, speaks volumes regarding the overwhelming mysteries of our human existence: that if you are unaware of what you don't know, it is impossible to firmly declare a full understanding of the known world.

But on the flip side, in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Sagan "cites disturbing tendencies among most people to believe poorly supported ideas, and to fail to develop the faculty of critical thinking. He notes that polls indicate that large numbers of Americans believe that astrology is valid and that aliens in UFO's visit Earth regularly and abduct people. Students here, he tells us, are frighteningly ignorant of science. He discusses a psychic hoax set up by James Randi, which fooled large crowds and much of the news media in Australia before Randi revealed that he had set it up to test people's gullibility. He also gives accounts of horrible delusions of the past; his history of persecution of "witches" is brief but frightening. " (McGrath, Gary, 1999).

In an ironic juxtaposition, the above quote is also attributed to Donald Rumsfeld in his argument that there was no reason to conclude that there were no ties between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein just because evidence of these ties could not be established. Interesting how this notion can suddenly take on unexpected meaning...and startling implications. But does this make it less valid?