NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 9, 1996--Noted astronomer Carl
Sagan believes America's diminished education system makes it "much
easier for a political or religious charlatan to sell a bill of
goods."
Sagan says in the current (September) issue of New Choices:
Living Even Better After 50, "There's something quintessentially
democratic about skepticism because it requires that citizens make
their own judgements. And there's something quintessentially
scientific about it because arguments from authority are anathema in
science; `authorities' make mistakes, too. One mistake is the
stripping down of our educational system and the mediocre
intellectual attainments expected of students. We're creating
credulous citizens to whom it's much easier for a political or
religious charlatan to sell a bill of goods."
Sagan cites "a huge number of television offerings about the
supernatural and paranormal that introduce hardly any tough
questions. They don't present an equal number of skeptics to balance
the believers in their presentations. The executives at the networks are
thinking only about ratings points and profits, and I think this is
irresponsible given the enormous influence of television. And what
about publishers who publish books on these subjects without
including any serious qualifications? And newspapers that don't
even preface their astrology columns with a warning such as `for
entertainment only?' These people are all promulgating
pseudoscience."
CONTACT:
Greene Inc., New York
Howard Greene, 516/825-0400
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