CARL SAGAN: AMERICA'S DIMINISHED EDUCATION SYSTEM MAKES US VULNERABLE TO...

September 9, 1996
Source: Business Wire
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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