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The Dragon In My Garage
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 7:42am |
 Coolness: 686500 | The Dragon In My Garage
by Carl Sagan "A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage" Suppose (I'm following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you'd want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity! "Show me," you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle--but no dragon. "Where's the dragon?" you ask. "Oh, she's right here," I reply, waving vaguely. "I neglected to mention that she's an invisible dragon." You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon's footprints. "Good idea," I say, "but this dragon floates in the air." Then you'll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. "Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless." You'll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. "Good idea, but she's an incorporeal dragon and the paint won't stick." And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won't work. Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there's no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so. The only thing you've really learned from my insistence that there's a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You'd wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then, why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I've seriously underestimated human fallibility. Imagine that, despite none of the tests being successful, you wish to be scrupulously open-minded. So you don't outright reject the notion that there's a fire-breathing dragon in my garage. You merely put it on hold. Present evidence is strongly against it, but if a new body of data emerge you're prepared to examine it and see if it convinces you. Surely it's unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative-- merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of "not proved." Imagine that things had gone otherwise. The dragon is invisible, all right, but footprints are being made in the flour as you watch. Your infrared detector reads off-scale. The spray paint reveals a jagged crest bobbing in the air before you. No matter how skeptical you might have been about the existence of dragons--to say nothing about invisible ones--you must now acknowledge that there's something here, and that in a preliminary way it's consistent with an invisible, fire-breathing dragon. Now another scenario: Suppose it's not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you're pretty sure don't know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages--but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we're disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I'd rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren't myths at all. Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they're never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself. On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon's fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such "evidence"--no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it--is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future physical data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Okashii_Kodomo replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 1:35pm |
 Coolness: 42575 | too long....i stopped reading after the third word!  |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» australia2001 replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 1:58pm |
| Coolness: 44065 | Oh yeah I read that book, it's great. This is his indirect way of saying that there is no god. This guy is fab. If I were gay, I would be in love with him. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Okashii_Kodomo replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 2:07pm |
| Coolness: 42575 | :lol |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Lady replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 2:12pm |
 Coolness: 183440 | i want a dragon! |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» kitkat replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 2:13pm |
 Coolness: 72160 | check yr garage
actually dont...its invisible and immaterial |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» toebee replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 2:22pm |
 Coolness: 87975 | That was really quite interesting...
The part I dont get is why would the dragon's foot prints SUDDENLY be marked in flower? And why would the fire SUDDENLY be uhhh hot? |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» kitkat replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 2:23pm |
| Coolness: 72160 | i guess the dragon could decide to stop floating for a lil while for some reason?
but yeah...youd expect it to b consistent with itself... |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» toebee replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 2:29pm |
| Coolness: 87975 | meh I guess its just part of his theory or whatever |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Lady replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 2:32pm |
| Coolness: 183440 | i still want one~! |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 5:27pm |
| Coolness: 686500 | Read the last paragraph again, it explains why the dragon "suddenly" starts making footprints.
I have a dragon in my garage! See! Well, actually, the GARAGE is invisible and incorporeal, too.... |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» mth replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 5:30pm |
| Coolness: 40980 | Invisible garages.. sounds like fun to me! |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Phoenix replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 6:02pm |
 Coolness: 82600 | I have to agree with anubis on this one. This story does nothing but act as an analogy to the everyday belief by many (myself not included) that god exists despite its invisible, untouchable nature. It has no smell, no taste and makes no sound. As an agnostic i dont consider the theory of god and/or a higher power to be imposible since the theories have yet to be totally disproven however i find it ironic that such a reply would be made by someone who goes by the name Anubis who was in his own a fictional perception of (a) god. Nephthys gave birth to a son called Anpu, or Anubis, and that his father was, according to some, Set; from another point of view he was the son of Ra. The animal which was at once the type and symbol of the god was the jackal, and this fact seems to prove that in primitive times Anubis was merely the jackal god, and that he was associated with the dead because the jackal was generally seen prowling about the tombs. His worship is very ancient, and there is no doubt that even the earliest times his cult was general in Egypt; it is probable that it is older than that of Osiris.
-the phoenix also plays a role in egyptian mythology in relation to Ra (the sun god)so i guess Anubis & I have something else in common aside from our opinion in reponse to the dragon in your garage. (and in case you noticed jesus to the left... he simply represents my admiration towards the concept of reincarnation). In the mythology of Heliopolis, the Phoenix (benu) is the lord of jubilees or of long cycles of time. The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, Her ashes new-create another heir, As great in admiration as herself. -Shakespeare, King Henry VIII 5.5 |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 6:06pm |
| Coolness: 686500 | (and in case you noticed jesus to the left... he simply represents my admiration towards the concept of reincarnation). In the mythology of Heliopolis, the Phoenix (benu) is the lord of jubilees or of long cycles of time. Nahh man, it's 'cause you LOOK like jesus! :) |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» screw_you replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 6:19pm |
 Coolness: 77950 | god saves |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Phoenix replied on Sun Aug 10, 2003 @ 6:21pm |
| Coolness: 82600 | I've been a symbol of reincarnation way before i grew my hair.
-Born like a phoenix from the flame, but neither bulk nor shape the same. |
The Dragon In My Garage
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