In a previous blog entry, I paraphrased Ann Druyan. Her quote appeared in Carl Sagan’s book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995). The book is well-worth the read, and I’m only just now getting to it. Sigh. Consider this quote:

As an example of skeptical thinking, Sagan offers a story concerning a fire-breathing dragon who lives in his garage. When he persuades a rational, open-minded visitor to meet the dragon, the visitor remarks that they are unable to see the creature. Sagan replies that he “neglected to mention that she’s an invisible dragon”. The visitor suggests spreading flour on the floor so that the creature’s footprints might be seen, which Sagan says is a good idea, “but this dragon floats in the air”. When the visitor considers using an infrared camera to view the creature’s invisible fire, Sagan explains that her fire is heatless. He continues to counter every proposed physical test with a reason why the test will not work.

Sagan concludes by asking: “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.” (as quoted here)

The story reminds me of Edward Hays’ St. George and the Quest for the Holy Grail, which I quote in my blog entry, Why Blog?. Funny enough, the stories don’t cancel each other out in any way. That’s a lesson.

Back to Ann’s Quote

Anyways, I ran across AZquotes’ rendition of Ann Druyan’s words. It wasn’t the quote I was looking for. Stumbling across it was like stubbing my toe on something in the dark while looking for something else (I just did that last month, broke part of my toenail off and immediately decided to clean the closet in the wee hours of the morning).

How do you fill the void when all the fantasies and illusions are gone?

“Do something meaningful,” says Carl Sagan.

Yeah, that’s a tough one, huh? And, oddly comforting.