Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

The Marriage of Scepticism and Wonder
declare the origin of matter or human behaviour off-limits?
Because its explanatory power is so great, once you get the hang
of scientific reasoning you're eager to apply it everywhere.
However, in the course of looking deeply within ourselves, we
may challenge notions that give comfort before the terrors of the
world. I'm aware that some of the discussion in, say, the preceding
chapter may have such a character.
When anthropologists survey the thousands of distinct cultures
and ethnicities that comprise the human family, they are
struck by how few features there are that are givens, always
present no matter how exotic the society. There are, for
example, cultures - the Ik of Uganda is one - where all Ten
Commandments seem to be systematically, institutionally
ignored. There are societies that abandon their old and their
newborn, that eat their enemies, that use seashells or pigs or
young women for money. But they all have a strong incest
taboo, they all use technology, and almost all believe in a
supernatural world of gods and spirits, often connected with the
natural environment they inhabit and the well-being of the
plants and animals they eat. (The ones with a supreme god who
lives in the sky tend to be the most ferocious - torturing their
enemies for example. But this is a statistical correlation only;
the causal link has not been established, although speculations
naturally present themselves.)
In every such society, there is a cherished world of myth and
metaphor which co-exists with the workaday world. Efforts to
reconcile the two are made, and any rough edges at the joints tend
to be off-limits and ignored. We compartmentalize. Some scientists
do this too, effortlessly stepping between the sceptical world
of science and the credulous world of religious belief without
skipping a beat. Of course, the greater the mismatch between
these two worlds, the more difficult it is to be comfortable, with
untroubled conscience, with both.
In a life short and uncertain, it seems heartless to do anything
that might deprive people of the consolation of faith when science
cannot remedy their anguish. Those who cannot bear the burden
of science are free to ignore its precepts. But we cannot have
science in bits and pieces, applying it where we feel safe and
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