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

The Marriage of Scepticism and Wonder
'openness' or 'wonder' - does not come easily either. If we really
are to be open to counterintuitive ideas in physics or social
organization or anything else, we must grasp those ideas. It means
nothing to be open to a proposition we don't understand.
Both scepticism and wonder are skills that need honing and
practice. Their harmonious marriage within the mind of every
schoolchild ought to be a principal goal of public education. I'd
love to see such a domestic felicity portrayed in the media,
television especially: a community of people really working the
mix - full of wonder, generously open to every notion, dismissing
nothing except for good reason, but at the same time, and as
second nature, demanding stringent standards of evidence; and
these standards applied with at least as much rigour to what they
hold dear as to what they are tempted to reject with impunity.
289