Often repeated in lecture, Sagan says: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence [however,] extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (Noll, 2018). The paranormal lends itself to having wild claims—witches, talking to dead people, possessions, ectoplasm coming out of people’s bodies—but there is often very little objective proof to support these claims. Sagan’s baloney detection kit (Sagan, 2013) discredits many of the claims made. The authority over these claims are the people claiming that they have these extraordinary experiences and hold a bias that they want to convince their audience of the same. Therefore, eyewitness testimony being examined through Sagan’s detection kit would not hold up because people don’t want to be told that their memories are wrong and become attached to the “I know what I saw”
Often repeated in lecture, Sagan says: “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence [however,] extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (Noll, 2018). The paranormal lends itself to having wild claims—witches, talking to dead people, possessions, ectoplasm coming out of people’s bodies—but there is often very little objective proof to support these claims. Sagan’s baloney detection kit (Sagan, 2013) discredits many of the claims made. The authority over these claims are the people claiming that they have these extraordinary experiences and hold a bias that they want to convince their audience of the same. Therefore, eyewitness testimony being examined through Sagan’s detection kit would not hold up because people don’t want to be told that their memories are wrong and become attached to the “I know what I saw”