Sagan On Skepticism

I don't like cults, and the Sagan cult is especially obnoxious to me. His "pale blue dot" in an ocean of empty is especially annoying, because, contra Sagan himself, it is a cloying emotional saccharinity, an irrelevant so-what, an embarrassment for a science statement. And I have other issues with Sagan, but I came across this statement he made and it is one I wish I had had handy in a recent email conversation I had:

""If you're only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything. You become a crotchety misanthrope convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) Since major discoveries at the borderlines of science are rare, experiences will tend to confirm your grumpiness. But every now and then a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you're too resolutely and uncompromisingly skeptical, you're going to miss (or resent) the transforming discoveries in science, and either way, you will be obstructing understanding and progress. Mere skepticism is not enough.""

These days skepticism has had its definition changed into the radical form, that in which one merely asserts, "I will never be convinced and you are a fool to try".

The old definition of skepticism will have to be applied to other words that have not become cult names, possibly "cautious", or "in doubt", or "questioning". In fact, for issues of scientific inquiry, only such words should ever come up, since actual scientists know the contingent nature of science. And that is what Sagan has said.