"Extraordinary evidence" vs. "extraordinary proof"
Thanks for pointing this out. It took some digging because I actually found both quotes attributed to Sagan in multiple places, so my initial fact checking didn't turn up any problems. For the purpose of this blog post, proof and evidence are interchangeable, so it didn't significantly change the meaning IMO. However, I edited the post with this correction:
A forum member recently shared the Carl Sagan quote, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Sagan is credited with popularizing that slight rephrasing of an older quote by Marcello Truzzi: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."
Really this article aims to point out the difference between objective evidence (or proof) vs. subjective creation. You can never be sure what effect your thoughts are having on reality, since there's no way to subjectively prove that anything exists beyond your consciousness. So the assumption that reality is objective may in fact be a creative choice rather than an evidential observation -- hence the reason I disagree with Sagan & Truzzi and choose to come at this from the experiential/creative side instead. The only way to know which approach is more accurate is to try deliberately creating with your thoughts to see what effect they have. Once you go that route (and really start becoming congruent with it), it's a pretty wild ride.
