Carl Sagan

"There is (today in the West) . . . a resurgent interest in vague, anecdotal and often demonstrably erroneous doctrines that, if true, would betoken at least a more interesting universe, but that, if false, imply an intellectual carelessness, an absence of toughmindedness, and a diversion of energies not very promising for our survival.

"(such as)...astrology, the Bermuda Triangle "mystery", flying saucer accounts, pyramidology, Scientology, Kirlian photography, psychic surgery, flat and hollow earths, prophacy, astral projection, Velikovskian catasrophism, Atlantis and Mu, spiritualism ..."

"It may be that there are kernals of truth in a few of these doctrines, but their widespread acceptance betokens a lack of intellectual rigor, a need to replace experiments by desires. . . . They are mystical and occult doctrines, devised in such a way that they are not subject to disproof and characteristically impervious to rational discussion."

The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence (1977)