Wrestling with Religion

In The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1997), Carl Sagan imagines that he has offered to show me a fire-breathing dragon in his garage, and, when I get there, I see only "a ladder, empty paint cans, and an old tricycle." He'd neglected, it seems, to mention that the dragon is invisible. This thought experiment imagines my proposing a series of ways to detect the dragon. They are good ideas, he imagines replying, but unfortunately won't work. Flour on the floor won't because dragons levitate, infrared won't because dragon fire is heatless, and spray paint won't because dragons are incorporeal. If Sagan insists on countering every test I propose with an evasive redefinition, it's clearly silly for him to then shift the burden of proof onto me and suggest that, since I can't prove the dragon is absent, it may very well be present. There's no practical difference between an undetectable dragon and no dragon at all. ...

Until late in WWII, infantry firearms fell into three categories: heavy machine guns requiring two operators; long-range rifles, either bolt-action or semi-automatic, with offset stocks requiring re-aiming between shots; and pistols or light machine guns spitting out light rounds with limited range. One of Nazi Germany’s many military innovations was the first assault rifle, the StG 44. It was lighter than previous rifles and incorporated three innovations: a select-fire switch converting it to a machine gun, an in-line barrel limiting barrel rise, and a mid-size round with medium range. A single weapon that could pinch-hit for all three categories. A young Soviet inventor named Mikail Kalashnikov combined these innovations with features from the American M1 and created the Automatic Kalashnikov rifle, or AK-47, named for the year it was adopted by the Soviets. In the more than 70 years since its invention, this rifle and its upgrades have been wildly successful. Kalashnikovs ...