In skepticism there’s a common test:
How do we know the things we know, and why?
To me this mode of thinking is the best
For I have no desire to live a lie.
Those lights up there — ETs? For real? Old hat
Recycled memories Hollywood installed
The world is far more interesting than that
It’s science, reason, with which I’m enthralled.
I could not bear an unexamined life
Nor stagger through it blinded by belief
For though the questions asked may rile up strife
The beauty of the truth is worth the grief.
There’s magic in the universe, but real
And teasing out those secrets, the ideal.
Cassiopeia A, from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (NASA/CXC/SAO)
