I recently came across Carl Sagan’s book: The Demon-Haunted World. Sagan hypothesizes a claim of a person that he has a dragon in his garage.
On further challenging the person about test-ability of such a claim, it is then clear that this dragon cannot be seen or detected by any means possible. Sagan then says “Now, what’s the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there’s no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists?”
On reading this, first thought that came to my mind was a shlok from Geeta (2.23) which describes the soul as
नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः ।
न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्यापो न शोषयति मारुतः ॥
(No weapon can cut it into pieces nor can it be burned by fire,
nor moistened by water, nor can it be withered by the wind.)
Is the soul something like Sagan’s dragon?
Something to think about.
Hear The Dragon in My Garage in Carl Sagan’s voice.