> The dragon in the room is the hidden qualifier for "undetectable by any means" is "that is currently known to humanity".

> That makes Carl Sagan's claim some what Balonish. Not sure why the smart Sagan fell for it.

The point is that if someone does claim that the dragon exists, they better be able to explain how they know it exists.

> That makes Carl Sagan's claim some what Balonish.

His claim wasn't that invisible dragons don't exist. His claim was that you cannot tell the difference between a dragon that doesn't exist and one that is, to use your qualifier, currently undetectable by any means known to humanity. If you cannot tell the difference between existence and non-existence of something, any claims to its existence are vacuous.

Your "argument" reminds me of this:

The Rabbit's Thesis

Scene: It's a fine sunny day in the forest; and a rabbit is sitting outside his burrow, tippy-tapping on his lap top. Along comes a fox, out for a walk.

Fox: "What are you working on?" Rabbit: "My thesis." Fox: "Hmmmmm. What is it about?" Rabbit: "Oh, I'm writing about how rabbits eat foxes."

(incredulous pause) Fox: "That's ridiculous! Any fool knows that rabbits don't eat foxes!" Rabbit: "Come with me and I'll show you!"

They both disappear into the rabbit's burrow. After a few minutes, gnawing on a fox bone, the rabbit returns to his lap top and resumes typing.

Soon a wolf comes along and stops to watch the hard working rabbit.

(Tippy-tap, tippy-tap, tippy-tippy-tap).

Wolf: "What's that you are writing?" Rabbit: "I'm doing a thesis on how rabbits eat wolves."

(loud guffaws). Wolf: "You don't expect to get such rubbish published, do you?" Rabbit: "No problem. Do you want to see why?"

The rabbit and the wolf go into the burrow, and again the rabbit returns by himself. This time he is patting his stomach. He goes back to his typing.

(Tippy-tap, tippy-tap, tippy-tippy-tap).

Finally a bear comes along and asks, "What are you doing?"

Rabbit: "I'm doing a thesis on how rabbits eat bears." Bear: "Well that's absurd!" Rabbit: "Come into my home and I'll show you."

SCENE: Inside the rabbit's burrow. In one corner, there is a pile of fox bones. In another corner is a pile of wolf bones. On the other side of the room a huge lion is belching and picking his teeth.

MORAL: It doesn't matter what you choose for a thesis topic. It doesn't matter what you use for your data. It doesn't even matter if your topic makes sense. What matters is who you have for a thesis advisor.

I think you missed his point. In that exercise, the justifications for the dragons existence are always shifting.

“Oh, it doesn’t show up on thermal? That’s because it doesn’t emit heat. It has special fire”

“Oh, when you spray flour in the air nothing sticks to the dragon? Well that’s because it is also incorporeal”

Skeptics keep asking questions. That’s the point. If you are never satisfied with any answer, you have no reason to believe the claim. There is literally nothing there to believe in.

His point is that skepticism and wonder go hand in hand. One without the other is dangerous. What a fascinating claim, an invisible dragon! It should not be dismissed outright as obvious quackery, but let’s see how much scrutiny it can take

We start with an invisible dragon and the more we look into it we now have to explain fire without heat, bodies without form, etc. gee, it seems that for this to be true our entire understanding of the world is wrong…or is the simple answer that someone is trying to trick us would answer this better.

Then the skeptic starts asking why someone would want to trick us…

Yes. The beauty is that once you get the means you can adjust your view. But you can't go just "trust me bro, it's there, you can't ever verify it, but I know it's there." It might be there... But why do you believe it to be so?

Do you actually live your life with the idea that there might be a dragon in your garage that is undetectable by any means currently known to humanity? And maybe an elephant in the neighbor's, and a unicorn down the street?

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