Indeed, I remember Sagan. IMHO, he abused science to authenticate and promote ideology. I see such behavior both within and outside the science community as a huge problem, an abuse of science. Please see my post 2337 for present day examples.
You are so right. "All's fair in love and war". This is war and the lies and tricks and dirty pool played by "scientists" is shameful. The whole conversion of the religion of naturalism into to something other than religion, ie science is quite a nifty trick. People get up off their knees at the alter of evolution insisting they were not just worshipping.