Teach a man to reason and he will think for a lifetime. Phil Plait More Quotes by Phil Plait More Quotes From Phil Plait Pseudoscience is like a virus. At low levels, it's no big deal, but when it reaches a certain threshold it becomes sickening. Phil Plait pseudoscience viruses levels Our solar system is fantastically bizarre. There are worlds with features we never imagined. Storms larger than planets, moons with under-surface oceans, lakes of methane, worldlets that swap places...and that's just at Saturn. Phil Plait ocean moon lakes I'm tired of ignorance held up as inspiration, where vicious anti-intellectualism is considered a positive trait, and where uninformed opinion is displayed as fact. Phil Plait tired ignorance inspiration If a little kid ever asks you just why the sky is blue, you look him or her right in the eye and say, 'It's because of quantum effects involving Rayleigh scattering combined with a lack of violet photon receptors in our retinae.' Phil Plait eye blue kids How do you convince someone they're not thinking clearly, when they're not thinking clearly? What we're actually saying is no magic, no afterlife, no higher moral authoritative father-figure, no security, and no happy ever after. This is a tough sell. Phil Plait afterlife father thinking You can experience the thrill of discovery, the incredible, visceral feeling of doing something no one has ever done before, see things no one has ever seen before, know something no one has ever known before. ... Welcome to science, you're gonna like it here. Phil Plait thrill feelings discovery It’s dead obvious that creationism isn’t science, or even bad science. It’s nonsense. But I’ve long stated it’s also bad religion, because it doesn’t just take faith, it also takes a phenomenal disregard of reality. Phil Plait nonsense long reality However, science isn't just about showing when you're right; it's also about showing when you're wrong. Phil Plait The difference between the dinosaurs and us is that we have a space program and we can vote... Phil Plait dinosaurs differences space Humanity and life are reflected in the stars, and the Universe itself is poetry. Phil Plait universe stars humanity The Universe is cool enough without making up crap about it. Phil Plait crap universe enough They say that even the brightest star won't shine forever. But in fact, the brightest star would live the shortest amount of time. Feel free to extract whatever life lesson you want from that. Phil Plait life-lesson stars shining Other job markets may lay claim to the title, but astronomy is actually the world's oldest profession. Phil Plait titles jobs world I'm tired of ignorance held up as inspiration. Phil Plait tired ignorance inspiration I still hear some people say that science takes the wonder out of life. Those people are utterly wrong. Science takes us to the wonder Phil Plait stills wonder people Sometimes, even by accident, the universe makes beauty, and we can stand back in awe of it. Even better - we can figure out why. Science! I love this stuff. Phil Plait figures stuff sometimes It's amazing to me that not only can we put a probe around Saturn and get images of its moons, but our math and physics are so freaking accurate we can say, "Hey, you know what? On this date at this time if we turn Cassini that way we'll see a moon over 2 million kilometers away pass in front of another one nearly 3 million kilometers away." Every morning, I have a 50/50 chance of finding my keys. That kinda puts things in perspective. Phil Plait moon math morning If you took every nuclear weapon ever built at the height of the Cold War, lumped them together and blew them up at the same time, that would be one one-millionth of the energy released at that moment. Phil Plait motivation inspiration war The best idea ever thought of in the history of humanity is useless unless someone communicates it. It will die in the test tube. And in our case, what we're communicating here to people is not necessarily something they want to hear. And so, our demeanor - how we deliver this message - takes on crucial, crucial importance. Phil Plait humanity people ideas Not everything that’s cool is science, but everything in science is cool. Phil Plait
