We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. Carl Sagan More Quotes by Carl Sagan More Quotes From Carl Sagan Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us. Carl Sagan regret pain compassion Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history. Carl Sagan atheist war science National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. Carl Sagan stars religious science We are the product of 4.5 billion years of fortuitous, slow biological evolution. There is no reason to think that the evolutionary process has stopped. Man is a transitional animal. He is not the climax of creation. Carl Sagan animal men thinking Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved? Carl Sagan truth inspirational life [Science] is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, ongoing, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. ... The obvious is sometimes false; the unexpected is sometimes true. Carl Sagan self two science Nothing disturbs me more than the glorification of stupidity. Carl Sagan glorification stupidity The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond, no doubt by accident, to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long, longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang. Carl Sagan running night ideas Our ancestors worshipped the Sun, and they were not that foolish. It makes sense to revere the Sun and the stars, for we are their children. Carl Sagan stars sun children Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. Carl Sagan spiritual god philosophy we make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers Carl Sagan our-world depth patience Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves. Carl Sagan strong atheist happiness Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. Carl Sagan science knowledge thinking We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever. Carl Sagan butterfly time thinking There are in fact 100 billion galaxies, each of which contain something like a 100 billion stars. Think of how many stars, and planets, and kinds of life there may be in this vast and awesome universe. Carl Sagan stars may thinking It's a lazy Saturday afternoon, there's a couple lying naked in bed reading Encyclopediea Brittannica to each other, and arguing about whether the Andromeda Galaxy is more 'numinous' than the Ressurection. Do they know how to have a good time, or don't they? Carl Sagan couple reading lying Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works. Carl Sagan atheist education thinking The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both. Carl Sagan spirituality doe science We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering. Carl Sagan rocks circles stars The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard, who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by 'God,' one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity. Carl Sagan atheist mean fall
