how much you deride at 'That', whether it were ToE or Supreme-Inteeligence, the fact remains the phenomenon world is here to stare at us, to challenge us "Look man, this is My wonder, and see what you are doing with it" following is todays' food for thought: we have the transcript of a talk delivered by a student, Sri Satyabrata Paul,
"The sun humbly and gradually slid down, ready to take the final plunge into the western horizon to give warmth and light to the other half of the world. I had just completed my work and was on my way back home. All of a sudden dark water-laden clouds appeared out of nowhere and they seemed to cover the entire expanse of the sky. I received these early warning signals and hurried up my steps. I couldn’t make it in time. It started as a slight drizzle and in no time it shifted gears, and then it was a downpour. It was as the cliché goes “raining cats and dogs”. Nature was at its furious best and it kept lashing at the face of earth without any mercy whatsoever. I quickly took shelter in the open arms of a huge banyan tree. Lightening struck and it was sincerely followed by the vociferous growl of thunder.
Amidst all this chaos and confusion, a movement in the distance caught my attention. At some distance I could see a child of about 7 years struggling on the road in the rain. A closer look revealed to my horror that he had only one leg and one hand and one of his eye sockets was empty. On one hand the child was trying his best to crawl and drag himself to a safer place that would protect him from the fury of nature. And on the other hand, nature was tossing him from side to side, whipping, lashing and pelting him with water, determined not to let him move! This tussle went on for some time and I could take it no longer. I screamed out, “God, why did you forget this child of yours? Why did you forsake him? Did you not do anything for him?” A deep voice echoed across the sky and in a crystal clear tone replied’ “No. I did not forget him. I did not forsake him. I CREATED YOU.” My good old alarm clock brought me back into this so-called real world!
The dream was over but actually my thought process had just started. It set me thinking of those three words -“I created you.” The dream triggered a number of thoughts in my mind. Was I blissfully walking through life like a dead man? It was then that I came across a beautiful article that answered so many of my queries. We always crib about things. We have complains on almost every possible thing that we can set our eyes upon. In our childhood we all dream of big things in life. We dream of castles, palaces, moon, fame, spaceflights, scientists, artists and so many things. Yet sadly, somewhere down the line all those dreams remain just dreams! They simply disappear into oblivion. And then we weep for the lost childhood, we weep for the lost joy of youth, we weep for our unrealized potential, we weep for our wasted talent, Oh! We weep for our lost individuality trampled by the mob…..
Yet we forget the very first words that God whispered into our ears right after our birth. Into the ears of every new born child God whispers, “YOU ARE MY GREATEST MIRACLE. YOU ARE THE GREATEST MIRACLE IN THE WORLD.” And we all begin our earthly lives in the same fashion, we let out a wail and we cry simply because we don’t believe the words that God whispers in our ears. And we all walk through to our graves still disbelieving those words!
Just think of this - God has created each one of us with so much of thought and just try to imagine how much of hope HE has on each of us. HE has thought so much before bringing each of us into this world…..Yet we live as if the only purpose for which we were born, was to die….We walk through life in a trance. Can you imagine with what face will we meet our maker at the end of our lives? For all that HE has done for us, for all the faith that HE kept in us, inspite of ourselves, what does HE get back? Even animals have some form of gratitude at least….. If we while and fritter away our lives then our maker will not have the face and the desire to meet us….. for who on earth or in the heavens cares for a lost and destroyed masterpiece?
Let us first of all take inventory of all that we have with us. Are we blind? Can the sun rise and fall without our witness? No! We can see. The 100 million receptors that God has placed in our eyes enable us to enjoy the glitter of the morning dew on the blade of grass, the scintillating sunrise and sunset, the beauty of a rose, the innocence in a child’s smile, the colours of a rainbow and so much more. Are we paralyzed? No! We are not a tree condemned to the same plot of land while the wind and the world abuse us. We can stretch, we can run, we can jump, dance, work, play and do so much. We have everything in our hands and we can do as we please because God wanted to grant free will to humans that would help them decide their own future for themselves…
Is our heart stricken? Does it strain and leak to maintain us? No! Our heart is very strong. Touch it and we can feel the rhythm, pulsating, hour after hour, day and night, year after year, asleep or awake…. Pumping lakhs and lakhs of gallons of blood every year that too - without a break or rest! Even man has not been able to make a better machine than that…Are we feeble of mind? No! Our brain is the most complex structure in the universe. Within its few pounds are 13 billion nerve cells to help us file away every perception, every sound, taste, smell, action that we have experienced since birth. No nation’s gold is better protected. We have so much with us. Our blessings overflow our cup. Yet we are unmindful of them, like a child spoilt in luxury, since God has bestowed on us so much with generosity.
Just think of it, from our Father, in a moment of supreme love, flowed countless seeds of love, more than 400 million in number. All of them died except for one, and that one searched for its other half from the mother’s body. Two cells, each containing 23 chromosomes and within each chromosome hundreds of genes. A simple mathematical calculation will tell us how many permutations and combinations would have been possible with those two cells. God could have created over 3,00,000 billion humans, each different from the other. Yet, HE brought you, you, you and me. We all arrived in this world bringing with us the proof that God is not yet disappointed with man. God sent us to this earth as HIS hope. The problem is that we value ourselves in pennies when we are worth a king’s ransom. We have to take pride in the fact that we are not the momentary whim of a careless creator experimenting in the laboratory of life. We have been created with a purpose. We have a world to rebuild and if it requires a miracle...so what? Remember, we are God’s greatest miracle.
We have the power to think, to laugh, to will, to imagine, to dream, to speak, to sing, to dance, to sketch, to paint, to draw, to pray and to LOVE. However, God gave us one more power, a power so great that even angels don’t have it. God gave us the power to choose. With that gift HE placed us even above HIS angels… for angels are not free to choose sin. We have the choice to degenerate into the lowest forms of life, or to ascend the ladder to greater heights. We are capable of great wonders. Our potential is unlimited.
Never settle down for the crumbs of life. Remember the child who says…., “When I am a big boy…” Then the big boy says, “When I grow up…” And then grown up he says, “What’s the hurry? When I wed…” Then it changes to “When I retire…” And then retirement comes, and he looks back over the landscape covered, a cold wind sweeps over it, and somehow he has missed it all.
Half of the people living are dead bodies moving around, waiting to meet their souls whom they have safely and peacefully buried in their graves right after birth. God gave us so many talents and so much of grace. HE did not give everything to each one of us, because then there would be no fun. The best part is that HE gave something to each one of us that is unique to us. We have to find that uniqueness, that speciality. Live this day, the next day and the day after….taking the days one at a time. Use what talent you possess - the forest would be very silent if no birds sang except for those that sang best. Life can be a process of growing or ageing. Growing involves adding life to one’s years and ageing involves adding years to one’s life. A few people grow up in life, the rest just grow old… One of the greatest secrets of life is that we are all born rich but become beggars. We keep searching outside when the real treasure is already within us. Remember, we are GOD’S GREATEST MIRACLE.
Life is God’s gift to us and what we do with our life is our gift back to God. In the words of the great scientist Albert Einstein, “There are two ways to live your life… One is as though nothing is a miracle…. The other is as though everything is a miracle...”
But even after listening to all the wisdom and experience of our ancestors, yet the final choice to live our lives is one that will be ours, ours and our own."
revel in jest! love®ards.ls
Still, no one can say why the supposition of some ultimate complexity referred to as God is required to account for much lesser complexities such as the earth and the organic world of which we are a part. Is this the fallacy of begging the question by answering it with a much larger question?
Is there a tendency in some humans to believe in unknown unseeables such as astrology, luck in gambling, best of all species favored status, divine destiny, unicorns, superstitions, evil spirits, good spirits, gods, and the like just because it sounds good and desirable?
Still, no one can say why the supposition of some ultimate complexity referred to as God is required to account for much lesser complexities such as the earth and the organic world of which we are a part. Is this the fallacy of begging the question by answering it with a much larger question?
Is there a tendency in some humans to believe in unknown unseeables such as astrology, luck in gambling, best of all species favored status, divine destiny, unicorns, superstitions, evil spirits, good spirits, gods, and the like just because it sounds good and desirable?
Respectfully,
Austin
Why are you mixing trash with Purety! You are blessed with a very kind and compassionate heart, don't soil it with the dirt of superstitions etc. God is Pure-Consciousness,if some people can't realize this truth, it is not because of the fact that they lack intelligence, but they don't have the time, commitment and the sincerity of purpose!ls.
I think it depends on your interpretation of god, Austin. God doesn't have to relate to anthrpomorphism, but to spiritual (underlying invisible) functioning that is required for setting the laws that govern the universe.
Conversely, the evolution of the universe over an eternity equals perfection, and the last effect of the state would equal the perfected first cause for devolution. In other words, the highest order would contain by default lesser-ordered states. What exactly is it that creates order? Call it god and therefore god exists.
If you study the ancient accounts, you will notice that there are depictions of humanoid gods, further-advanced civilisations mistaken for gods, and there are symbolic and astronomical references depicting world affairs in relation to the gods of the sky - the heavenly bodies.
Consider the intelligence of the sumerian and mayan astronomy, and the unexplained correlations of ancient structures with that of the star maps at precise times in history. They were far from stupid people, and more in touch with knowledge pertaining to transcending this twisted sense of reality that people are subjected to than the people of today who brush it off.
I usually ask scientists and religionists what the universe or god is made of exactly. What exactly is your mind and body made of? What is the connection, and what exactly are you doing here at this "one" time out of an eternity? Most times I'm ignored because to be honest we really don't have a clue, so we make fun of things misunderstood.
Still, no one can say why the supposition of some ultimate complexity referred to as God is required to account for much lesser complexities such as the earth and the organic world of which we are a part. Is this the fallacy of begging the question by answering it with a much larger question?
Is there a tendency in some humans to believe in unknown unseeables such as astrology, luck in gambling, best of all species favored status, divine destiny, unicorns, superstitions, evil spirits, good spirits, gods, and the like just because it sounds good and desirable?
Respectfully,
Austin
The 100 million receptors that God has placed in our eyes enable us “to enjoy the glitter of the morning dew on the blade of grass, the scintillating sunrise and sunset, the beauty of a rose, the innocence in a child’s smile, the colours of a rainbow and so much more” (this aptly applies to you,you enchant us with a variety of nature with its multicoated diversity.)
We have the power to think, to will, to imagine, to dream, to speak, to sing, to dance, to sketch, to paint, to draw, to pray and to LOVE.
Our potential is unlimited.
We have everything in our hands and we can do as we please because God wanted to grant free will to humans that would help them decide their own future for themselves…
Pl. tell us, whether above powers/potential/beauty granted to human beings are , “luck in gambling, unicorns, superstitions, evil spirits, ” ? regards.ls
Yes, our potential is unlimited, but you know ahead of time I can’t just say that “God-as-a-person” granted things or God wanted this or that because he didn’t make me privy to the workings of his intelligence, not would I know how such a system of parts that does wanting and granting could just appear fully formed or always have been around and not be dependent on these very parts. So, it still seems like God is a very large claim for primitive humans (all of us) to make for a being so powerful and so far beyond.
I just found myself here on Earth, although I don’t remember the first day, for I was very young at the time. I heard the majority’s view of God that came from my religion’s and other’s sworn testimony of divine inpirations—a type of vengeful God that you seem to not be for either, so, it is not a soiling to be against these types of superstitions.
“God”, stripped of most of his usual connotations leaves something more like the Ground-of-Determination (G-O-D), although, again the acronym is full of confusion. Your “God” word is at least underloaded of all bad things and is pure, but the battle is lost on most when they hear the word “God” and that one knows God wants this or that but please ignore the other theist’s claims, such as in the bible or in what churches preach, for most think of him in terms of Heaven, Hell, adore me or get tortured, great rewards, etc., whether theist or atheist, for that is what was “revealed” by him (or her or it).
If the ground of all existence, being, and the universe’s order is called “God”, like Nobody suggests, it’s just a confusing name for the underlying ground, which could just as well be a very simple and uninteresting thing, as complexity seems to be built from the bottom up, not top down.
If the universe is made of consciousness (God) and our conscious awareness comes of it and is one and the same with it, made in its image as they say, then so be it, but I can’t just declare it so even if I neurologically seem to meet with it during meditation. At any rate, pure experientialness or consciousness could just very well be what it is and nothing like the God we claim or not God at all, or a God-who-is-not-a-person—just the workings of everything—and surely no one has penetrated this as yet.
Still not sure of the need to explain design with with a higher design and then suddenly dispense with any and all worries about design that were so needed in the first place, but everyone wants to neglect this kind of question, saying something like “it just is”, the very thing they couldn’t say about the universe in the first place.
No hard fellings—please stay calm—me, too, as well—I know some people can be abrupt and dismissive, when their “little self” shames them, as Deepak says—but we are both full of love and compassion—this quality seemingly having nothing to do with beliefs of origin of everything that is.
We have two paths; one of science and one of faith with a god. I see more corruption along the path of faith than the path of science. You cannot compare science Vs god for there is no god to compare to. You are being nothing more than sheep for slaughter by the preaching predators.
We have everything in our hands and we can do as we please because God wanted to grant free will to humans that would help them decide their own future for themselves…regards.ls
Bibra, you state the above, then you wish to take such free will away from scientists___quite amusing, don't you think?
Lloyd
__________________ "To develop the skill of correct thinking is in the first place to learn what you have to disregard. In order to go on, you have to know what to leave out; this is the essence of effective thinking." Kurt Godel "Time and space are modes in which we think and not conditions in which we live." Albert Einstein "The uncertainty principle is an absolute, finite, universal constant." L.G. "The tick-tick-tick of the cesium atom is a sliding-time-scaler constant of all finite universal motion." L.G.
Such reports persist and proliferate because they sell. And they sell, I think, because there are so many of us who want so badly to be jolted out of our humdrum lives, to rekindle that sense of wonder we remember from childhood, and also, for a few of the stories, to be able, really and truly, to believe--in Someone older, smarter, and wiser who is looking out for us. Faith is clearly not enough for many people. They crave hard evidence, scientific proof. They long for the scientific seal of approval, but are unwilling to put up with the rigorous standards of evidence that impart credibility to that seal. [Carl Sagan]
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. it is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.) [Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection]
Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage. But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us -- and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along. [Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection]
I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true. [Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism]
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. [Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP keynote address]
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]
You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe. [Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985]
A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. [Carl Sagan, Contact, pg 244]
The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and rightYou can't all be correct. And what if all of you are wrong? It's a possibility, you know. You must care about the truth, right? Well, the way to winnow through all the differing contentions is to be skeptical. I'm not any more skeptical about your religious beliefs than I am about every new scientific idea I hear about. But in my line of work, they're called hypotheses, not inspiration and not revelation. [Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 162. ]
What I'm saying is, if God wanted to send us a message, and ancient writings were the only way he could think of doing it, he could have done a better job. [Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 164.]
Anything you don't understand, Mr. Rankin, you attribute to God. God for you is where you sweep away all the mysteries of the world, all the challenges to our intelligence. You simply turn your mind off and say God did it. [Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 166.]
The question [Do you believe in God?] has a peculiar structure. If I say no, do I mean I'm convinced God doesn't exist, or do I mean I'm not convinced he does exist? Those are two very different questions. [Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 168.]
My faith is strong I don't need proofs, but every time a new fact comes along it simply confirms my faith. [Palmer Joss in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 172.]
You see, the religious people -- most of them -- really think this planet is an experiment. That's what their beliefs come down to. Some god or other is always fixing and poking, messing around with tradesmen's wives, giving tablets on mountains, commanding you to mutilate your children, telling people what words they can say and what words they can't say, making people feel guilty about enjoying themselves, and like that. Why can't the gods leave well enough alone? All this intervention speaks of incompetence. If God didn't want Lot's wife to look back, why didn't he make her obedient, so she'd do what her husband told her? Or if he hadn't made Lot such a shithead, maybe she would've listened to him more. If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business if there was any competition. [Sol Hadden in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 285.]
The Earth is an object lesson for the apprentice gods. 'If you really screw up,' they get told, 'you'll make something like Earth.' [Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 286.]
Part of my message is that we're not central to the purpose of the Cosmos. What happened to me makes us all seem very small. [Dr. Arroway in Carl Sagan's Contact (New York: Pocket Books, 1985), p. 420.]
(When asked merely if they accept evolution, 45 percent of Americans say yes. The figure is 70 percent in China.) When the movie Jurassic Park was shown in Israel, it was condemned by some Orthodox rabbis because it accepted evolution and because it taught that dinosaurs lived a hundred million years ago--when, as is plainly stated at every Rosh Hashonhan and every Jewish wedding ceremony, the Universe is less than 6,000 years old. [Carl Sagan, _The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark_, p. 325]
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking. The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides. [Carl Sagan, 1996 in his article In the Valley of the Shadow Parade Magazine Also, Billions and Billions p. 215]
The politicians and the religious leaders and the weapons scientists have been at it for a long time and they've made a thorough mess of it. I mean, we're in deep trouble. [Carl Sagan, A&E Biography interview]
Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy. [Carl Sagan]
In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of course ask next where God comes from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed? [Carl Sagan, Cosmos, page 257]
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. [Carl Sagan]
Many statements about God are confidently made by theologians on grounds that today at least sound specious. Thomas Aquinas claimed to prove that God cannot make another God, or commit suicide, or make a man without a soul, or even make a triangle whose interior angles do not equal 180 degrees. But Bolyai and Lobachevsky were able to accomplish this last feat (on a curved surface) in the nineteenth century, and they were not even approximately gods. [Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain]
We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. [Carl Sagan, on secular morality]
One prominent American religion confidently predicted that the world would end in 1914. Well, 1914 has come and gone, and - whole the events of that year were certainly of some importance - the world did not, at least so far as I can see, seem to have ended. There are at least three responses that an organized religion can make in the face of such a failed and fundamental prophecy. They could have said, Oh, did we say '1914'? So sorry, we meant '2014'. A slight error in calculation. Hope you weren't inconvinenced in any way. But they did not. They could have said, Well, the world would have ended, except we prayed very hard and interceded with God so He spared the Earth. But they did not. Instead, the did something much more ingenious. They announced that the world had in fact ended in 1914, and if the rest of us hadn't noticed, that was our lookout. It is astonishing in the fact of such transparent evasions that this religion has any adherents at all. But religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. The fact that religions can be so shamelessly dishonest, so contemptuous of the intelligence of their adherents, and still flourish does not speak very well for the tough- mindedness of the believers. But it does indicate, if a demonstration was needed, that near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry. [Carl Sagan, Broca's Brain]
In a democracy, opinions that upset everyone are sometimes exactly what we need. We should be teaching our children the scientific method and the Bill of Rights. [Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan]
It means nothing to be open to a proposition we don't understand. [Carl Sagan]
There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. [Carl Sagan, Cosmos television series]
I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us-then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.
The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
If we're capable of conjuring up terrifying monsters in childhood, why shouldn't some of us, at least on occasion, be able to fantasize something similar, something truly horrifying, a shared delusion, as adults? [Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World, p. 109]
If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote. As with the face on Mars and alien abductions, better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 204 quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]
If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate....Try science. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 30, quoted in 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]
Since World War II, Japan has spawned enormous numbers of new religions featuring the supernatural.... In Thailand, diseases are treated with pills manufactured from pulverized sacred Scripture. Witches are today being burned in South Africa.... The worldwide TM [Transcendental Meditation] organization has an estimated valuation of $3 billion. For a fee, they promise to make you invisible, to enable you to fly. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 16, from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt]
In Italy, the Inquisition was condemning people to death until the end of the eighteenth century, and inquisitional torture was not abolished in the Catholic Church until 1816. The last bastion of support for the reality of witchcraft and the necessity of punishment has been the Christian churches. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 413, from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996]
If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits?....For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
At the extremes it is difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from rigid, doctrinaire religion. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our own ignorance about ourselves. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
Is it fair to be suspicious of an entire profession because of a few bad apples? There are at least two important differences, it seems to me. First, no one doubts that science actually works, whatever mistaken and fraudulent claim may from time to time be offered. But whether there are any miraculous cures from faith-healing, beyond the body's own ability to cure itself, is very much at issue. Secondly, the expose' of fraud and error in science is made almost exclusively by science. But the exposure of fraud and error in faith-healing is almost never done by other faith-healers. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World]
Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
Virtually every major technological advance in the history of the human species-- back to the invention of stone tools and the domestication of fire-- has been ethically ambiguous. [Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark]
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