In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed”? Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’
A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge.
In fact, almost dying is such a positive, character-building experience that I’d recommend it to everybody - except, of course, for the irreducible and essential amount of risk.
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Carl Sagan (In the Valley of The Shadow, Billions and Billions)
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We embarked on our journey to the stars with a question first framed in the childhood of our species and in each generation asked anew with undiminished wonder: What are the stars? Exploration is in our nature. We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still. We have lingered long enough on the shores of the cosmic ocean. We are ready at last to set sail for the stars.
Our passion for learning is the tool for our survival.
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Carl Sagan, Cosmos 11: The Persistence of Memory
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National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space.
Up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perception awaits us. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic, 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.
bwiggly:
on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Can you recapture a vanished epoch from a few broken statues and scraps of ancient manuscripts?
