Monday, July 5, 2010

Carl Sagan: A Universe Not Made For Us



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3 comments:

  1. Always a treat to hear Sagan :)

    I love the end of this one, so I had to transcribe it and tuck it away on my computer. Thought I'd share (though no promises on this being the correct punctuation!)...

    "There is in this universe much of what seems to be designed. But instead, we repeatedly discover that natural processes -- collisional selection of worlds, say, or natural selection of gene pools, or even the convection pattern in a pot of boiling water -- can extract order out of chaos and decieve us into deducing purpose where there is none.

    The significance of our lives, and our fragile planet, is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the transcription, Paul!

    I especially love: "We are the custodians of life's meaning."

    ReplyDelete
  3. Always a treat to hear Sagan :)

    I love the end of this one, so I had to transcribe it and tuck it away on my computer. Thought I'd share (though no promises on this being the correct punctuation!)...

    "There is in this universe much of what seems to be designed. But instead, we repeatedly discover that natural processes -- collisional selection of worlds, say, or natural selection of gene pools, or even the convection pattern in a pot of boiling water -- can extract order out of chaos and decieve us into deducing purpose where there is none.

    The significance of our lives, and our fragile planet, is then determined only by our own wisdom and courage. We are the custodians of life's meaning. We long for a parent to care for us, to forgive us our errors, to save us from our childish mistakes. But knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better by far to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable. If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a worthy goal."

    ReplyDelete

Religion, skepticism, and carving out a spiritual life post-Mormonism