I’m currently reading Carl Sagan’s 1996 “The Demon-Haunted World (Science As a Candle in the Dark)”. It’s a bit dated but is still a wonderfully clear and persuasive argument that science is the best hope forward for our species. Nearly every day it seems we hear in the news more about what scientists have learned of the vastness-- and more details about the complexity-- of the universe. To most scientists-- upwards of 90% I’ve read (I do wonder about the other 10% sometimes)-- the likelihood that a Bronze Age Jewish mystic, for example, was the self-proclaimed son of the god of everything seems quaintly, astronomically, tiny. Jesus (like everyone else 2000 years ago who thought about such things) probably believed our little planet was the center of it all-- a rather profound educational omission it seems to me, on the part of a supposedly perfect father… Sagan emphasizes again and again how at its core science encourages skepticism; for example, it typically gives its most prestigious awards to those who can prove previously believed “truths” to have been wrong! Religion? M-m-m, not so much. Actually, just the opposite.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Oct 2013 15:52:47 +0000
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