Science is our most successful tool for understanding the cosmos and ourselves. By using the scientific method and critical thinking, we went from tribal squabbles to exploring deep questions and often getting profound answers.
Freedom is the basic human right to do as one wants, unless it trespasses on other's equal rights to be free.
We prefer to let people express themselves freely here, so friendly discussion, constructive debate and the dialectic are acceptable, but violations of freedom will never be tolerated. We defend freedom and protect knowledge.
Plus, we are about changing parochial opinion based laws, or any laws, that impinge on basic human liberty (e.g. do what you like so long as you don't hurt anyone).
Carl Sagan reading from his book "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"
For more great videos, be sure to check out The Sagan Series on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF17F07CFC3208E29
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Why is the reality exposed by scientific inquiry any less miraculous than the illusion of indoctrinate belief? The universe was not made for us, but rather we are one evolutionary consequence of existence, at this point in space and time. Is not the reality the reverse of 'it was made for us'? We are made (evolved ) to fit this temporal and spatial illusion of order, within the chaos of evolutionary existence becoming. Whether it be by divine spiritual expression, or some random process as simpl... moreWhy is the reality exposed by scientific inquiry any less miraculous than the illusion of indoctrinate belief? The universe was not made for us, but rather we are one evolutionary consequence of existence, at this point in space and time. Is not the reality the reverse of 'it was made for us'? We are made (evolved ) to fit this temporal and spatial illusion of order, within the chaos of evolutionary existence becoming. Whether it be by divine spiritual expression, or some random process as simple as the probability of a single unstable atom's decay.
If there be reality to a spiritual existence, it may be that it is expressed through us, rather than for us. Our choice is to accept the responsibility of stewardship and seek sustainability, or continue toward irresponsible destruction and degradation of the ecosystem which birthed us, and the threat of extinction.
Rupert Read, Environmental Philosopher and Chair of Green House Think Tank.
The Paris Agreement explicitly commits us to use non-existent, utterly reckless, unaffordable and ineffective 'Negative Emissions Technologies' which will almost certainly fail to be realised. Barring a multifaceted miracle, within a generation, we will be facing an exponentially rising tide of climate...
Carl Sagan opens the program with a description of the cosmos and a "Spaceship of the Imagination" (shaped like a dandelion seed). The ship journeys through the universe's hundred billion galaxies, the Local Group, the Andromeda Galaxy, the Milky Way, the Orion Nebula, our Solar System, and finally the planet Earth. Eratosthenes' successful calculation of the circumference of Earth leads to a...
First time I read sagan I was and still am blown away...Next level stuff. It is hard to make the abstract personal which Sagan did a lot, perhaps best with the "We are star dust" or "pale blue dot" idioms. Read all his work and few writers capture the comic drama and bring it to human existence like him
So much we can-not know,---Yet---Our lack of understanding and our struggle to understand more are so so beautiful! I fear for us, I fear for our continued existence.
Ralph Merkle Nanoengineer, Georgia Tech, has discovered our ability to grab and move a single atom. Can we program matter? The implications are astounding.
