On Exobiology
"In the vastness of the Cosmos there must be other civilizations far older and more advanced than ours." -- Carl E. Sagan, professor, Cosmos, 1990
"For all I know we may be visited by a different extraterrestrial civilization every second Tuesday...." -- Carl E. Sagan, professor, Cosmos, 1990
On Intelligent Design
"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -- Carl E. Sagan, professor, Cosmos, 1980
"In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature." -- Carl E. Sagan, professor, Contact, 1985
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17 comments:
The first ID quote doesn't imply a designer.
The second ID quote is from a work of fiction.
So...0/2... not bad for you.
OIM,
Can you post links/sources for Sagan quotes?
Here are some better quotes:
The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and there's no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system. The history of our study of our solar system shows us clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong, and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.
-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos television series
In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would 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 someting like that happened in politics or religion.
-- Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP keynote address
Aritosthenese's only tools were sticks, eyes, feet, and brains; plus a zest for experiment. With those tools he correctly deduced the circumference of the Earth, to high precision, with an error of only a few percent. That's pretty good figuring for 2200 years ago.
-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos television series
OIM,
Learn from Jeffery on how to source a quote or document.
Anybody interested must be able to locate and read without undue searches.
JK,
Happy to hear that you are doing well.
By the way, ADD means you are dealing with a slow world around you, and OCD is how the slow world labels you and will not let go. I would be happy to toast to your health with non-C2H5OH drink!
It is totally a different matter for brainfucked by whimps like OIM.
Well, Carl Sagan was a cool guy and I agree with a few of his sentiments. However, I disagree with Sagan when it comes to the topic of Von Neumann Probes and his stance on our duty to not interfere with other more primitive alien civilizations should we cross paths with them. The main enemy that we as a species or any species has is the lack of command over the processes of nature itself.
Good quotes by the way :)
KV,
The first two quotes are from the 1990 version of Cosmos.
The 1980 quote is from Cosmos and the 1985 quote is from Contact.
QF, you stated:...[Sagan's] his stance on our duty to not interfere with other more primitive alien civilizations should we cross paths with them.
May I suggest that you might look at Chairman Mao, (yes, that totalaterian under the disguise of communism), whose prime directive was "interpenetration" of a person in all aspects. Hence, his goons trampled on the Tibetian monks untill their eyeballs popped out. If I recollect, we considered the chinese as alien, yellow slant eyed people...
OIM,
So edit your post with proper reference and if possible links.
You can not denounce what you don't like and hide behind apparent citation which a reader can not easily locate. It is unprofessional, especially for a philosophy major. All the Greeks are turning in their grave...
OIM,
Contact is fiction, and nice one, but still a fiction. It also demonstrates that a scientist can have other perspectives as well.
Cosmos, especially the television series, was for general public and Sagan has to acknowledge that there are other views, and he leaves it to the readers and viewers to explore on their own.
You have intentionally misquoted Sagan for your myopic views.
If our species can interfere with other life on Earth, then that means our species can interfere with life on other planets too. I wouldn't mind owning an alien ant farm or alien fish tank or whatnot, so long as they are technologically less advanced than we are, hell, I wouldn't even mind owning a caged space monkey....I expect that it is survival of the fittest, but at the same time I wouldn't advocate doing anything mean to a less advanced species as I wouldn't expect a more advanced species to do anything mean to us.
KV,
Citations added...:P
But I'm going to ignore your puerile ad hominem fallacies.
I don't know how you do it man. People love picking apart your post, lol. You got a hell of a following [followers] on your blog. I am in awe cause it seems every time I brows one of your post, it is riddled with a troll or two.
Anyways just stopping by to wish you a happy holidays and may the Great Mother Goddess shine a beam of light down on your spirit & soul to keep you warm!
You have intentionally misquoted Sagan for your myopic views.
This is not ad hominem. I didn't see an example of ad hominem. He's attacking the action, not the person.
If he'd said "These quotes are bad because Oils is a goofball" that would have been ad hominem. However, he only described your use of the quotes and your methodology. Not you personally.
That would take more than the comment space allows.
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2368350
If it is msm it must be true?!?
Plasma is far more important than they have been willing to credit. But their attitudes are changing SLOWLY!
Quick, herd members, change your minds!
Fungus,
The name Kristian Birkeland seems to ring a bell...=)
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