Science has carried us to the gateway to the universe. And yet our conception of our surroundings remains the disproportionate view of the still-small child. We are spiritually and culturally paralyzed, unable to face the vastness, to embrace our lack of centrality and find out actual place in the fabric of nature.
Ann DruyanIf you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will train yourself to be a good skeptic.
Ann DruyanTags: science skepticism theology druyan positivism sagan
And what greater might do we possess as human beings than our capacity to question and to learn?
Ann DruyanTags: science inspirational theology thought-provoking ann-druyan carl-sagan
I think the roots of this antagonism to science run very deep. They're ancient. We see them in Genesis, this first story, this founding myth of ours, in which the first humans are doomed and cursed eternally for asking a question, for partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. It's puzzling that Eden is synonymous with paradise when, if you think about it at all, it's more like a maximum-security prison with twenty-four hour surveillance. It's a horrible place. Adam and Eve have no childhood. They awaken full-grown. What is a human being without a childhood? Our long childhood is a critical feature of our species. It differentiates us, to a degree, from most other species. We take a longer time to mature. We depend upon these formative years and the social fabric to learn many of the things we need to know.
Ann DruyanScience has carried us to the gateway to the universe. And yet our conception of our surroundings remains the disproportionate view of the still-small child. We are spiritually and culturally paralyzed, unable to face the vastness, to embrace our lack of centrality and find our actual place in the fabric of nature. We batter this planet as if we had someplace else to go. That we even do science is a hopeful glimmer of mental health. However, it's not enough merely to accept these insights intellectually while we cling to a spiritual ideology that is not only rootless in nature but also, in many ways, contemptuous of what is natural.
Ann DruyanTags: science religion skepticism
No single step in the persuit of enlightenment should ever be considered sacred; only the search was.
Ann DruyanThe aspirations of democracy are based on the notion of an informed citizenry, capable of making wise decisions. The choices we are asked to make become increasingly complex. They require the longer-term thinking and greater tolerance for ambiguity that science fosters. The new economy is predicated on a continuous pipeline of scientific and technological innovation. It can not exist without workers and consumers who are mathematically and scientifically literate.
Ann DruyanTags: science intelligence society democracy decisions thought wise economy ann-druyan literate
Ten long trips around the sun since I last saw that smile, but only joy and thankfulness that on a tiny world in the vastness, for a couple of moments in the immensity of time, we were one.
Ann DruyanTags: life love loss nostalgia memory appreciation remember ann-druyan carl-sagan
It takes a fearless, unflinching love and deep humility to accept the universe as it is. The most effective way he knew to accomplish that, the most powerful tool at his disposal, was the scientific method, which over time winnows out deception. It can't give you absolute truth because science is a permanent revolution, always subject to revision, but it can give you successive approximations of reality.
Ann DruyanTags: science truth humanity humility fearless ann-druyan carl-sagan cosmos realitu
Interviewer: Didn't Sagan want to believe?
Druyan: he didn't want to believe. he wanted to know.
Tags: science truth knowledge belief atheism astronomy agnosticism carl-sagan sagan
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