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Why Humanity Needs Science, not Religion | Carl Sagan
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I and a few of my colleagues have uh
spent a fair amount of time trying to
find some evidence for intelligent life
on Earth by and large we've been
unsuccessful would you welcome Carl s
Carl s is one of three eminent
astronomers of our time guide through
the icy Rings strange moons and storm
whipped Planet astronomer Carl San Carl
tell us about the latest will you the uh
latest is that uh we have just made the
closest approach
[Music]
to well I was uh born born in Brooklyn
New York I was small child I don't know
five or so and even with an early
bedtime in Winter you could occasionally
see the stars and uh they seemed to me
interesting strange remote I asked
people uh what the stars were and they
said uh they lights in the Sky Kid well
I could tell there were lights in the
sky but it seemed to me there had to be
some some deeper explanation
it seemed to me unlikely that they were
just Little Lights lamps hanging from
from the sky who put them there what
what for and so when I got my first
library card
I fairly breathlessly asked the
librarian for a book on Stars turned the
pages of this you know easy children's
book and uh finally came to what uh what
I had been looking for an astonishing
statement that the stars were just like
the sun except AC immensely far away
that the sun was a star but just very
close I couldn't tell how close the sun
was or how far you'd have to move it to
make it as dim as a star but I could
tell that was a very big distance and
suddenly the Scale of the Universe
opened up for me a very powerful
emotional experience which uh I'm still
engaged
in the whole idea of uh of what happens
when you read a book I find absolutely
St here here's some product of a tree
with little black squiggles on it right
you open it up and inside your head is
the voice of someone speaking who may
have been dead 3,000 years and yet there
he is talking directly to you what a
magical thing that is and now years
after car San's passing we're still
listening to him with words profound and
Visions vast he unveiled the mysteries
of our Cosmic past with passion he
embraced the cosmic dance waving
knowledge and awe at every chance with
science as his Compass he sought to
unveil the secrets of the universe where
truth
prevails we were hunters and
foragers we wandered in small itinerant
extended families chipping and flaking
stone tools back before they had a
little trickle of metal so over the
dying Embers of the campfire people
watched the stars and they did it I
imagine for many reasons one it is just
dazzling and we today living in polluted
under polluted skies and in cities with
light pollution have mainly forgotten
how gorgeous the night sky can be it is
not only an aesthetic experience but it
elicits unbidden feelings of reverence
and
awe I want to turn to the important and
uh ruthful fact that every human culture
has considered itself at the center of
the universe this is the geocentric
conceit not only did every culture draw
this conclusion but I think it's clear
that our ancestors took enormous
personal satisfaction in it the
centrality of our position was stunning
we went on every human culture every
great philosopher every scientist every
religious leader thinking we were at the
center of the universe we put it in
various guises in our scriptures
declared the scriptures to be infallible
thereby making it not just a secular but
a religious crime to even think about
the issue I I imagine an
extraterrestrial visitation coming upon
the Earth and then listening in on what
people all over the planet are saying
and they're saying we're at the center
we're important we're special everything
goes around
us and then I imagine the
extraterrestrials uh thinking of us as I
don't know the planet of the idiots but
that's too
harsh because there's a resonance here
between the most obvious interpretation
of absolutely straightforward
observational facts that every person
can verify for him or
herself a resonance between that and our
emotional hopes and
needs the idea that the universe is made
for us not because of any particular
Merit of ours but just because we're
here or just because we're human to me
this seems to resonate with the same
psychic
Wellsprings responsible for the view
that our nation
is special and the center of the
universe and the same psychic
Wellsprings that say that our
gender or our ethnic group is important
and Central and all those alternative
ways of Being Human are somehow less
Central less important uh less worthy
than we are we have a weakness and I
would say those of us worried
about being
demoted those of us who wish for us to
be
important should do something
important we should make a an easily
understandable
achievable and inspiring goal for the
human species and then set out and do it
that would give us the confidence that
we s Sally lack by being dependent on
our self-esteem being based on nothing
we do we want to have self-esteem let's
make a planet in which nobody is
starving let's make a planet in which
men and women have equal access to power
let us make a planet in which no ethnic
group has it over another ethnic group
let's have a planet in which science and
engineering is used for the benefit of
everybody on the planet
and my personal idiosyncrasy let's have
a world in which we go to other worlds
human beings are in the exploring
business that's what we're good at we
enjoy the sense of exploring something
new and it has adaptive and survival
value exploring the solar system gives
us other worlds to compare our own with
to better understand and control our own
planet we are exploring the deepest
questions that every every human culture
has asked questions of origins in this
case where did the Earth come from where
does the solar system come from where do
we come from it is an Enterprise which
is peaceful which is on behalf of the
entire human community and which will be
remembered for thousands of years it is
by far a bigger step than Columbus's
discovery of America The Exodus of human
beings and their robot emissaries to
explore their local swimming hall space
we have the ability to find out the
answers send spacecraft to nearby worlds
use radio telescopes to see if anyone
sending us a message from a planet of
another star I'd be ashamed of my
civilization if we had the tools to find
out the answers and refuse to look we
are at a very dangerous moment in human
history we have weapons of mass
destruction we are in the process of
inadvertently altering our climate and
exhaustion of fossil fuels and mineral
all kinds of problem s which come with
technology we are not certain that we
will be able to survive this period of
what I like to call technological
adolescence were we to receive a message
from somewhere else it would show that
it's possible to survive this kind of
period and that's a useful bit of
information to
[Music]
have life on Earth is uh an expression
of uh the remarkable capability of
certain kinds of molecules
the nucleic acids of which DNA is the
most famous variety um which contains
all our hereditary information all the
information which determines let's say
what our children shall look like and
many of their hereditary predispositions
are encoded in a language of about 4
billion letters if I can use that that
word um and uh and everyone else's uh
heredity is determined by a different
sequence slightly different sequence of
four billion letters the whole idea of
understanding ourselves by looking at uh
at our relatives and I don't just mean
the primates but all the way back
insects and before that is exhilarating
I find it is so exciting so broadening
so and some people may think this is a
misuse of the word so humanizing instead
of of making me grumpy that uh to
discover that I'm related to the other
animals I think it raises the
significance of human beings that we are
so closely related to so many species
and such a gorgeous panoply and
diversity that the Earth's life is
graced
with here's this spacecraft that has
flown by the Jupiter Saturn Uranus and
Neptune system right is is on its way
astonishingly to the Stars a Triumph of
human engineering we turn the cameras
back and take a photograph of the planet
from where it came and there is our
planet a pale
blue
dot that's
us that's home that's where we are on it
everybody you
love everybody you know everybody you've
ever heard of lived out their days there
the aggregate of all our joy and
suffering thousands of confident
ideologies religions economic doctrines
every Hunter and forager every hero and
coward every Creator and destroyer of
civilizations every King and peasant
every young couple in love every hopeful
child every mother and father every
inventor and Explorer every revered
teacher of morals every corrupt
politician every superstar every supreme
leader every saint and sinner in the
history of our species live there the
Earth is a very small stage in a great
Cosmic Arena think of the rivers of
blood spilled by all those generals and
emperors
presidents and prime ministers party
leaders so that in glory and Triumph
they could become the momentary masters
of the corner of a DOT think of the
Endless cruelties visited by the
inhabitants of one part of the dot on
the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants
of another part of the dot how frequent
their misunderstandings how eager they
are to kill one another how fervent
their hatreds our
posturings our imagined self-importance
the delusion that we have some
privileged position in the universe
seemed to me
challenged by this point of pale light
our planet is a lonely Speck in the
great enveloping Cosmic dark in our
obscurity in all this vastness there is
no hint that there's anyone who will
come save us from ourselves that will
happen only if we do it it's been said
that astronomy is a humbling experience
and I would add character building to me
this is one of many demonstrations
through astronomy of the Folly of human
conceits to me this picture underscores
our responsibility to deal more kindly
with one another and to preserve and
cherish the pale blue
dot the only
home we've ever known thank
you what if any one thing in particular
would you have yourself be remembered
by I don't know I I have to leave the
decision about how I'm going to be
remembered to uh to others but thanks
very much for the for the
quest his legacy endures like a comet's
Trail in inspiring generations to ponder
dream and Prevail car seen a luminary of
cosmic Delight his work ignites
curiosity forever a
light what is your memory of Carl San
please don't hesitate to share your
memory of Carl Sean and what his
inspiring work have meant for you in the
comment section below thank you
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