Carl sagan is the one the greatest teachers and scientific minds
to have lived on our planet . He will be missed.
He makes me proud to be an atheist. He taught me that we have a
great responsibilty to try and rescue a world torn apart by
mysticism and religion.
heres a list of quotes from dr. Sagan on atheism :
The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's
just the best we have. And to abandon it with its skeptical
protocols is the pathway to a dark age.
-- Carl Sagan, sound clip from CSICOP
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
-- Carl Sagan (unknown: possibly from his Cosmos TV series, but we
are curcrently unable to personally verify or refute either a claim
that it is from the Cosmos TV show or another claim that it is from
the Billions and Billions book)
The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the
supression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World, p. 429
If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can
inoculate.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 30
If we crave some cosmic purpose, then let us find ourselves a
worthy goal.
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we
are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice
in deflating our conceits?
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
Modern science has been a voyage into the unknown, with a lesson in
humility waiting at every stop. Many passengers would rather have
stayed home.
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star
that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way
Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a
universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an
infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human
life and our culture that is well worth pondering.
-- Carl Sagan, quoted in Dan Lewandowski and John Stear, "A Tribute
To Carl Sagan"
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, quoted from The Carl Sagan
Electronic Monument
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
If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be
eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data,
not mere anecdote.... Better the hard truth, I say, than the
comforting fantasy.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 204
If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question
authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.
But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then
those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching
our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of
Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community
spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of
being human, this may be all that stands between us and the
enveloping darkness.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that
some thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue. But
as much as I want to believe that, and despite the ancient and
worldwide cultural traditions that assert an afterlife, I know of
nothing to suggest that it is more than wishful thinking.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World
You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not
based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to
believe.
-- Carl Sagan (attributed: source unknown)
Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with
prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies,
however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their
beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic
accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution
comes close.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 30
In Italy, the Inquisition was condemning people to death until the
end of the eighteenth century, and inquisitional torture was not
abolished in the Catholic Church until 1816. The last bastion of
support for the reality of witchcraft and the necessity of
punishment has been the Christian churches.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 413
A religion that stressed the magnificence of the universe as
revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of
reverence and awe hardly tapped by traditional faiths. Sooner or
later, such a religion will emerge.
-- Carl Sagan, quoted from the United Universists front page
Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for
Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but
also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.
-- Carl Sagan, quoted from John Stear, No Answers in Genesis
There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's
perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's
right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new
ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and
scrutiny.
-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos television series, quoted from The Carl Sagan
Electronic Monument
It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to
persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World
We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the
truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be
afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish
speculation from fact.
-- Carl Sagan, Cosmos television series, quoted from The Carl Sagan
Electronic Monument
But amid much elegance and precision, the details of life and the
Universe also exhibit haphazard, jury-rigged arrangements and much
poor planning. What shall we make of this: an edifice abandoned
early in construction by the architect?
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
The evidence, so far at least and laws of Nature aside, does not
require a Designer. Maybe there is one hiding, maddeningly
unwilling to be revealed.
-- Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot
The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that
there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for
which there's little good evidence. Far better, it seems to me, in
our vulnerability, is to look Death in the eye and to be grateful
every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life
provides.
-- Carl Sagan, Billions and Billions p. 215
When you make the finding yourself -- even if you're the last
person on Earth to see the light -- you never forget it.
-- Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World, p. 413
"Contrary to the fantasies of the fundamentalists, there was no
deathbed conversion, no last minute refuge taken in a comforting
vision of a heaven or an afterlife. For Carl, what mattered most
was what was true, not merely what would make us feel better. Even
at this moment when anyone would be forgiven for turning away from
the reality of our situation, Carl was unflinching. As we looked
deeply into each other's eyes, it was with a shared conviction that
our wondrous life together was ending forever."
-- Ann Druyan(widow of Carl Sagan), Epilogue to Billions and
Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the
Millennium