I feel a strong need to recommend to you all Carl Sagan's "Who Speaks for Earth?"

[Rabrrrrrr]

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/sagan_cosmos_who_speaks_for_earth.html

It's really too bad that our Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other leaders aren't as cherishing of life as the atheist Carl Sagan.

Sad, but true - some of the best "theology" comes from atheists.

From Episode 13 of Cosmos, one of the greatest odes to peace and sensibility and cherishing life that I've ever heard.

Here are some excerpts:

...

So, it was nuclear war, a full nuclear exchange.

There would be no more big questions, no more answers. Never again a love or a child; no descendents to remember us and be proud; no more voyages to the stars, no more songs from the earth.

I saw east Africa and thought, "a few million years ago we humans took our first steps there. Our brains grew and changed. The old parts began to be guided by the new parts, and this made us human -- with compassion and foresight and reason. But, instead, we listened to that reptilian voice within us, counseling fear, territoriality and aggression. We accepted the products of science; we rejected its methods".

Maybe the reptiles will evolve intelligence once more. Perhaps, one day, there will be civilizations again on earth. There will be life, there will be intelligence; but there will be no more humans -- not here, not in a billion worlds.

...

The conventional bombs of World War II were called "blockbusters", filled with 20 tons of TNT they could destroy a city block. All the bombs dropped on all the cities during World War II amounted to some 2 million tons of TNT -- two megatons. Coventry, Rotterdam, Dresden and Tokyo -- all the death that rained from the skies between 1939 and 1945 -- a hundred thousand blockbusters, two megatons. Today, two megatons is the equivalent of a single thermonuclear bomb -- one bomb with the destructive force of the second world war. Rut there are tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. The missile and bomber forces in the Soviet Union and United States have warheads aimed at over 15,000 designated targets. No place on the planet is safe.

The energy contained in these weapons -- genies of death, patiently awaiting the rubbing of the lamps -- totals far more than 10,000 megatons; but, with the destruction concentrated efficiently, not over six years but over a few hours. A blockbuster for every family on the planet; a World War II every second for the length of a lazy afternoon.

...

How would we explain all this to a dispassionate, extraterrestrial observer? What account would we give of our stewardship of the planet earth?

We have heard the rationales offered by the superpowers. We know who speaks for the nations; but who speaks for the human species? Who speaks for earth?

Link to the whole speech:

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/sagan_cosmos_who_speaks_for_earth.html

[Shine]

1. He came and spoke at UC Santa Cruz back when I was a student there

how interesting that he's an atheist. I didnt' know that.

Do you consider yourself an atheist too, Rabrrrrr? :shrug: Just curious...

[Rabrrrrrr]

2. No, I'm very much a Christian.

Sagan was foking incredible. A true voice of peace and compassion and life.

I was very sad the day that he died.

I wish I could have heard him speak live once. That would have been cool!

[Shine]

3. It WAS cool. That was back in his "billions and billions" days...

i remember making fun of him (hell we all did) for that comment....we'd start all our sentences that way..probably cuz we were stoned out of our minds. :rofl: heheheh. good times, good times...

yes, he was a voice of Peace. I agree. I was sad when he died, too...but I also remember thinkign that at least he was re-connected to the greater Whole, on some level.

I don't consider myself a Christian, I'm more of a born-again pagan! :D

[idgiehkt]

7. I think those SNL skits garnered him a wider audience

and helped make him a household name. :hi:

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. And Johnny Carson doing the "BILLions and BILLions" stuff, too!

:rofl:

Great men, both of them.

[Lisa]

10. that was more than a decade ago ...

I remember that my then-fiance, an astronomer, called me at work to tell me what had happened. He had never met Carl Sagan, but was very upset and shaken, regardless.

Often I wonder what Dr. Sagan would think, of all the things going on today (especially with the Bush administration). I'm sure that "the assault on reason", as Al Gore calls it, and Bush's disregard for international law (particularly on torture) would have caused him much distress.

[pokerfan]

5. not very popular to be an atheist these days

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 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

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 something 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

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, quoted from The Carl Sagan Electronic Monument

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


"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, Epilogue to Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium


Interviewer: "Didn't want to believe?"
Druyan: "He didn't want to believe. He wanted to know."
-- Ann Druyan (attributed: source unknown)

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Another thing I appreciate about Sagan is that even when he disagreed, he did it with modesty

and compassion.

Except for his rant against astrology in the Cosmos series - that was pretty pointed.

But otherwise, he had a very generous spirit, even in disagreement.

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. I made a pledge years ago not to read that

until it's set to music and song by highschoolers. And none of that overly-sophisticated "Up With People" crap.

[sarge43]

9. That whole episode moved me to tears and it still does.

He had a questing, passionate mind, a generous spirit and a loving heart. Damn it, I miss him.