“The split between religion and science is relatively new. Isaac Newton, who first worked out the laws by which gravity held the planets and even the stars in their traces, was sufficiently impressed by the scale and regularity of the universe to ascribe it all to God.” FirstsLawUniverseStarsPlanetsScalesGravitySplitsImpressedScience And ReligionNewtonRegularityIsaac Author:Seth Shostak
“There is little chance that aliens from two societies anywhere in the Galaxy will be culturally close enough to really 'get along.' This is something to ponder as you watch the famous cantina scene in Star Wars. ... Does this make sense, given the overwhelmingly likely situation that galactic civilizations differ in their level of evolutionary development by thousands or millions of years? Would you share drinks with a trilobite, an ourang-outang, or a saber-toothed tiger? Or would you just arrange to have a few specimens stuffed and carted off to the local museum?” YearsLittlesDoeTwoWarEnoughScienceGivenStarsChanceLevelsSituationWatchesMillionsShareDevelopmentEvolutionDrinkCivilizationSceneLocalsAliensMake SenseMuseumsTigersGalaxyPondering Author:Seth Shostak
“[O]ne might ask why, in a galaxy of a few hundred billion stars, the aliens are so intent on coming to Earth at all. It would be as if every vertebrate in North America somehow felt drawn to a particular house in Peoria, Illinois. Are we really that interesting?” IfsMightWould BeEarthAmericaScienceAsksHouseStarsFeltInterestingParticularHundredBillionsAliensGalaxyNorth AmericaIllinoisVertebratesPeoria Author:Seth Shostak
