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Quote by Carl Sagan

“Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.”

Quote by Carl Sagan

Author

Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, cosmologist, author, and science communicator, born on November 9, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York. He is renowned for his profound research into the cosmos and his dedication to popularizing science. Sagan proposed numerous theories about the origin of the universe and life, and he made complex scientific knowledge accessible to the public with his unique perspective and clear, engaging writing style. more

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“In many cultures it is customary to answer that God created the universe out of nothing. But this is mere temporizing. If we wish courageously to pursue the question, we must, of course ask next where God comes from? And if we decide this to be unanswerable, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always existed?”

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Author:Carl Sagan

“Many statements about God are confidently made by theologians on grounds that today at least sound specious. Thomas Aquinas claimed to prove that God cannot make another God, or commit suicide, or make a man without a soul, or even make a triangle whose interior angles do not equal 180 degrees. But Bolyai and Lobachevsky were able to accomplish this last feat (on a curved surface) in the nineteenth century, and they were not even approximately gods.”

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Author:Carl Sagan

“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.”

Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“It means nothing to be open to a proposition we don't understand.”

Mean Religion Atheist Propositions Vastness

Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Source: Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“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. As with the face on Mars and alien abductions, better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy.”

Source: Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“If you want to save your child from polio, you can pray or you can inoculate....Try science.”

Ifs Want Trying Children Religion Praying Our Children Atheist Your Children Polio

Author:Carl Sagan

“Since World War II, Japan has spawned enormous numbers of new religions featuring the supernatural.... In Thailand, diseases are treated with pills manufactured from pulverized sacred Scripture. Witches are today being burned in South Africa.... The worldwide TM [Transcendental Meditation] organization has an estimated valuation of $3 billion. For a fee, they promise to make you invisible, to enable you to fly.”

“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.”

Source: Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“At the extremes it is difficult to distinguish pseudoscience from rigid, doctrinaire religion.”

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Book:Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Source: Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“Is it fair to be suspicious of an entire profession because of a few bad apples? There are at least two important differences, it seems to me. First, no one doubts that science actually works, whatever mistaken and fraudulent claim may from time to time be offered. But whether there are any miraculous cures from faith-healing, beyond the body's own ability to cure itself, is very much at issue. Secondly, the expose' of fraud and error in science is made almost exclusively by science. But the exposure of fraud and error in faith-healing is almost never done by other faith-healers.”