American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author (1934–1996)
Carl Edward Sagan (9 November 1934 – 20 December 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space, the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them. Sagan argued the hypothesis, accepted since, that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to, and calculated using, the greenhouse effect. He testified to the US Congress in 1985 that the greenhouse effect will change the earth's climate system.
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The time scale for evolutionary or genetic change is very long. A characteristic period for the emergence of one advanced species from another is perhaps a hundred thousand years; and very often the difference in behavior between closely related
species-say, lions and tigers-do not seem very great... But today we do not have ten million years to wait for the next advance. We live in a time when our world is changing at an unprecedented rate. While the changes are largely of our own making, they cannot be ignored. We must adjust and adapt and
control, or we perish.
"Both <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/201036.Barnum" rel="nofollow noopener" title="Barnum">Barnum</a> and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7805.H__L__Mencken" rel="nofollow noopener" title="H. L. Mencken">H. L. Mencken</a> are said to have made the depressing observation that no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public. The remark has worldwide application. But the lack is not in intelligence, which is in plentiful supply; rather, the scarce commodity is systematic training in critical thinking."
If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didn't he start the universe out in the first place so it would come out the way he wants? Why's he constantly repairing and complaining? No, there's one thing the Bible makes clear: The biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. He's not good at design, he's not good at execution. He'd be out of business, if there was any competition.
"Galileo, Kopernik için helyosantrik (Dünya'nın Güneş'in çevresinde döndüğü gerçeği) varsayımının "onaylayıcısı ve canlandırıcısı" deyimini kullanır. Yoksa onu bu keşfin sahibi kılmaz. Aristarkhos'un dönemiyle Kopernik'in dönemi arasında geçen 1800 yıl boyunca gezegenlerin doğru olarak dizilişini bilen çıkmadı. Oysa MÖ 280 yılında doğru olarak açıklanmıştı. Aristarkhos'un ortaya attığı fikir, çağdaşlarını çileden çıkardı. Anaksagoras'a, Bruno'ya ve Galileo'ya karşı yükselen seslerin benzerleri Aristarkhos'a karşı da yükseldi ve dinsizlikle suçlanması istendi. Aristarkhos ve Kopernik'e karşı gösterilen direniş, Güneş'in yerküre çevresinde dödüğü görüşü günlük yaşamımızda halen de sürmektedir. Hâlâ Güneş'in "doğduğundan" Güneş'in "battığından" söz ederiz. Aristarkhos'un helyosantrizm fikrini ortaya attığından bu yana 2200 yıl geçti ve kullandığımız dil hâlâ yerküremizin dönmediği yolundadır."
In every such society, there is a cherished world of myth and metaphor which co-exists with the workaday world. Efforts to reconcile the two are made, and any rough edges at the joints tend to be off-limits and ignored. We compartmentalize. Some scientists do this too, effortlessly stepping between the skeptical world of science and the credulous world of religious belief without skipping a beat. Of course, the greater the mismatch between these two worlds, the more difficult it is to be comfortable, with untroubled conscience, with both.
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You'd be surprised how rarely something like that happens. In the long run, the aggressive civilizations destroy themselves, almost always. It's their nature. They can't help it. In such a case, our job would be to leave them alone. To make sure that no one bothers them. To let them work out their destiny.
We have entered, almost without noticing, an age of exploration and discovery unparalleled since the Renaissance. It seems to me that the practical benefits of comparative planetology for Earthbound sciences; the sense of adventure imparted by the exploration of other worlds to a society that has almost lost the opportunity for adventure; the philosophical implications of the search for a cosmic perspective — these are what will in the long run mark our time. Centuries hence, when our very real political and social problems may be as remote as the very real problems of the War of the Austrian Succession seem to us, our time may be remembered chiefly for one fact: this was the age when the inhabitants of the Earth first made contact with the cosmos around them.