A multitude of aspects of the natural world that were consi… - Carl Sagan

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A multitude of aspects of the natural world that were considered miraculous only a few generations ago are now thoroughly understood in terms of physics and chemistry. At least some of the mysteries of today will be comprehensively solved by our descendants. The fact that we cannot now produce a detailed understanding of, say, altered states of consciousness in terms of brain chemistry no more implies the existence of a “spirit world” than a sunflower following the Sun in it’s course across the sky was evidence of a literal miracle before we knew about phototropism and plant hormones.

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

naturalism Science supernaturalism

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About Carl Sagan

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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Also Known As

Native Name: Carl Edward Sagan

Alternative Names: Sagan • Carl E. Sagan • Carl E Sagan • C. E. Sagan • C.E. Sagan • C E Sagan • C. Sagan • C Sagan • Sagan C • Sagan C. • Sagan C. E. • Sagan CE

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Additional quotes by Carl Sagan

After I give lectures — on almost any subject — I often am asked, “Do you believe in UFOs?” I’m always struck by how the question is phrased, the suggestion that this is a matter of belief and not of evidence. I’m almost never asked, “How good is the evidence that UFOs are alien spaceships?” I

Like charges, charges of the same sign, strongly repel one another. We can think of it as a dedicated mutual aversion to their own kind, a little as if the world were densely populated by anchorites and misanthropes.

The nature of life on Earth and the search for life elsewhere are two sides of the same question — the search for who we are.

A multitude of aspects of the natural world that were considered miraculous only a few generations ago are now thoroughly understood in terms of phys… - Carl Sagan

About Carl Sagan

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