WORKS OF CARL SAGAN....

[ex-xian]

Does it bother you in the least that no one takes anything you say seriously? Your posts are more of joke than anything substantial.

 

[toff]

Wow, you are a huge Sagan buff. Have you been a fan for a long time?

For a 'huge Sagan buff', it's a shame he has such a perverted idea of what the man believed.

 

[ex-xian]

For a 'huge Sagan buff', it's a shame he has such a perverted idea of what the man believed.

He's a perfect example of selective reading. He takes his own preconcieved notions of what Sagan, a good man, and reads into Sagan's writings what he wants to be there, while at the same time ignoring that which would work against his preconceptions.

 

[freespirit2001]

" The methods of science---with all its imperfections---can be used to improve social, political and economic systems, and this is, I think, true no matter what criterion of improvement is adopted."


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The Bill of Rights decoupled religion from the state, in part because so many religions were steeped in an absolutist frame of mind---each convinced that it alone had a monopoly on the truth and therefore eager for the state to impose its truth on others. Often, the leaders of absolutist religions were unable to perceive middle ground or recognize that the truth might draw upon and embrace contradictory doctrines."*


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" Thomas Jefferson was a scientist..."


".....the moment you enter his home at Monticello, Virginia...you find evidence of his scientific interests---In copying machines, automatic doors, telescopes, and other instruments at the cutting edge of nineteenth century technology. Some he invented, some he copied, some he purchased. He compared the plants and the animals of America's with Europe's, uncovered fossils, used calculus in the design of a new plow. He mastered Newtonian Physics. Nature destined him to be a scientist...other more urgent needs took precedence...he threw himself into the historic events that were transpiring around him...

Jefferson...had a hand in the writing of the Declaration of Independence...He had written that we all must have the same opportunities, the same "unalienable" rights.... he advocated the constitutional separation of powers...and freedom of speech: he believed that the habit of skepticism is the essential prerequisite for responsible leadership."*





* The Demon-Haunted World: Real Patriots Ask Questions, Carl Sagan

 

[Nathan Poe]

" The methods of science---with all its imperfections---can be used to improve social, political and economic systems, and this is, I think, true no matter what criterion of improvement is adopted."


-------------


The Bill of Rights decoupled religion from the state, in part because so many religions were steeped in an absolutist frame of mind---each convinced that it alone had a monopoly on the truth and therefore eager for the state to impose its truth on others. Often, the leaders of absolutist religions were unable to perceive middle ground or recognize that the truth might draw upon and embrace contradictory doctrines."*


-----------------


" Thomas Jefferson was a scientist..."


".....the moment you enter his home at Monticello, Virginia...you find evidence of his scientific interests---In copying machines, automatic doors, telescopes, and other instruments at the cutting edge of nineteenth century technology. Some he invented, some he copied, some he purchased. He compared the plants and the animals of America's with Europe's, uncovered fossils, used calculus in the design of a new plow. He mastered Newtonian Physics. Nature destined him to be a scientist...other more urgent needs took precedence...he threw himself into the historic events that were transpiring around him...

Jefferson...had a hand in the writing of the Declaration of Independence...He had written that we all must have the same opportunities, the same "unalienable" rights.... he advocated the constitutional separation of powers...and freedom of speech: he believed that the habit of skepticism is the essential prerequisite for responsible leadership."*





* The Demon-Haunted World: Real Patriots Ask Questions, Carl Sagan

Mind if I ask what the heck this has to do with anything?

 

[freespirit2001]

The Chapter " REAL PATRIOTS ASK QUESTIONS " gets to me....Sagan wrote this chapter before 9/11...............

I'd thought I'd share the fact, that I didn't know, that Thomas Jefferson...with all his work helping to construct the Declaration of Independence, also was a scientist....