Oh Carl, how I miss you.

[sufrommich]

"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before? Whenever our ethnic and national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during challenges to national self-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around us—then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls. The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir."
—The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1996


:scared:

[tabatha]

1. Great writing.

[sufrommich]

2. One of my all time favorite books. nt

[CrispyQ]

3. I do too.

A few years before his death he wrote an article that appeared in the Parade magazine that comes with the Sunday paper. I don't recall exactly what it was about, but he was expressing magnitude. Accompanying the article was this:




Twelve days to count to a million, 32 years just to count to a billion. ;)

k&r

[sufrommich]

5. Dr. Sagan was a pro at expressing hard to explain concepts. He

loved turning kids on to science. I believe he was a fairly regular contributer to Parade magazine.

[DrDan]

4. "Darkness gathers" . . . . on target there.

[janet118]

6. I always wondered if he got to preview Contact before he died . . .

that movie took me to another place. Not many films can do that.

[Odin2005]

7. He would have been horrified by the last 13 years since his death

[sufrommich]

8. Yes, he was horrified by the rise of the right wing during

the Reagan years, which seem tame in comparison now.

[WillyT]

9. Yep...

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

Carl Sagan