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Carl Sagan

(9 Nov 1934 - 20 Dec 1996)

American astronomer, exobiologist and writer remembered for popularizing astronomy and science, especially with his public television series Cosmos. Its accompanying book spent seventy weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. He was an adviser to NASA for the Mariner, Voyager, and Viking unmanned space missions.

Short biography of Carl Sagan >>

A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later such a religion will emerge.

— Carl Sagan

Pale Blue Dot: a Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), 52.

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

— Carl Sagan

The Demon-Haunted World (1996), 30.

Religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. … near the core of the religious experience is something remarkably resistant to rational inquiry.

— Carl Sagan

From 'A Sunday Sermon', in Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science (1975, 2011), 332-333.

Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual ... The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.

— Carl Sagan

In Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), 29.

Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep insights can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

— Carl Sagan

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Carl Sagan quote: The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were ma

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Carl Sagan quote: The cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.

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Carl Sagan quote: If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.

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See also:

9 Nov - short biography, births, deaths and events on date of Sagan's birth.
Carl Sagan - context of quote “Advances in medicine and agriculture” - Medium image (500 x 250 px)
Carl Sagan - context of quote “Advances in medicine and agriculture” - Large image (800 x 400 px)
Carl Sagan - context of quote A Subject Called Chemistry - Medium image (500 x 350 px)
Carl Sagan - context of quote A Subject Called Chemistry - Large image (800 x 600 px)
Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos, by William Poundstone. - book suggestion.
Booklist for Carl Sagan.

In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) -- Carl Sagan

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