Once a Scientist, Then a Priest

The National Post ^ | Colby Cosh

[caveat emptor]

Once a scientist, then a priest

Colby Cosh, National Post Published: Friday, December 22, 2006

Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan, the American astrophysicist and novelist who became famous as the writer and presenter of the 1980 PBS series Cosmos. The decennial of his demise is being observed by scientists, humanists and writers everywhere, and the international newspapers and notable Web logs are full of personal testimony to his influence as a communicator....(snip)

[caveat emptor]

....Sagan died without realizing his true offence, which was not in being mistaken (or being human), but in claiming the privilege of preaching on behalf of science. Any body of received knowledge stops being science the moment it starts being a priesthood. Sadly, Sagan's promotional playbook has proven more influential in the hands of environmentalists and health fanatics than anything he ever accomplished in astrophysics. Al Gore, for one, is doing an ongoing Sagan imitation that borders on the clownish, borrowing the vocal style and even the wardrobe without one iota of the genius. Shakespeare had it right: Too often, the evil that men do lives after them.

[LiteKeeper]

Just remember, there are no dead atheists!

[CertainInalienableRights]

Too often, the evil that men do lives after them.

Great tagline material...

[big'ol_freeper]

Ping

[onedoug]

I'll take Pascal's Bet, thanks.

From the very nano-second the symmetry of the creation event was broken, and nuclear strong and weak/electromagnetic forces somehow therein also gave rise to gravitation which, though exceptionally weak by the other three, nonetheless gradually coalesced their parts into various galactic types and structures.

And as we live in one out of billions of those spiral galaxies, two thirds of the way out from its dense center between whirling arms which are relatively debris and dust free; where metals are fairly well concentrated, but rarer in the Milky Way’s outer reaches…. Where too, were we further in, we wouldn’t be able to see the universe outside.

That we live in the habitable zone of a single G2V star, in a system with a large outer planet to sweep up a considerable amount of debris that might otherwise be drawn to the inner solar system and collide with Earth.

That we have a magnetic field which protects us from too much cosmic and solar radiation, and allows us too – geometrically by the more distant stars – to navigate around our planet.

That we have a moon massive enough to stabilize our planetary axis, and which perhaps also couples gravitationally to assist plate tectonics in recycling our oceanic crust and mantle, yielding a balance of nitrogen/oxygen and carbon dioxide to our atmosphere.

That the laws of physics at both the macro- and micro levels should be so fine tuned - and unified! - allowing these processes to be carried out at all.

That we are alive in such a system!

The odds of it – ALL - seem somehow inconceivable that there isn’t God who – being God sets the values of good and evil, and cares that we should prefer that Good.

"If I knew God I’d be Him." Though He must supra-exist.

[buck61]

Now this is what I classify, WAY OUT!!!!!:-)

[caveat emptor]

Thought you might enjoy this.

Leftist, scientist/public intellectuals, the gift that gives on giving (humor).

[Dumb_Ox]

Sagan was for the most part before my time. I think I read his "Contact," that's it. Must he really be brought up now? Is there an anniversary coming up? I thought he was mostly forgotten already, his pop-science straw men having been replaced by those of Richard Dawkins.

[caveat emptor]

Must he really be brought up now? Is there an anniversary coming up?

Lead paragraph of the article:

Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the death of Carl Sagan, the American astrophysicist and novelist who became famous as the writer and presenter of the 1980 PBS series Cosmos. The decennial of his demise is being observed by scientists, humanists and writers everywhere, and the international newspapers and notable Web logs are full of personal testimony to his influence as a communicator....(snip)

[HIDEK6]

Shakespeare had it right: Too often, the evil that men do lives after them.

Oh?

I'm speaking from a 50 year-old memory, but as I recall the quote it was, "The good that men do lives after them; the bad is oft interred with their bones."

Marc Antony's speech over the body of Caesar.

[caveat emptor]

I'm speaking from a 50 year-old memory, but as I recall the quote it was, "The good that men do lives after them; the bad is oft interred with their bones."

Hmmm. The other way round seems more realistic to me, but I'll check out your reference. Meanwhile, see Google here.

[HIDEK6]

But then, the last time I heard the quote was in 1956.

[caveat emptor]

Antony: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it is a grievous fault;
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest, -
For Brutus is an honrable man;
So are they all, all honrable men, -
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honorable man.
o Julius Caesar Act III, sc. ii

Thanks for the quote. Adds some perspective to Cosh's remark. And two words reversed ain't bad after 50 years.

[HIDEK6]

I looked it up myself, too. I stand corrected. Thank you for doing the research.