Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
Personally, I would be delighted if there were a life after death, especially if it permitted me to continue to learn about this world and others, if it gave me a chance to discover how history turns out.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for life after death as a means to further explore knowledge and the unfolding of history.
In this quote, Carl Sagan reflects on the concept of life after death, suggesting that he would find great joy in the possibility of continuing his quest for knowledge beyond this life. He emphasizes the importance of learning and discovery, not just about our own world, but also about the mysteries of the universe and the outcomes of historical events, highlighting a deep curiosity and a longing for understanding.
In practice
In a discussion about the afterlife at a philosophical gathering.
Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Abolitionists believe that, as all men are born free, so all who are now held as slaves in this country were born free, and that they are slaves now is the sin, not of those who introduced the race into this country, but of those, and those alone, who now hold them and have held them in slavery from their birth.
There is nothing less to our credit than our neglect of the foreigner and his children, unless it be the arrogance most of us betray when we set out to "Americanize" him.
A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul.
Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them.
If you have not discovered something you are willing to die for, then you are not fit to live.
I came to believe in a power much higher than I
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