Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal's 'Pensees' and read, 'I am the great silent spaces between worlds.'
Interpretation
The quote reflects the profound connection between existence and the vast, often unarticulated experiences of life.
Carl Sagan's reference to Pascal's quote highlights the awe and terror we may feel when contemplating the vast silence of the universe and our place within it. The 'great silent spaces between worlds' suggests that there is much about existence that remains unspoken and unknown, evoking both a sense of wonder and existential dread.
In practice
Discussing the mysteries of life in a philosophy class.
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.
What ought a man be? Well, my short answer is 'himself'.
We have lived long enough to experience the hollowness of earth and the rottenness of all carnal promises.
Anything's possible in Human Nature," Chacko said in his Reading Aloud voice. Talking to the darkness now, suddenly insensitive to his little fountain-haired niece. "Love. Madness. Hope. Infinite joy." Of the four things that were Possible in Human Nature, Rahel thought that Infinnate Joy sounded the saddest. Perhaps because of the way Chacko said it. Infinnate Joy. With a church sound to it. Like a sad fish with fins all over.
A statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so.
None of our prayers should ever be petitions for our own needs: for this is only another subtle way of trying to put ourselves on the same plane as God β acting as if we had no needs, as if we were not creatures, not dependent on Him.
We make an idol of truth itself; for truth apart from charity is not God, but His image and idol, which we must neither love nor worship.
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