No one tells it like carl...

goddamnitimissyoucarl!!!!

Carl sagan's words: as important now as they were then

i finished reading carl sagan's the dragons of eden several weeks ago, but i've been consistently haunted by the hard-hitting foreshadowy warning he scribed in the very last pages.

he wrote (in 1977 mind you):

"There is today in the West (but not in the East) a resurgent interest in vague, anecdotal and often demonstrably erroneous doctrines that, if true, would betoken at least a more interesting universe, but that, if false, imply an intellectual carelessness, an absence of toughmindedness, and a diversion of energies not very promising for our survival.  Such doctrines include astrology (the view that which stars, one hundred trillion miles away, are rising at the moment of my birth in a closed building affect my destiny profoundly); the Bermuda Triangle "mystery" (which holds in many versions that an unidentified flying object lives in the ocean off Bermuda and eats ships and airplanes); flying saucer accounts in general; the belief in ancient astronauts; the photography of ghosts; pyramidology (including the view that my razor blade stays sharper within a cardboard pyramid than within a cardboard cube); Scientology; auras and Kirlian photography; the emotional lives and musical preferences of geraniums; psychic surgery; flat and hollow earths; modern prophecy; remote cutlery warping; astral projections; Velikovskian catastrophism; Atlantis and Mu; spiritualism; and the doctrine of the special creation, by God or gods, of mankind despite our deep relatedness, both in biochemistry and in brain physiology, with the other animals.  It may be that there are kernels of truth in a few of these doctrines, but their widespread acceptance betokens a lack of intellectual rigor, an absence of skepticism, a need to replace experiments by desires."

and now i ask you this: HAS ANYTHING CHANGED???????

Things that keep me up at night for $200, alex

A great interview with my favorite dick

when it comes to great minds of now, i can't imagine a list that didn't include richard dawkins. the new york times ran this great piece on him recently and i encourage you to read it. (read his books too, they're fascinatingly badass)

here are a few quotes from the article that stand out to me:

“Religion teaches you to be satisfied with nonanswers. It’s a sort of crime against childhood.”

“I’ve had perfectly wonderful conversations with Anglican bishops, and I rather suspect if you asked in a candid moment, they’d say they don’t believe in the virgin birth. But for every one of them, four others would tell a child she’ll rot in hell for doubting.”

“If you look up at the Milky Way through the eyes of Carl Sagan, you get a feeling in your chest of something greater than yourself. And it is. But it’s not supernatural.”

boo yah.

Another random ode to greatness

much of who i am today in regards to my ability to ask questions and seek answers and be informed comes from the man blowing bubbles above.

i wish he were still alive. though i never met him, i feel like i know him, like i would know an uncle or grandfather.

i'm getting close to having finished all of his books. once i'm done reading them, i will face the tough reality that there aren't any more.

while some people might not see any issue with that, for me, it makes me... sad.

(gif via skull swap)

Heroic gifs part 1

 

 (via skull swap)

Appy-polly-loggies!!!

if i had kids i'd be doin' shit like this all the time.

right now i'm plotting to dress my uber christian delusionoid sister's kids up like carl sagan and richard dawkins next time they come visit.

don't judge me, you heathens. you'd do the same.

INFIDELS UNITE!

(image via ihmp)

15 1/2 years he's been gone and i'm still sick about it...

I MISS YOU CARL SAGAN!!!

Things carl sagan said...

"It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring."

Things carl sagan said...

"Superstition and pseudoscience keep getting in the way, providing easy answers, dodging skeptical scrutiny, casually pressing our awe buttons and cheapening the experience, making us routine and comfortable practitioners as well as victims of cruelty. The tenets of skepticism do not require an advanced degree to master, as most successful used car buyers demonstrate."

Things carl sagan said...

"Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy."

Look, just bear with me

'cuz i know this is kinda long for a youtube vid, but man this little demonstration by carl sagan is what the kidz call the bomb shiznit or some shit like that.

flatland, people.

fucking flatland.

and carl sagan.

how can this not be the best 7 plus minutes on the interwebs.

i think it is.

i tried to explain this idea to my mother, who then slurred jesus at me, then didn't talk to me for a couple months.

spread at your own risk.

Another way to put it

i'm a collection of organic molecules called...

...zelig skykiller...

... :-) ...
!BOOM!

One bitchin' song...

My crush 3

okay, this is one of them man-crushes... but come on, how can one not crush on carl sagan?

i simply can't get enough of carl sagan. if he were alive i'd drive to wherever he was and knock on his door over and over again until either a) the cops take me away or b) he agrees to hang out with me for at least one hour.

of course, i'm lying but i wish i weren't.

elegant to the point of creating a sort of music with his speech, sagan made science fun, important, relevant.

just watch this clip:

i have an overwhelming desire to buy sagan a beer, put my arm around him and tell him i'm happy.

but he's dead so i can't.

but i can tell you.

i'm happy!