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During the late 80’s Carl Sagan advocated very strongly that Voyager 1 turn around as it was leaving sight of Earth, for one last photo of home. It did so for just an instant, but that one instant was enough, providing us with one of the most humbling images of human achievement in space. When that photo was taken the Voyager 1 craft was approximately 6 billion kilometers from earth and over 120 times further from the sun than Earth.
Below are some extracts from his book, PALE BLUE DOT, A Vision of the Human Future in Space.
“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.”
“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” 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.”
“Ann Druyan (Sagan’s wife) suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?”
Having recently relocated from South Africa to the Gulf, I was immediately struck by how my host country and it’s people are unreservedly and wholly proselytized by the beliefs and rituals of Islam, so much so that it makes the beliefs and rituals of Christianity, certainly as far as South Africa is concerned completely insignificant by comparison. South African “Christians” say they are religious and they sometimes act as if they are religious but they are nothing of the sort. They like to preach that the love of their God and the menace of Satan is the end all and be all of their existence, but in reality they are little more than a nation of charismatic, pontificating “pretend believers”.
I have come to the realization that one of the main reasons the so called “white Christian Afrikaner “ is so heartbreakingly depressed and lost in their own misery about their state of affairs because they truly and honestly believe that one day an all-conquering Magic Man will descend from the heavens and rescue them from their cruel fate.
The golden age of Bronze Age religions are coming to an end as more and more people are becoming more and more educated and enlightened but sadly millions of children are still being indoctrinated and brainwashed from infancy into believing in the god of their parents.
To all of you who would now like to argue that their god is the true and only god and that all non-believers are destined to burn in hell I want to say this: Stop thinking so fucking small, get off your knees, wipe the tears from your eyes and start working to change your life because there is no god coming to save you.
http://learni.st/users/58/boards/37464-voyager-1-has-left-the-solar-system-or-has-it-
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1816628-a-pale-blue-dot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot_%28book%29
https://www.google.com/search?q=carl+sagan&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
http://www.csicop.org/si/show/carl_sagans_life_and_legacy_as_scientist_teacher_and_skeptic
