A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? . . . No other human institution comes close. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
We all have a thirst for wonder. It's a deeply human quality. Science and religion are both bound up with it. What… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“...there is no deeper religious feeling than the feeling for the natural world. I wouldn't separate the world of nature from the… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Virtually every major technological advance in the history of the human species - back to the invention of stone tools and the… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“When I wake up I go through an abbreviated process of mourning all over again. Plainly, there’s something within me that’s ready… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
My long-time view about Christianity is that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts-the religion of Jesus and the religion… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The Bill of Rights decoupled religion from the state, in part because so many religions were steeped in an absolutist frame of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And what if all of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“For a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations, as in ancient Greece in the time… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“What do we really want from religion? Palliatives? Therapy? Comfort? Do we want reassuring fables or an understanding of our actual circumstances?… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Christianity may be good and Satanism evil. Under the Constitution, however, both are neutral. This is an important, but difficult, concept for… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Many statements about God are confidently made by theologians on grounds that today at least sound specious. Thomas Aquinas claimed to prove… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Your religion assumes that people are children and need a boogeyman so they'll behave. You want people to believe in God so… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion and politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
When you realize that no one really knows what they are doing and that everyone is doing the best they can according… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“[ When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996 :] If ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
They (i. e., the Pythagoreans) did not advocate the free confrontation of conflicting points of view. Instead, like all orthodox religions, they… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Religions are tough. Either they make no contentions which are subject to disproof or they quickly redesign doctrine after disproof. ... near… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And what if all of… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
If we're capable of conjuring up terrifying monsters in childhood, why shouldn't some of us, at least on occasion, be able to… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Huygens was, of course, a citizen of his time. Who of us is not? He claimed science as his religion and then… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“Christiaan Huygens became simultaneously adept in languages, drawing, law, science, engineering, mathematics and music. His interests and allegiances were broad. “The world… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Where did God come from? If we decide this is an unanswerable question why not save a step and conclude that the… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
A multitude of aspects of the natural world that were considered miraculous only a few generations ago are now thoroughly understood in… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“The Greek religion explained that diffuse band of light in the night sky as the milk of Hera, squirted from her breast… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
Religions contradict one another-on small matters, such as whether we should put on a hat or take one off on entering a… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and said, 'This is better than we thought! The universe… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
“It's no surprise that appeals to a state of mind called faith can relieve symptoms caused, at least in part, by another,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an… — Carl Sagan Copy Share Image
It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
The prediction of nuclear winter is drawn not, of course, from any direct experience with the consequences of global nuclear war, but rather from… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge; it has no… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“Telepathy’ literally means to feel at a distance, just as ‘telephone’ is to hear at a distance and ‘television’ is to see at a… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“On the scale of worlds—to say nothing of stars or galaxies—humans are inconsequential, a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
In our time, we have sifted the sands of Mars, we have established a presence there, we have fulfilled a century of dreams! — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“[ When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996 :] If ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is your criterion,… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
“Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
A tiny blue dot set in a sunbeam. Here it is. That's where we live. That's home. We humans are one species and this… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
Any sufficiently crisp question can be answered by a single binary digit-0 or 1, yes or no. — Carl Sagan Copy Share
Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain.… — Carl Sagan Copy Share
![“[ When a religious couple wrote to Sagan about fulfilled prophecies, he wrote back in May 1996 :] If ‘fulfilled prophecy’ is your criterion, why do you not believe in materialistic science, which has an unparalleled record of fulfilled prophecy? Consider, for example, eclipses.” quote by Carl Sagan](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/875/carl-sagan-160_belief_when-a-religious-couple-wrote-to-sagan-a_25095.jpg)
