Alan, you quoted Carl Sagan, (anyone can repply)

by one 10 Replies latest jw friends

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  one

  Alan,

  I am lazy and never read too much about speculative topics such as metaphysics but,

  somewhere in this board you make reference about a guy who, imo (not that i know much about him), made a lot of speculations

  As Carl Sagan once remarked, it's remarkable that a religion so transparently dishonest has any adherents at all, but that's a measure of the gullibility of the ultra-religious mind.

  Can you specify where i can find his "remark"?

  Did the WT said anything about Carl Sagan?

  Do you or anyone know if he ever published the book "witches and demons"? I can't find it. At present i just want to know what his bottom line is.

  I also would like to know the actual general opinion about the man,

  and if he was consistant about his belief on life "outhere"

  BTW

  How your daughter is doing? the one who suffered a terrible accidente...
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  paterfamilias

  One,

  I believe you are referring to the quote that can be seen here. It's from Broca's Brain (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979, pp. 332-333).
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  garybuss

  If Alan is busy, here is his link to the quote you are looking for.
  http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/sagan.htm
  
  Alan's great page:
  http://www.geocities.com/osarsif/index2.htm
  
  
  
  
  
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  RunningMan

  Carl Sagan published a book called "The Demon Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark". I highly recommend it.

  As for whether the Society ever commented on Sagan, they did manage to find the time to misquote him. Note what it says in the Reasoning book:

  ? Carl Sagan, in his book Cosmos, candidly acknowledged ?The fossil evidence could be consistent with the idea of a great designer.?? - Reasoning from the Scriptures, 1985, p124

  Now, note what the quote really said:

  ?The fossil evidence could be consistent with the idea of a great designer; perhaps some species are destroyed when the Designer becomes dissatisfied with them, and new experiments are attempted on an imperfect design. But this notion is a little disconcerting. Each plant and animal is exquisitly made; should not a supremely competent Designer have been able to make the intended variety from the start? The fossil record implies trial and error, an inability to anticipate the future, features inconsistent with an efficient Great Designer (although not with a designer of a more remote and indirect temperment).? - Cosmos, p29

  Notice how they took part of sentence out of context, and dishonestly tried to make it look like he was supporting their view?
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  Kaethra

  Thanks for that Runningman...what a great example of WT's blatant dishonesty! I hadn't seen that one before.
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  one

  Thanks you all for the links and comments.

  Yesterday a lawyer friend of mine told me that Carl wrote the books "witches and demons", and "angels demons".

  That such books demostrated or concluded, by scientific methods, that there is "life outhere", so to speak.

  AND that the space programs were initated due to his influence on the issue, 'go and find out'..

  BUT i also heard that he consumed marijuana on a regular basis... and wrote books under the influence of the weed.

  Some stimulants, like coffe can make you think "faster". Not that i am an expert of ever consumed any kind of drugs, (alcohol yes, hehehe), but some drugs "experts' and drug users have stated that marijuana can really have an 'effect' on you.

  Based on the above, what do think about the guy and his writtings. He died at what can be considered an "early" age...

  I have seen with my own eyes how crack users, while intoxicated, "think" they see a hear things...weird, hard to deal with them in such conditions.
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  Siddhashunyata

  one, there has been much published on the insights gained from experimental use of marijuana , also much has been written on the abuse of smoking marijuana. You state that you have "heard" that Carl Sagen used it regularly. I don't doubt that possibility but it would be good to have the source of that information. Do you know where you heard or read that?

  Two legendary sources for understanding how insights can come from the use of "hallucinogens" are Aldous Huxley and and Alan Watts. Of course, there are others. The remarkable thing about these men is that they sought to explain the significance of their experience and what it might mean for every man . Carl Sagen's concerns seem to be more narrow although it would not seem so because he focuses his thought on the manifested universe.

  In any event , if you have the source of that hearsay please pass it along. With appreciation, thanks.
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  one

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Sagan

  Carl Sagan was an avid user of marijuana , although he never publicly admitted it during his life. Under the pseudonym "Mr. X," he wrote an essay concerning cannabis smoking in the 1971 book Marihuana Reconsidered, whose editor was Lester Grinspoon . In the essay Sagan commented that marijuana encouraged some of his works and enhanced experiences. After Sagan's death, Grinspoon disclosed this to Sagan's biographer Keay Davidson. When the biography, entitled Sagan: A Life, was published in 1999, the marijuana exposure stirred some media attention.

  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n882/a01.html

  SAN FRANCISCO ( AP ) - The late astronomer and author Carl Sagan was a secret but avid marijuana smoker, crediting it with inspiring essays and scientific insight, according to Sagan's biographer.

  http://www.marijuana-uses.com/essays/002.html

  By Carl Sagan

  This account was written in 1969 for publication in Marihuana Reconsidered (1971). Sagan was in his mid-thirties at that time. He continued to use cannabis for the rest of his life.

  It all began about ten years ago. I had reached a considerably more relaxed period in my life - a time when I had come to feel that there was more to living than science, a time of awakening of my social consciousness and amiability, a time when I was open to new experiences

  http://news.xp.com/read.html?postid=121&replies=0

  Oddly EnoughBiographer says Carl Sagan drew inspiration from marijuana
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  Siddhashunyata

  one, thank you..
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  MungoBaobab

  A little known bit of trivia is that his son was a staff writer on Star Trek Voyager.