The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

Whether you're an Atheist, Agnostic, or simply don't what you believe this a great, underrated, rarely mentioned gem.

I would love to spend a paragraph or two on how lucky we were and are to have had Carl Sagan among us. Of course, anyone reading this review likely already knows that this is true and the extent of its truth. So, I will get to the point. This is a very impressive posthumous collection of Sagan's Gifford's lectures where he talks about the intersection (or lack thereof) of sceince and religion. Most importantly, he talks about how the religious experience - more appropriately, the experience of extreme awe at our surroundings - is more apt for science than in religion. Where religious awe and wonderment revels in mystery, sceintific awe acknowledges the mystery and goes about extirpate that mystery via some explanation. Wheras religion's version of solving a problem is to postulate magic, science's version of solving problems involves solving them with evidence. The first few essays are about the idea of the 'religious experience' - the acknowledgement of how small we are and how vast is the universe; the acknowledgement of how sublime all of our surroundings truly are. But science, suggests Sagan, seeks to find out about those surrounding, while religion revels in the idea of the 'incomprehensible.' There is an essay that continues this theme by postulating on the possible NATURALISTIC origins of life. While we have not solved the puzzle, Sagan walks us through very plausible examples of how the chemical process COULD HAVE gone (certainly more plausible than an infinitely complex god deciding to create all of this, by which you then have to explain how THAT god arose.) Another essay exposes the very embarassing 'proofs' of god that theologians have come up with through the years. Most atheists or agnostics will already be familiar with most of these, but Sagan rehashes and debunks them with crystal clear prose that is not so much combative as matter-of-fact. (Sagan wins over Dawkins here.) The next few essays - of concern to Sagan his whole career through - talk about the importance of we humans realizing that just as our existince wasn't inevitable, neither is our continued existence. Sagan died in 1996 and, sad to say, not much has changed in terms of nuclear proliferation, etc. In fact, Sagan died before terrorism really took center stage via 9/11. Had he lived to see it, doubtless these essays would sound more urgent (a la Sam Harris). Yet, he writes of the dangers humans face should they want to live a full and long 21st century. The common theme in this book - as in his earlier Demon Haunted World - was to guard against the perils of superstition, be it religious beliefs that cannot be subjected to scientific scrutiny, the belief that our planet is the center of everything, the belief that humans continued existence is assured because of divine fiat, etc. I am not sure how else to end my review of this very worthy book but to say - Thank You, Mr. Sagan (and Mrs. Drunyan).

+++++ Former professor of astronomy & space sciences and former director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University Dr. Carl Sagan (Nov. 1934 to Dec. 1996) has risen from the dead to write a book on his search for God!! Well, not quite. Sagan's third wife & widow and his longtime collaborator Ann "Annie" Druyan has turned his 1985 lectures (formally entitled the "Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology") that he presented at the University of Glasgow in Scotland into a fascinating book. Astronomer and the Sagans' dear friend Steven Soter wrote scientific updates that appear in the book's footnotes and, as well, he made "many editorial contributions." The purpose of these lectures as Druyan tells us is as follows: "Carl saw these lectures as a chance to set down in detail his understanding of the relationship between religion and science and something of his own search to understand the nature of the sacred." But exactly why did Druyan turn these lectures into a book (which she edited)? Here's her answer: "In the midst of the worldwide pandemic of extreme fundamentalist violence and during a time in the United States when phony piety in public life reached a new low and the critical separation of church and state and public classroom were dangerously eroded, I felt that Carl's perspective on these questions was needed for than ever." Thank goodness that she thought this way because she has given all of us a valuable book to be cherished, "a...stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being." For those who have followed Sagan's writings in the past, the science he presents will be familiar and easy to follow. He does though illuminate his discussion with examples from such disciplines as cosmology, physics, philosophy, literature, psychology, cultural anthropology, mythology, and theology. What was especially new and unexpected to me were the religious viewpoints that he presents. I have never read these before and this is what makes this book a treat to read. These religious viewpoints are especially prominent in the last 5 chapters or lectures. They are entitled: (1) Extraterrestrial folklore: implications for the evolution of religion (2) The God hypothesis (an excellent chapter!!) (3) The religious experience (4) Crimes against creation (5) The search Sagan emphasizes an important point right at the beginning of the book in the "Author's Introduction" that he wrote in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct., 1985: "I want to stress that what I will be saying are my own personal views on [the relationship] between science and religion...I hope only to trace my own thinking and understanding of [this relationship]." This book has more than 35 figures or illustrations (mainly in the form of color photographs). The bulk of the photographs occur in the first four chapters that have the following titles (I have also included the number of illustrations per chapter): (1) Nature and wonder: a reconnaiss

I credit Carl Sagan's television series Cosmos (along with Randi's book, Flim Flam) with being the first to open my eyes to reality when I was in college. I had been raised a xian, but not strongly so, not much praying, church-going, bible-reading, etc. I hadn't really given the matter much thought until I was exposed to the concepts of critical thinking I learned from Sagan and James Randi. Years later, I felt that Sagan's Demon-Haunted World was the definitive book on the subject of critical thinking. I thought that any intelligent and open-minded individual who read it would absolutely have to come to the same conclusions as Sagan. I thought it should be required reading in schools. Now comes this "new" book. When I first picked it up, I thought there was nothing new I could learn from Sagan, but I felt I owed it to his memory to read it. I am still not quite finished reading it, but I am so overwhelmed by it that I simply had to post right away. The points that he makes are so amazing and so beautiful and so simple and yet so complex...I lack the words to give this book its fair due. I will simply say...read this book. I feel the way I did when I first discovered these things 25 years ago - in awe. I feel as though I'm discovering these things for the first time, and once again I find that it takes my breath awat. And once more, I can't help but think "how could anyone read this and not give up their belief in a supernatural god?" I have just finished reading Dawkins's The God Delusion. It was an excellent book and makes several of the exact same points. But nobody does it like Sagan. While Dawkins comes across as angry and hostile toward religion (for good reason, don't get me wrong), Sagan simply comes across as someone who has explored all of the options and come upon the only logical conclusion and simply wants to share it with everyone. A more people-friendly version of Dawkins. Again, if you haven't yet picked up this excellent book, do it now. Your New Year's resolution just might be to think about everything you thought you knew in a whole new way.

Carl Sagan is back, just when we really need him, thanks to Ann Druyan, who has done an elegant job of editing this book. With science under attack from reactionary politicians and fundamentalist preachers, it's time for scientists to abandon their tiresome platitudes about science having nothing to say about religion and come down from their ivory towers and save the world from nonsense. With this book, Sagan continues to set a brilliant example for other scientists who need to learn to speak clearly and without condescension to non-scientists about evolution, the age of the earth, the vastness of the universe, and other matters that for the most part should not be topics of raging controversy and massive ignorance in the 21st Century.

Science's esteemed friend Carl Sagan died prematurely in 1996. What a pleasure it is to read more of his crystal clear prose. In these transcripts of his 1985 Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology at the University of Glasgow, he gives us his rich insights on the relationship between science and religion. William James had a turn in the early 20th century and turned his lectures into the acclaimed "Varieties of Religious Experiences." "Varieties of Scientific Experiences" is edited by Sagan's widow and collaborator Ann Druyan and she acknowledges his admiration for James in the title of this book. Starting with cosmology, Sagan leads us through a naturalistic view of the universe - meaning except for the most extreme liberal interpretation of God, He is not part of the equation. But the believer who desires the bigger picture should not be scared off - this eloquent book is more considerate and gentle than the recent books on religion by Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett. As usual with Sagan, it is also a treatise on why we should view our world with a scientific, rational mind-set. Sagan's bottom line was always: "Show me the evidence." In an interview, Sagan was once pressed by a reporter for a premature conclusion. When asked, "But what's your gut feeling," Sagan replied, "I try not to think with my gut." I spent a whole day being stimulated and intrigued by this book and there is not a dull page. An 11th century Hindu logician presented the following proofs for the Hindu "all-knowing and imperishable but not necessarily omnipotent and compassionate God": 1. First cause - sounds familiar 2. Argument from atomic combinations - bonding of atoms requires a conscious agent 3. Argument from suspension of the world - somebody has to be holding it up 4. Argument from the existence of human skills 5. Existence of authoritative knowledge - Vedas, the Hindu holy books Sagan compares them to the Western arguments: 1. First cause - otherwise known as the cosmological argument. 2. Argument from design 3. Moral argument - attributed to Kant 4. Ontological argument - Man is imperfect, there must be something greater that is perfect, therefore God exists 5. Argument from consciousness - I have self-awareness, therefore God exists 6. Argument from religious experiences Sagan briefly discusses each item on these somewhat similar lists, ending with, "I must say that the net result is not very impressive. It is very much as if we are seeking a rational justification for something that we otherwise hope will be true." About the moral argument, he says, "It does not follow if we are powerfully motivated to take care of our young or the young of everybody on the planet, that God made us do it. Natural selection can make us do it, and almost surely has." After each of the nine lectures, Sagan took selected written questions from the audience - most of them from believers and one of them signed by God Almighty himself. He answered them all with wit, grac