This video brings tears to my eyes, his words are so profound. The most adequate description of how hearing these words makes me feel is by saying I think that it conjures up the kind of feeling you are supposed to get when you go to church.
Carl Sagan was a great man, his message to humanity was one of peace and tolerance, always expressed in the most elegant of ways. So what do you guys think of him, check out his book and his series 'Cosmos' if you haven't heard of him before - if you are anything like me you will love it. So discuss the late Carl Sagan... Go!
"The choice is with us still, but the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky. In our tenure of this planet we've accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders — all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others, love for our children and desire to learn from history and experience, and a great soaring passionate intelligence — the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits us. There are not yet any obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours always rush implacably, headlong, toward self-destruction. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. Travel is broadening."
I never cared for him. But I'm not an astronomy guy either. However, I loved Jacques Cousteau who aired his breathtaking specials around the same time. That guy invented an entire area of exploration and the means whereby to do it. Wish those would air again.
