I believe that the extraordinary should be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
If we say that God has always been, why not save a step and conclude that the universe has always been?
Life is but a momentary glimpse of the wonder of this astonishing universe, and it is sad to see so many dreaming it away on spiritual fantasy.
If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you.
If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth.
After the earth dies, some 5 billion years from now, after it’s burned to a crisp, or even swallowed by the Sun, there will be other worlds and stars and galaxies coming into being – and they will know nothing of a place once called Earth.
I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed.
It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English – up to fifty words used in correct context – no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese.
Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I suppose, is to make us feel small. But if that’s their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
We are star stuff harvesting sunlight.
But down deep, at the molecular heart of life we’re essentially identical to trees.
We began as wanderers, and we are wanderers still.
I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this cosmos in which we float, like a mote of dust in the morning sky.
But I try not to think with my gut. If I’m serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble.
Demon mean knowledge in Greek, especially about the material world. Science means knowledge in Latin. A jurisdictional dispute is exposed, even if we look no further.
Writing a novel is like trying to solve a very long mathematical equation. Changing anything can change everything else.
We are, each of us, a multitude. Within us is a little universe.
Your god is too small for my universe.