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There is a wide yawning black infinity. In every direction the extension is endless, the sensation of depth is overwhelming. And the darkness is immor...more

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Birds know, better than humans, not to spoil the nest.

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The world is so exquisite, with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's littl...more

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It is the responsibility of scientists never to suppress knowledge, no matter how awkward that knowledge is, no matter how it may bother those in powe...more

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You could just as well say that an agnostic is a deeply religious person with at least a rudimentary knowledge of human fallibility.

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For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven’t forgo...more

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Billions of years from now our sun, then a distended red giant star, will have reduced Earth to a charred cinder. But the Voyager record will still be...more

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We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost ...more

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A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.

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I consider it an extremely dangerous doctrine, because the more likely we are to assume that the solution comes from the outside, the less likely we a...more

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But if the Bible is not everywhere literally true, which parts are divinely inspired and which are merely fallible and human? As soon as we admit that...more

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Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.

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Across the sea of space, the stars are other suns.

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Religions are often state-protected nurseries of pseudoscience, although there's no reason why religions have to play that role. In a way, it's an art...more

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Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following four and a half billion years of other acts, and af...more