Why Humanity Must Overcome Religion Carl Sagan.mp4

In this video, Carl Sagan explores the vastness of the universe, the power of science, and the limitations of religious belief. He emphasizes the importance of skepticism, evidence, and the scientific method in shaping humanity’s future, while questioning the role of faith and mythology in understanding our place in the cosmos.

General

 Format : MPEG-4

 File size : 144 MiB

 Duration : 14mn 12s

Video

 Format : AVC

 Bit rate : 1 270 Kbps

 Width : 1 920 pixels

 Height : 1 080 pixels

Audio

 Format : AAC

 Bit rate mode : Constant

 Bit rate : 128 Kbps

 Channel(s) : 2 channels

Transcript

0:00

[Music]

0:06

here we are on a planet which is uh

0:09

about 5,000 million years

0:12

old uh the sun around which it goes is

0:16

not much older it is part of a

0:19

galaxy uh which is perhaps uh 10 or

0:23

12,000 million years old which is one of

0:27

perhaps hundreds of thousands of

0:30

millions of other galaxies and none of

0:33

this planets Suns galaxies was around at

0:38

the time of the Big Bang at the time of

0:40

the big bang There was uh energy

0:44

Elementary particles which slowly

0:47

evolved into the kind of universe we

0:49

know today we are the product of a grand

0:53

evolutionary sequence Cosmic Evolution

0:56

uh about which we are only occasionally

0:58

aware one of the

1:00

Great accomplishments of Dr Hawking is

1:03

to plug us better in to the knowledge of

1:07

this long evolutionary sequence there

1:10

are many hypotheses in science which are

1:12

wrong that’s perfectly right it’s the

1:14

aperture to finding out what’s right

1:16

science is a self-correcting process to

1:19

be accepted new ideas must survive the

1:22

most rigorous standards of evidence and

1:25

scrutiny the suppression of

1:27

uncomfortable ideas may be common in

1:30

religion or in politics but it is not

1:33

the path to knowledge and there’s no

1:35

place for it in the Endeavor of

1:38

[Music]

1:41

science our ability uh to uh understand

1:45

things instantly so-called Common Sense

1:48

derives from a certain range of size and

1:52

speed and

1:54

duration uh that are appropriate for

1:57

human existence we know about things

1:58

from a tenth of a millimeter to a few

2:02

kilometers from a fraction of a second

2:05

to to a lifetime uh and so on so when we

2:09

are dealing with matters of quantum

2:12

physics where uh particles have a size

2:16

of 10us 13th CM or in cosmology where

2:22

where we are talking about uh 10 billion

2:26

light years or more it is very

2:29

reasonable that

2:30

intuition is not adequate to the task

2:33

one point I’d like to make about this is

2:35

that every human culture has a set of

2:39

creation myths uh but they’re in the

2:42

realm of Mythology or religion or

2:47

folklore uh and they are of course all

2:50

mutually

2:51

inconsistent the great thing that is

2:54

happening in our time is that we are

2:57

able through a method which can actually

3:01

make some progress towards the real

3:04

Universe out there to find out something

3:07

about Origins and this is the scientific

3:09

method applied to the science of

3:13

cosmology the thing about science is

3:16

first of all it’s after the way the

3:19

universe really is and not what makes us

3:22

feel good and a lot of the competing

3:26

doctrines are after what feels good and

3:29

not what

3:30

what’s true I think the essence of the

3:34

scientific method is the willingness to

3:36

to admit you’re wrong the willingness to

3:38

abandon ideas that don’t work uh and the

3:42

essence of religion is not to change

3:44

anything that supposed truths are handed

3:47

down by some revered figure and then no

3:50

one is supposed to make any uh any

3:52

progress beyond that because all the

3:54

truth is thought to be in hand my sense

3:56

is that the scientific way of of

3:58

thinking question

4:00

uh some delicate mix of creative

4:05

encouragement of new ideas and the most

4:08

rigorous and skeptical scrutiny of new

4:10

and old ideas uh I think that is the

4:13

path to the Future not just for science

4:15

but uh for all human institutions we

4:19

have to be willing to challenge because

4:20

we are in desperate need of

4:22

change it’s it’s not that um pseudo

4:26

science and Superstition and new age

4:30

so-called beliefs and fundamentalist

4:33

zealotry are something new they’ve been

4:35

with us for as long as we’ve been we’ve

4:37

been human but we live in an Age based

4:41

on Science and Technology with

4:43

formidable technological Powers Science

4:46

and Technology are propelling us forward

4:49

at accelerating rates that’s right and

4:51

if we don’t understand it by we I mean

4:53

the general public if it’s something

4:55

that oh I’m not good at that I don’t

4:57

know anything about it then who is

4:58

making all the decisions about science

5:00

and technology that are going to

5:02

determine what kind of future our

5:04

children live

5:05

in this combustible mixture of ignorance

5:10

and power sooner or later is going to

5:12

blow up in our faces I mean who is

5:15

running the science and technology in a

5:17

democracy if the people don’t know

5:19

anything about it and the second reason

5:21

that I’m I’m worried about this is that

5:25

science is more than a body of knowledge

5:28

it’s a way of thinking a way of

5:30

skeptically interrogating the universe

5:33

with a fine understanding of human

5:36

fallibility if if we are not able to ask

5:40

skeptical questions to interrogate those

5:43

who tell us that something is true to be

5:46

skeptical of those in Authority then

5:49

we’re up for grabs for the next

5:52

charlatan political or religious who

5:54

comes ambling along it it’s a thing that

5:57

Jefferson lay great stress on

6:00

it wasn’t enough he said to enshrine

6:03

some rights in a in a constitution or a

6:06

Bill of Rights the people had to be

6:08

educated and they had to practice their

6:11

skepticism and their education otherwise

6:14

we don’t run the government the

6:16

government runs

6:18

us what is Faith it is belief in the

6:22

absence of evidence now I don’t propose

6:24

to tell anybody what to believe but for

6:27

me believing when they no compelling

6:30

evidence is a mistake the idea is to

6:34

withhold belief until there is

6:36

compelling evidence and if the universe

6:39

does not comply with our

6:42

predispositions okay then we have the

6:44

wrenching obligation to accommodate to

6:47

the way the universe you I mean but I

6:49

mean you so you step forward to say I

6:51

deny all religion because I can’t see it

6:53

pro

6:54

scientifically the value of religious

6:56

experience and the value of of of of

6:59

reaching for higher experiences let me

7:02

say religion deals with history with

7:08

poetry with great literature with ethics

7:13

with morals including the morality of uh

7:17

treating compassionately the least

7:20

fortunate among us all of these are

7:22

things that I endorse wholeheartedly

7:25

where religion gets into trouble is in

7:28

those cases that it pretends to know

7:31

something about science the science in

7:34

the Bible for example was acquired by

7:36

the Jews from the Babylonians during the

7:39

Babylonian captivity of 600 BC that was

7:43

the best science on the planet then but

7:45

we’ve learned something since then Roman

7:49

Catholicism uh reformed

7:51

Judaism most of the mainstreem

7:54

Protestant denominations have no

7:56

difficulty with the idea that you have

7:59

evolved from other creatures that the

8:02

Earth is 4.6 billion years old with the

8:05

big bang they don’t have any trouble

8:07

with that the trouble comes with people

8:10

who are biblical literalists who believe

8:13

that the Bible is dictated by the

8:17

creator of the universe to an uniring

8:21

stenographer and so therefore they and

8:23

and has no metaphor or allegory and from

8:25

there they make their political and

8:27

economic choices uh and so

8:30

and scientific and scientific choices

8:32

and scientific and that’s part of your

8:33

problem with that idea it is that

8:36

because for the wrong reasons we make

8:37

the wrong choices about science that’s

8:39

right so who is more humble the

8:43

scientist who looks at the universe with

8:46

an open mind and accepts whatever the

8:48

universe has to teach us or somebody who

8:51

says everything in this book must be

8:54

considered the literal truth and never

8:57

mind the fallibility of all the human

8:59

beings involved in the writing of this

9:01

book my question is given all these

9:05

demotions what is your personal religion

9:09

or do you is there any type of God to

9:12

you like is there a purpose given that

9:14

we’re just sitting on this Speck in the

9:17

middle of this sea of

9:20

stars now I don’t want to duck any

9:23

questions and I’m not going to duck this

9:26

one but let me ask you what do you mean

9:28

when you use the word

9:29

God it’s it seems that Through the Ages

9:33

we have humans have created a

9:35

mythological framework that is always

9:37

involv some kind of higher spiritual

9:40

powers and as every human culture do

9:43

that as that goes away as we know more

9:46

and more that and it seems harder and

9:48

harder to prove that anything might

9:51

exist like that where does that leave us

9:54

on our own

9:57

[Applause]

10:03

which to my mind is much more

10:04

responsible than hoping that someone

10:07

will save us from ourselves so we don’t

10:09

have to make our best efforts to do it

10:15

ourselves and if we’re

10:17

wrong and there is someone who steps in

10:19

and saves us okay that’s all right I’m

10:23

for that but we you know hedged our bets

10:26

it’s Pascal’s bargain run backwards

10:30

um I I’ll say another

10:33

word the word god covers an enormous

10:36

range of different ideas and you

10:39

recognize that in the way you phrase the

10:41

question running

10:43

from an

10:46

outsized

10:47

lightskinned male with a long white

10:50

beard sitting in a throne in the sky and

10:52

tallying the fall of every

10:55

Sparrow for which there is no evidence

10:58

to my mind if anybody has some I sure

11:00

would like to see it um to the kind of

11:04

God that Einstein or Spinoza talked

11:06

about which is very close to the sum

11:10

total of the laws of the universe now it

11:13

would be crazy to deny that there are

11:14

laws in the universe and if that’s what

11:16

you want to call God then of course God

11:19

exists and there are all sorts of other

11:21

nuances there is for example the deest

11:24

god that many of the founding fathers of

11:28

this country believed

11:30

although it is a secret whose name may

11:33

not be spoken in some

11:35

circles a

11:39

uh a do nothing King the God who creates

11:43

the universe and then

11:45

retires and to whom praying to is sort

11:49

of pointless he’s not here he went

11:52

somewhere else he had other things to do

11:55

now that’s also a God so when you say Do

11:58

you believe in God

12:00

if I say yes or if I say no you have

12:02

learned absolutely nothing I guess I’m

12:04

asking you to Define yours if you have

12:06

one but why would we use a word so

12:10

ambiguous that means so many different

12:12

things gives you freedom to Define it it

12:15

gives you freedom to seem to agree with

12:19

someone else with whom you do not

12:22

agree it covers over

12:25

differences it makes for social

12:28

lubrication

12:30

but it is not an aid to truth in my view

12:34

and therefore I think we need much

12:36

sharper language when we ask these

12:40

questions I lost both my parents about

12:42

12 or 15 years ago and uh I had a great

12:46

relationship with them I really miss

12:47

them I would love to believe that their

12:52

Spirits were around somewhere and I’d

12:55

give almost anything to uh spend 5

12:58

minutes year with them we we demand the

13:02

most rigorous standards of evidence

13:04

especially on what’s important to us so

13:07

if some guy comes up to me in a

13:09

Channeler or a medium and say I can put

13:11

you in touch with your parents well

13:13

because I want so terribly to to believe

13:16

that yeah I know I have to reach in for

13:19

added reserves of skepticism because I’m

13:22

likely to be fooled and and uh much more

13:26

minor to have my money taken

13:43

if you’d like to support me in creating

13:45

more of these types of videos you can do

13:47

so by donating to the channel through

13:48

our patreon page this will also give you

13:51

early access to videos and channel

13:53

updates you will also get access to our

13:55

Discord server where you can participate

13:57

in discussions and debates with other

13:59

members of our community you can check

14:01

it out by clicking the link in the video

14:03

description