Mrs. Darth Vader
04-10-2010, 02:22
I thought I would put Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors here because Teachings and Philosophies seemed the best section to describe it's function.
Carl Sagan introduces his book by giving you an over view of what is in the book. Sagan comes through with crystal clarity as to where he is coming from and where he wants to go. Carl Sagan, like Albert Einstein lets you know quickly that he is a scientist with a conscience. Sagan lets you know that our societal views with their rigidity has lead us to the brink of extinction. Then Sagan compares us (all of humanity) to orphans left on a door step. And this condition lead us to invent fantasies and myths to say that we have a purpose for being. These fantasies only lead to arrogance, conceit and a stringent line in which everyone must obey. But science came along and dispelled these myths and people reacted to science with fear and dread.
People claimed that with out God that the world would be drenched in blood because God keeps people behaved and moral. “Others have noted that drenching (with blood) has been in progress since the dawn of civilization. And often inn the name of religion.” Page 6 Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Religion is usually the excuse to say that “you”, the said believer, is more important and in some way more valuable a human being than the non-believer. Religion usually just feeds and serves human arrogance. It provides an excuse and a platform to blatantly persecute and cause harm on another person. God loves “me” therefore he hates “you” so I can freely torment and hurt you ( the other person). I even can enjoy the discomfort “I” put “you” through because God enjoys it. This is the mentality of the Christians and their more radical counter parts, the Muslims. I can not count the times I have heard Christians say that the Muslims have more faith than they because the Muslims are willing to die and kill the infidel. Needless to say with this attitude and disgusting beliefs, atheism is far more humane and better even with the fact that all questions are not answered. The apparent void of atheism is more kind than what I have seen and observed in religions of today. Nothing like first hand knowledge and observable fact.
The Prologue deals with the fact that people do not like the facts about our humble beginnings. It is more comforting from our arrogant egotistical view to be descendants of God or the King of Kings than the cold hard truth that we came from mud and slime of “mindless beings too small to be seen with the naked eye.” Our beginnings are we were once just microbes. Sagan then reminds us that we need to look squarely at who we really are with all our “warts” in order to make a correct analysis of our strengths and our weaknesses. By doing this we will have a better chance at a future. Sagan quotes Mary Midgley who describes her weakness of having a bad temper. She says by acknowledging this weakness she can better control her temper and avoid situations that cause her temper to go off. To pretend it is not there is to lock yourself in a vicious cycle of putting yourself in a situation where the temper will go off. Sagan then states;
“If we do not know what we’re capable of-and not just a few celebrity saints and notorious war criminals-then we do not know what to watch out for, which human propensities to encourage, and which to guard against. Then we haven’t a clue about which proposed courses of human action are realistic, and which are impractical and dangerous sentimentality.” Then Sagan tells us that we are going to look at ourselves squarely as we are and our past using the tools of science.
Chapter one starts with the birth of our solar system and the chaotic process of how our solar system formed. Sagan gets into detail of how a star is formed. Here it is interesting. The gas and dust gather and this gathering creates gravity which in tern makes it easier to gather more gas and dust. When the temperatures and pressures get high enough the hydrogen atoms are jammed together so tightly that thermonuclear reactions are started. This is how matter turns to light. It is also very hot.
Other galaxies form their solar systems and many worlds. Many are barren and desolate. Others with the right conditions harbor life. Sagan then describes the collisions of worlds and worldlets that created the planets. You really get a sense of the chaos under which the universe formed. The big planets are formed and all the others. This gives you a real picture of what Sagan means when he says that we are made of star stuff. Because every atom that is down here was once out there.
Chapter two starts with the forming of the earth. The early earth is molten and full of lava. It is steamy in it’s atmosphere. The early earth is much like Mustafar in Star Wars. The moon is formed. The forming of the moon is significant because it slows the earth’s rotation down to what is the familiar 24 hour day we are used to. Tides forms thanks to the new arrival of the moon. During the molten phase of the earth these metals sunk to the interior because they were heavier than other parts. Because the earth was spinning at an incredible rate these molten metals also started to spin. The spinning of the metals created our electromagnetic field.
The hot steam just went into space until a great series of collisions with smaller asteroids landed on the earth. This made dust particles hover in the atmosphere preventing the sun from getting in which cooled the planet in it’s first Ice Age. As the dust slowly cleared the planet slowly warmed, this time with an atmosphere intact.
Sagan then explains how organic molecules were impacted by the Ultra Violet light from the sun, flashes of lightening and other chemical interactions. The early earth had it’s moon much closer than it is today. The moon back then was like the big moon portrayed in Star Wars over Tatooine. About 4 billion years ago life came to be on earth. The collisions lessened so much it was calm enough to start life here. This life was microscopic life. But it left evidence called Stromatolites. In nice balmy warm spots on the earth like Baja California, Western Australia or the Bahamas stromatolites still form. Radioactive clocks are used to tell how old fossils and geological stuff are. This radioactive dating is very accurate. These earliest life forms were cooperative with one another. They were able to do photosynthesis. They converted carbon dioxide, water and sun light into food. The outer microbes had to sacrifice themselves for the common good. The inner ones lived. The outer ones died because the ultra violet rays of the sun. Our early atmosphere did not have the o3 (Ozone) layer that protects us today. Here is where our ability to cooperate genetically comes from. Other microbes were eating each other. Here is our earliest aggressive genes in action. Our selfish side is brought out here. Both self sacrifice and selfish aggression are represented in those early molecules. Here in microbial form both tendencies are expressed.
Then Sagan gets into our changing earth. How tectonic plates move and the changing shape of the earth. Sagan ends this chapter by reminding us how short our life spans are compared to the earth or the galaxy. We are born to be so quickly snuffed out, that is why we can not see or sense how the universe works. We need the aid of instruments and the tools of science.
Chapter three is about the life of Charles Darwin and a little bit about his father and grand father. Charles Darwin was a quiet person and a Parson of the church of England. Darwin discovered his theory by using the methods of science. He was methodical. Darwin liked quiet. He was not known for trying to debate people so when his book ended up being the Revolutionaries Revolutionary, it was a surprise. Darwin’s parents were progressives for his day believing in free speech. Charles Darwin was born in 1809. Charles Darwin’s grand father sensed how evolution worked and wrote about it. But the grand father did not do any research so his works were more like science fiction. It was inspirational like science fiction of today which helps further new studies and research and eventually leads to discoveries. The same was true for Charles Darwin’s grand father. Darwin was the one to turn grand father’s dreams into scientific theory. Later scientists, like Carl Sagan, proved Darwin’s theories into hard facts.
This chapter tells you all about Charles Darwin’s life from his youth to old age and his death. Sagan describes Darwin’s trip on the “Beagle”, the name of the ship that Darwin sailed on. It also gets into how Darwin was stuck sailing with a right wing hard liner of the times. Darwin while on the island learned the hard way how critters defend themselves. Darwin put a beetle in his mouth but was not trying to eat it just carry it that way because he already had a beetle in each hand. The beetle not understanding Darwin’s intent promptly defended itself by excreting a very acrid liquid which made Darwin spit it out. The fluid burnt Darwin’s tongue. In this chapter we learned how Darwin gathered all his evidence to support his new theory. You get an interesting story of how “Origin Of Species” was written.
Chapter four deals with the actual theories in “Origin Of Species”. Sagan tells you the difference between Natural Selection and Artificial Selection. This chapter is more Sith because it deals with Survival Of The Fittest. Many organisms are there but very few of the vast numbers survive long enough to pass on their genes.
Here Sagan explains the ideas expressed by Charles Darwin. Sagan explains how organisms through incremental change, evolve. Some times it becomes a new species given enough time. When Darwin published “Origin Of Species”, it was greeted with hot passion on both sides of, For and Against. Today we have a field called Molecular Biology where more is known about how genes work and how it is done on a molecular level. Today we can see proof of Darwin’s theories under a microscope.
Darwin was a head of his time because he also included the fact that all beings are still evolving and in the future our descendants would be very different from us. In this section of “Origin Of Species” Darwin was braver than all modern scientists because only Darwin and Sagan, even to this day, admits that an organism can become a “Degraded” version of itself if the environment favored the degraded version. Hence we can devolve if that is what is required for survival. Darwin knew that survival does not necessarily mean superior or sublime.
The evolutionary process is counter intuitive because it works on the idea of “Order out of chaos” or as Hawking jokingly says “God is a consummate gambler constantly rolling dice.” Here is where Sagan does give leeway for a very distant Deism where the deity can at best affect the probability curve. This is not the accurate shot of hitting the Bulls eye, but more of a ball park estimate. On page 64 Sagan warns about capitalist Darwinists who use Natural Selection as an excuse for their bad policies towards the weak and the poor. On the other hand, Sagan warns about the Christians who believe that we do not have to care for non-human life because they are going to be destroyed at and or after the Tribulation period. Or the other Christian excuse using Genesis because we are supposed to have dominion over them. Darwin defends animal rights.
Adaptation is then described and how it works. After Sagan finished explaining what is in “Origin Of Species”, he then tells how Darwin dies using his death bed words. “I am not the least afraid to die”. Quote from Charles Darwin.
Carl Sagan introduces his book by giving you an over view of what is in the book. Sagan comes through with crystal clarity as to where he is coming from and where he wants to go. Carl Sagan, like Albert Einstein lets you know quickly that he is a scientist with a conscience. Sagan lets you know that our societal views with their rigidity has lead us to the brink of extinction. Then Sagan compares us (all of humanity) to orphans left on a door step. And this condition lead us to invent fantasies and myths to say that we have a purpose for being. These fantasies only lead to arrogance, conceit and a stringent line in which everyone must obey. But science came along and dispelled these myths and people reacted to science with fear and dread.
People claimed that with out God that the world would be drenched in blood because God keeps people behaved and moral. “Others have noted that drenching (with blood) has been in progress since the dawn of civilization. And often inn the name of religion.” Page 6 Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Religion is usually the excuse to say that “you”, the said believer, is more important and in some way more valuable a human being than the non-believer. Religion usually just feeds and serves human arrogance. It provides an excuse and a platform to blatantly persecute and cause harm on another person. God loves “me” therefore he hates “you” so I can freely torment and hurt you ( the other person). I even can enjoy the discomfort “I” put “you” through because God enjoys it. This is the mentality of the Christians and their more radical counter parts, the Muslims. I can not count the times I have heard Christians say that the Muslims have more faith than they because the Muslims are willing to die and kill the infidel. Needless to say with this attitude and disgusting beliefs, atheism is far more humane and better even with the fact that all questions are not answered. The apparent void of atheism is more kind than what I have seen and observed in religions of today. Nothing like first hand knowledge and observable fact.
The Prologue deals with the fact that people do not like the facts about our humble beginnings. It is more comforting from our arrogant egotistical view to be descendants of God or the King of Kings than the cold hard truth that we came from mud and slime of “mindless beings too small to be seen with the naked eye.” Our beginnings are we were once just microbes. Sagan then reminds us that we need to look squarely at who we really are with all our “warts” in order to make a correct analysis of our strengths and our weaknesses. By doing this we will have a better chance at a future. Sagan quotes Mary Midgley who describes her weakness of having a bad temper. She says by acknowledging this weakness she can better control her temper and avoid situations that cause her temper to go off. To pretend it is not there is to lock yourself in a vicious cycle of putting yourself in a situation where the temper will go off. Sagan then states;
“If we do not know what we’re capable of-and not just a few celebrity saints and notorious war criminals-then we do not know what to watch out for, which human propensities to encourage, and which to guard against. Then we haven’t a clue about which proposed courses of human action are realistic, and which are impractical and dangerous sentimentality.” Then Sagan tells us that we are going to look at ourselves squarely as we are and our past using the tools of science.
Chapter one starts with the birth of our solar system and the chaotic process of how our solar system formed. Sagan gets into detail of how a star is formed. Here it is interesting. The gas and dust gather and this gathering creates gravity which in tern makes it easier to gather more gas and dust. When the temperatures and pressures get high enough the hydrogen atoms are jammed together so tightly that thermonuclear reactions are started. This is how matter turns to light. It is also very hot.
Other galaxies form their solar systems and many worlds. Many are barren and desolate. Others with the right conditions harbor life. Sagan then describes the collisions of worlds and worldlets that created the planets. You really get a sense of the chaos under which the universe formed. The big planets are formed and all the others. This gives you a real picture of what Sagan means when he says that we are made of star stuff. Because every atom that is down here was once out there.
Chapter two starts with the forming of the earth. The early earth is molten and full of lava. It is steamy in it’s atmosphere. The early earth is much like Mustafar in Star Wars. The moon is formed. The forming of the moon is significant because it slows the earth’s rotation down to what is the familiar 24 hour day we are used to. Tides forms thanks to the new arrival of the moon. During the molten phase of the earth these metals sunk to the interior because they were heavier than other parts. Because the earth was spinning at an incredible rate these molten metals also started to spin. The spinning of the metals created our electromagnetic field.
The hot steam just went into space until a great series of collisions with smaller asteroids landed on the earth. This made dust particles hover in the atmosphere preventing the sun from getting in which cooled the planet in it’s first Ice Age. As the dust slowly cleared the planet slowly warmed, this time with an atmosphere intact.
Sagan then explains how organic molecules were impacted by the Ultra Violet light from the sun, flashes of lightening and other chemical interactions. The early earth had it’s moon much closer than it is today. The moon back then was like the big moon portrayed in Star Wars over Tatooine. About 4 billion years ago life came to be on earth. The collisions lessened so much it was calm enough to start life here. This life was microscopic life. But it left evidence called Stromatolites. In nice balmy warm spots on the earth like Baja California, Western Australia or the Bahamas stromatolites still form. Radioactive clocks are used to tell how old fossils and geological stuff are. This radioactive dating is very accurate. These earliest life forms were cooperative with one another. They were able to do photosynthesis. They converted carbon dioxide, water and sun light into food. The outer microbes had to sacrifice themselves for the common good. The inner ones lived. The outer ones died because the ultra violet rays of the sun. Our early atmosphere did not have the o3 (Ozone) layer that protects us today. Here is where our ability to cooperate genetically comes from. Other microbes were eating each other. Here is our earliest aggressive genes in action. Our selfish side is brought out here. Both self sacrifice and selfish aggression are represented in those early molecules. Here in microbial form both tendencies are expressed.
Then Sagan gets into our changing earth. How tectonic plates move and the changing shape of the earth. Sagan ends this chapter by reminding us how short our life spans are compared to the earth or the galaxy. We are born to be so quickly snuffed out, that is why we can not see or sense how the universe works. We need the aid of instruments and the tools of science.
Chapter three is about the life of Charles Darwin and a little bit about his father and grand father. Charles Darwin was a quiet person and a Parson of the church of England. Darwin discovered his theory by using the methods of science. He was methodical. Darwin liked quiet. He was not known for trying to debate people so when his book ended up being the Revolutionaries Revolutionary, it was a surprise. Darwin’s parents were progressives for his day believing in free speech. Charles Darwin was born in 1809. Charles Darwin’s grand father sensed how evolution worked and wrote about it. But the grand father did not do any research so his works were more like science fiction. It was inspirational like science fiction of today which helps further new studies and research and eventually leads to discoveries. The same was true for Charles Darwin’s grand father. Darwin was the one to turn grand father’s dreams into scientific theory. Later scientists, like Carl Sagan, proved Darwin’s theories into hard facts.
This chapter tells you all about Charles Darwin’s life from his youth to old age and his death. Sagan describes Darwin’s trip on the “Beagle”, the name of the ship that Darwin sailed on. It also gets into how Darwin was stuck sailing with a right wing hard liner of the times. Darwin while on the island learned the hard way how critters defend themselves. Darwin put a beetle in his mouth but was not trying to eat it just carry it that way because he already had a beetle in each hand. The beetle not understanding Darwin’s intent promptly defended itself by excreting a very acrid liquid which made Darwin spit it out. The fluid burnt Darwin’s tongue. In this chapter we learned how Darwin gathered all his evidence to support his new theory. You get an interesting story of how “Origin Of Species” was written.
Chapter four deals with the actual theories in “Origin Of Species”. Sagan tells you the difference between Natural Selection and Artificial Selection. This chapter is more Sith because it deals with Survival Of The Fittest. Many organisms are there but very few of the vast numbers survive long enough to pass on their genes.
Here Sagan explains the ideas expressed by Charles Darwin. Sagan explains how organisms through incremental change, evolve. Some times it becomes a new species given enough time. When Darwin published “Origin Of Species”, it was greeted with hot passion on both sides of, For and Against. Today we have a field called Molecular Biology where more is known about how genes work and how it is done on a molecular level. Today we can see proof of Darwin’s theories under a microscope.
Darwin was a head of his time because he also included the fact that all beings are still evolving and in the future our descendants would be very different from us. In this section of “Origin Of Species” Darwin was braver than all modern scientists because only Darwin and Sagan, even to this day, admits that an organism can become a “Degraded” version of itself if the environment favored the degraded version. Hence we can devolve if that is what is required for survival. Darwin knew that survival does not necessarily mean superior or sublime.
The evolutionary process is counter intuitive because it works on the idea of “Order out of chaos” or as Hawking jokingly says “God is a consummate gambler constantly rolling dice.” Here is where Sagan does give leeway for a very distant Deism where the deity can at best affect the probability curve. This is not the accurate shot of hitting the Bulls eye, but more of a ball park estimate. On page 64 Sagan warns about capitalist Darwinists who use Natural Selection as an excuse for their bad policies towards the weak and the poor. On the other hand, Sagan warns about the Christians who believe that we do not have to care for non-human life because they are going to be destroyed at and or after the Tribulation period. Or the other Christian excuse using Genesis because we are supposed to have dominion over them. Darwin defends animal rights.
Adaptation is then described and how it works. After Sagan finished explaining what is in “Origin Of Species”, he then tells how Darwin dies using his death bed words. “I am not the least afraid to die”. Quote from Charles Darwin.