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    The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
    The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
    The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

    Written by Carl Sagan

    Narrated by Adrienne C. Moore and Ann Druyan

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality

    The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship." Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century.

    Introductory music from the original score for COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey composed by Alan Silvestri, used with permission from Cosmos Studios, Inc. and Chappers Music. All rights reserved. Special thanks to Fuzzy Planets, Inc.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9781531888220
    The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
    Author

    Carl Sagan

    Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was the Director of Cornell University’s Laboratory for Planetary Studies. He played a leading role in the American space program and was an adviser to NASA since its inception. He briefed the Apollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon, and was an experimenter on the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo expeditions to the planets. He helped solve the mysteries of the high temperatures of Venus (answer: massive greenhouse effect), the seasonal changes on Mars (answer: windblown dust), and the reddish haze of Titan (answer: complex organic molecules). For his work, Dr. Sagan received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, and the Pulitzer Prize for The Dragons of Eden. His 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage won the Emmy and Peabody awards. The National Science Foundation declared that his “research transformed planetary science… his gifts to mankind were infinite.”

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    Reviews for The Varieties of Scientific Experience

    4.5/5

    272 ratings17 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Enlightening new edition, love hearing Carls thoughts and discussions in chapter 10. Very recommended and entertaining listening.
    • 5/5
      These erudite and accessible lectures open a comprehensive field, not only of the impacts of personal religious beliefs on our actions, but on the flowering of humanity.
    • 4/5
      I had been wanting to read this book since it first came out in 2006. First, it took me a while to procure a copy. Then, I convinced myself that I had to read James's The Varieties of Religious Experience first. For whatever reason, nas much as I was interested in James's work, I just could make any headway. (Perhaps it's because the edition I own is a bulky tome, and I just got sick of carting it around.)

      But suddenly, this summer, it was time. We'd been watching Cosmos together as a family, and while I found the first episode a little tedious, I've just been rapturously in love with it since then. Additionally, some recent conversations at Impression 5 about the big questions of physics have had me eyeing the science shelves of my collection much more seriously when I get home.

      So in I dove. This book started out magnificently. Full of the awe at the grandeur of the universe that Sagan was always so enthusiastic about. And the first half contains absolutely gorgeous illustrations. I can hardly imagine anyone not being swept up in Sagan's sense of wonder. Well, anyone not too busy being offended by Sagan's skeptical approach to the claims of the religions of the world. Seriously. I got done with this book thinking I had no business going to church ever again. I'm still recovering.

      Anyway, a third of my way into this book, I ran around declaring that this was going to be one of my top ten favorite nonfiction books of all time. Now that I'm finished, I'm not so sure. The problem seems to be a disconnect between what I was hoping for in this book, and what Sagan's intent was in giving these lectures. I eagerly sought out this book to understand better Sagan's spiritual understanding of the universe. To get a glimpse of how his scientific quest sustained and uplifted him. But of course, Sagan's faith? belief? understanding? propelled him further -- to action.

      The final chapter focused on the likelihood of the human race exterminating itself before taking the next steps into the stars. Specifically, he focused on the nightmare scenario of nuclear holocaust. Which just felt dated. I know, I know, there are still enough nuclear warheads on this plant to blow us all up several times over, but the sense of urgency seems to have passed. Maybe we're deluding ourselves, but it no longer seems as likely a scenario. It seems much more likely to me, today, that if we are going to destroy ourselves, it will be through climate change/ecosystem collapse -- another concern that was near and dear to Sagan's heart. But the central idea of his conclusion -- that we much unite our religious and scientific efforts in the name of saving ourselves, remains powerful and true.

      One of the most delightful features of the book was the excerpts from the transcripts of the Q&A sessions from this lecture series that concludes the book. It was wonderful to read his responses to multiple questioners who tried to back him into various corners -- his answers were always respectful, always assertive, always thoughtful. It did a good deal to pull me out of the funk of the "we're all gonna die" chapter. But still, I am left with the disquieting feeling -- what more could I be doing to protect the future of the human race?
    • 3/5
      This is a compilation of talks given by Carl Sagan. His discussions are logical and correct. His concerns regarding annihilation of the human race by nuclear weapons is still a concern years after his lectures and his death. I found his comments confirming and it makes sense that an astronomer would try to promote an Earh identity. I mildly recommend this book.
    • 3/5
      A series of nine lectures that Sagan gave in 1985 at the University of Glasgow sponsored by the same folks who do the Templeton price. They are supposed to be on Natural Theology - that is scientifically proving the notion of God - and issue that Sagan sidesteps and tries to show that you should, for many valid reasons, treat the subject of God with as much skepticism as you would any scientific theories. His point on God is really - you can't prove it - so why bother? Great lectures.
    • 4/5
      I was taken by Sagan when I read [Cosmos], and I am taken with him in this book, the record of his 1985 Gifford Lectures. Sagan tackles questions of religion and the future of humanity using the mixture of incisive thought and open humility that he does in his other books. His main idea is that religion, like so much human activity, is tainted by a thorough parochialism. We join the religion of our culture, not noticing the thousands of alternative true faiths. For some reason, apparitions of the Virgin Mary only show up in Catholic lands. The Abrahamic faiths progress as if humans are the only creatures in the galaxy of godlike intelligence.Sagan is an unabashed religious skeptic. He spends one chapter picking apart arguments for God's existence. He spends another chapter looking at "extraterrestrial lore" and the mind's ability to fool itself. One alleged "flying saucer" sighting, but a highway patrolman, turned out to be a farmer's wheat silo. The fantastic detail of alien sightings and abductions and the total lack of evidence associated with them form an interesting contrast. Same with early twentieth century amateur astronomer Percival Lowell's belief that he could see canals on Mars - and the total lack of evidence from telescope photos. The human mind is very good at making itself believe whatever it wants. Thought is frail.Instead of wishful thinking and parochial views on the cosmos, Sagan calls for a scientific approach to life in the broadest sense:We have Ten Commandments in the West. Why is there no commandment exhorting us to learn? "Thou shalt understand the world. Figure things out." There's nothing like that. And very few religions urge us to enhance our understanding of the natural world.Reading Sagan and other religious skeptics is good for a believer like me. It's like an enema: painful but makes me examine my beliefs.What I like about Sagan is that although he is an atheist or agnostic, he recognizes religion's power to change the world. These lectures, given in 1985 at the end of the Cold War (not that he knew that!), are concerned with the possibility of nuclear apocalypse. We forget how vast human history is, how expansive the universe is, and get caught up in petty conflicts that can have eons of repercussions. Sagan, ever the astronomer concerned with the big picture of life, calls us to think about the progress of not American, not Chinese, not Islamic, but human civilization as a whole. Would another, more advanced race be impressed by us? Or would it pity our stupidity, our efforts to play at grand civilization with stone age minds? Were Sagan alive I suspect he would be an activist for the Long Now foundation. As it is he recognizes the powerful ability of religion to change the world for the better. And as a scientific prophet, he calls for that change:Christianity also says that redemption is possible. So an anti-Christian would be someone who argues to hate your enemy and that redemption is impossible, that bad people remain forever bad. So I ask you, which position is better suited to an age of apocalyptic weapons? What do you do if one side does not profess those views and you claim to be Christian? … You can also ask, which position is uniformly embraced by the nation-states? The answers to those questions are very clear. There is no nation that adopts the Christian position on this issue. Not one. (209)Amen.
    • 3/5
      Nothing mind-blowing, but Carl Sagan is incredibly cogent and by the end, he convinced me that we need to colonize space and get our shit together. (I already thought that, but yeah.)
    • 5/5
      The overarching theme of this book is the intertwinement of science and religion. The author starts off with making the reader realize the enormity of scales, of size and time, in the world. He goes on to discuss issues such as evolution of life, the beginning of the universe, existence of the extraterrestrial intelligence, and how it relates to the existence of life on Earth. The discussions are not directed towards experts in physics; rather, they are accessible to anybody. I find them of extraordinary quality, because of the author's ability to disentangle hard questions into approachable clear-cut ones, and "courage" to apply the scientific method to the hardest of questions about life, and, it seems, his enormous integrity. Not only is the book an eye-opener; it is also funny, and poetic, and written in beautiful English. It is extraordinary - one of the best books I have ever read.
    • 4/5
      This book was published posthumously and consists of a series of lectures touching on religion and science. I found it very interesting and engaging. Sagan's main point, which deserves repeating, is that skepticism is good and should be welcomed, that rational analysis is useful, and that theories and arguments should be founded upon evidence, which itself should be tested.A couple of my favorite points in the book:The first occurred in the first few pages, where an artist's rendition of the solar system was offered, with each planet marshaled into a line. The planets and the sun were depicted to scale, but the distances were not. The intent was immediately apparent. There were four huge masses, besides the sun, and the rest of the planets were tiny. As Sagan said in the book, the solar system consists of four huge planets and the sun, and the rest is debris. We live on a tiny fraction of the third piece of debris from the sun.In discussing religion, Sagan succinctly stated an important criticism of religious faith. He said (and I am definitely paraphrasing; Sagan put it much more eloquently) that there is a serious danger in believing that a solution to our problems will come from some supreme being because then we, as humans, do not spend the time in finding solutions ourselves.
    • 5/5
      A great book by that great expositor of science, Carl Sagan.
    • 3/5
      The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God is made up of transcripts of Sagan’s address at the Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology at the University of Glasgow. Among other things, Sagan discusses the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, the urgency of protecting the world against nuclear destruction, molecular religious experience, and a number of proofs for the existence of God. Sagan is a scientist, so it is no secret from the start that by the book’s close he will have debunked all of these proofs (that is, for God) soundly; he will not be satisfied with anything less than the empirical evidence that theology obviously does not admit. It is not the debate over God’s existence, however, that shines most in this book. What takes the forefront (and is most enjoyable) is Sagan’s knack for speaking about the physical universe and managing to create some spark of something within that material world that can only be categorized as divine, despite everything else. Sagan does not believe in the existence of God, but in some strange, unintentional way he manages to fuse pure spirituality with science and physical existence in such a way that renders it (the universe and all that makes it up) sublime, beautiful, an end in itself.
    • 5/5
      In 1985, Carl Sagan was invited to present the Gifford Lectures, which were given at the University of Glasgow. This book contains transcripts of the lectures, edited a bit, and some of the questions posed by the audience and his answers. In each lecture, Sagan examines some aspect of religion through the lens of scientific experience. Topics include: what we know about the contents of the universe and where humans seem to fit into that universe; the anthrocentrism of most human religions; evolution by natural selection; arguments for the existence of God (the Judeo-Christian-Islamic God); the possibility of extraterrestrial life; UFOs and other extraterrestrial folklore; the nature of the religious experience. In addition, he was very concerned with the arms race taking place between the United States and the Soviet Union. The threat of nuclear war is brought up many times in the later chapters, as well as Sagan's belief that humanity has too much at stake to allow it to happen. It would be just so stupid to kill ourselves off, after so much progress had been made. Another of his important points is that there is a niche available for religions that has not been filled: to provide guidance to humans on avoiding nuclear war and other bad things. To paraphrase a lot, he says "religions are too caught up in the age of the Earth and whether humans are related to apes; why don't they leave these things to science (and stop being embarrassed by the answers) and instead work on helping humans to get along with each other?" I liked this book very much. It was written in a conversational style, which makes sense since these were originally lectures. The arguments are easy to follow, yet convincing. Sagan seemed to have thought about the issues comprehensively. He always stresses that the scientific method is a good way to find out the truth because it depends on skepticism and logic, so it is hard to get away with a deception when the scientific method is used. Also, the illustrations (mainly astronomical views of stars and like objects) were beautiful. Most were in color and the book's editors had replaced the original 1985 slides with updated (but relevant) pictures.
    • 4/5
      More commonsense thinking from one of the 20th Century's leaders in same. I found the most interesting section was the question and answer part which shows how well Dr Sagan could express himself off the cuff even when faced with people who refuse to budge in their opposition to his ideas. Some of them seem surprised at how knowledgeable he was at their own areas of expertise. If only Richard Dawkins could argue so clearly.
    • 4/5
      Nicely done. Sagan does less in the way of arguing a point of view than lending perspective on just how narrowly concieved religion is - how much is left OUT of religious thought with respect to both time and space. Carl Sagan has done as much to dispel human vanity than any other writer I can think of.
    • 4/5
      Great book. He has a way of putting puny human concerns in perspective.
    • 4/5
      It's wonderful to have "new" content from Sagan. Though these are his 1985 Gifford lectures, they seem contemporary and relevant. Sagan still has no peer in showing how the exploration of scientific knowledge is a religious pursuit, and that feelings of awe and wonder are not the exclusive property of the religious and superstitious.
    • 5/5
      I read Demon Haunted World not long ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. This is even better. It is based upon a series of lectures given by the author and so feels more like he is talking to you. Each of the chapters seems somehow more complete and structured, whilst at the same time more off the cuff, than chapters from his books. This must be attributable to the fact that each of these chapters is a transcript of one of a series of lectures which Sagan probably gave by using outline scripts which he then talked around as his audience reacted and he reacted to them. This combined with the fact that few of the audience would see all the lectures, led him to make each talk a complete piece of itself.Anyone interested in science and the future of humanity should give this a go. Sagan is eloquent and chatty, awe inspiring and cheekily funny all at the same time. Its almost like he wakes you up to see familiar old subjects in a fresh new light.Wonderful stuff.