I owe a huge double thank you to a BOFAW friend.  First of all, he shared, Carl Sagan’s YouTube video, “Pale Blue Dot.†And secondly, although I suspect that we have some differing views about Sagan, he provided the stimulus to present a view that very few students are aware of.  “The Pale Blue Dot†is an excerpt from his wonderful PBS series adapted from his book, “Cosmos.â€Â Sagan was a brilliant scholar, creative genius, excellent educator and did much to make the sometimes boggling study of astronomy more understandable to the “scientifically challenged.† I showed the classroom version of “Cosmos†to all of my biology classes as a means of helping them appreciate how amazingly special it is to be alive on, “The Pale Blue Dot.â€
I heartily agreed with most of the information in “Cosmos†but just as heartily disagreed with some of Sagan’s ideas. So, astronomers tell us that the universe is 13.8 billion years old; there are 7 billion people living on Earth and Dr. Sagan expects intelligent people to believe that this all occurred without a plan or planner? He presents the Universe with no known cause and chalks it up to chance.
His explanation for the “origin of life†and part of Darwin’s Theory are “science fiction.†Darwin himself, admitted that he had no clue as to how life began. Whether the story of “The Garden Of Eden†is true or allegorical it is not typically disputed that humans have the greatest amount of “free will†of all animals. This free will includes the right to think whatever we choose to think. However, the latest word from one popular Humanist, is that people do not have free will and that their thoughts and fate are the result of random molecular activity.
Sagan was a hugely popular scientist and proudly proclaimed that he was a “Secular Humanist.†I later learned that he was selected as, “Humanist of the year,†by the American Humanist Assoc. and named, “Humanist Laureate,†in the International Academy of Humanists.†In the early years of Biodesign, I didn’t know or care what Secular Humanism was. However, after the events detailed in BOFAW, chapter 3, “The Fire Storm,†it was necessary that I learn more about it. I discovered that Humanists generally think that all religions represent regressive thinking because they are based on myths, legends and folklore. They emphasize that the power of the human mind replaces the need to believe in intangible and unprovable religious beliefs. Respecting the spirit of The Garden Of Eden, I had no concerns with Sagan’s beliefs, or Humanism, until I realized that he had allowed them to skew his views on Darwin’s Theory and the origin of life.
In the 1950’s, scientists boldly claimed that they were on the brink of discovering the origin of life and would soon able to create life. After failing in both endeavors, anthropologist Loren Eiseley wrote in the final chapter of “The Immense Journey:â€
“With the failure of these many efforts science was left in the somewhat embarrassing position of having to postulate theories of living organisms which it could not demonstrate. After having chided the theologian for his reliance on myth and miracle, science found itself in the unenviable position of having to create a mythology of its own: namely, the assumption that what, after long effort, could not be proved to take place today had, in truth, taken place in the primeval past.â€
 This is exactly what Carl Sagan did in his book, “Cosmos.†He made statements about the origin of life that were not factual and, even today, can not be “scientifically†supported. Essentially, Sagan “created†his version of biological history using his own mythology. Even worse, he misconstrued Darwin’s theory to conform to the Godless, soul-less, spiritless world of “Scientism.†Either he was unaware of, “The Autobiography Of Charles Darwin†or he chose to ignore it to promote his anti-creationist agenda regarding the origin and evolution of life. Darwin wrote:
“Another source of conviction in the existence of God, connected with reason and not with the feelings, impresses me as having much more weight. This follows from the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility of conceiving this immense and wonderful universe, including man with his capacity for looking far backwards and far into futurity, as the result of blind chance or necessity. When thus reflecting I feel compelled to look to a First Cause having an intelligent mind in some degree analogous to that of man; and I deserve to be called a theist.â€
In an absolutely wonderful irony, Sagan used Edwin Abbott’s story of “The Flat People†in an attempt to explain the “Fourth Dimension.†These people have length and width, but no height. When “someone,†from the land of “Up,†contacts a flatlander, he/she has no idea of what is happening. It is a clever ploy, however, it does not work. No amount of word-making can help a flatlander see “UP! The irony is that, in terms of spirituality, Sagan had no clue that anything that could not be “proven†could possibly exist. There are an estimated 5 million Humanists, including some very prominent people, however, 90% of the world population believes in some kind of higher power.
After receiving the video, I did some research and was surprised at what I discovered. The demographics of scientists who believe in a higher power is about the same as general the population; about 90% are believers. This list includes many of the world’s greatest scientists and naturalists: Copernicus, Bacon, Kepler, Descartes, Pascal, Boyle, Faraday, Planck, Galileo, Newton, Einstein, Mendel, Agassi, Thoreau, Muir and most shocking to most Americans, Charles Darwin. Also, in spite of being educated in public schools, which have removed nearly all references to spirituality, only 21% of the American people believe that human evolution occurred without the presence of divine guidance.