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

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Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

Sagan, writing from beyond the grave (actually his new book, The Varieties of Scientific Experience, is an edited version of his 1985 Gifford Lectures), asks why, if God created the universe, he left the evidence so scant. He might have embedded Maxwell’s equations in Egyptian hieroglyphs. The Ten Commandments might have been engraved on the moon. "Or why not a hundred- kilometer crucifix in Earth orbit?… Why should God be so clear in the Bible and so obscure in the world?" He laments what he calls a "retreat from Copernicus," a loss of nerve, an emotional regression to the idea that humanity must occupy center stage. Both Gingerich and Collins, along with most every reconciler of science and religion, invoke the anthropic principle: that the values of certain physical constants such as the charge of the electron appear to be "fine-tuned" to produce a universe hospitable to the rise of conscious, worshipful life. But the universe is not all that hospitable-try leaving Earth without a space suit. Life took billions of years to take root on this planet, and it is an open question whether it made it anywhere else. To us carboniferous creatures, the dials may seem miraculously tweaked, but different physical laws might have led to universes harboring equally awe-filled forms of energy, cooking up anthropic arguments of their own.

George Johnson is author of Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order and six other books. He resides on the Web at talaya.net --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

Reviewed by Wray Herbert
In 1877, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli was looking at Mars through his new telescope, and he noticed intricate etchings in the equatorial region of the planet's surface. Schiaparelli called these lines canali, by which he probably meant something like "gullies" or "grooves," but his coinage got wrongly translated into English as "canals." It was a regrettable linguistic slip.

The idea of Martian canals grabbed the imagination of American astronomer Percival Lowell, scion of the famous Boston Lowell clan, who spun out an elaborate story of a Martian civilization with a central planetary government and the technological wizardry to engineer a massive system of aqueducts. Lowell even used his own Arizona observatory to identify the Martian capital, called Solis Lacus.

There are no canals on Mars. No cities either, and no government. Indeed, no signs of past life whatsoever, as we know today. All of this was an elaborate phantasm of Lowell's fertile mind, yet as late as the 1950s, popular culture was saturated with imagery of Martians as a technologically advanced extraterrestrial race.

The late Carl Sagan used the misbegotten tale of Martian engineers, in his 1985 Gifford Lectures in Natural Theology at the University of Glasgow, as a cautionary tale about the power of belief and yearning to trump science and reason. The Cornell University astrophysicist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and TV personality was alarmed by the persistence of such magical thinking even into the late 20th century, despite tremendous scientific progress in understanding both human nature and the cosmos. He used the prestigious lecture series (collected here for the first time by his widow and long-time collaborator, Ann Druyan) as an opportunity to challenge the evidence for everything from the Bermuda Triangle to UFOs to angels and deities. But just as important, he used the lectures to spell out his views on the common ground shared by science and spirituality.

Sagan does not deny the existence of God. Nor does he affirm it. As he quips in the lively Q&A section appended to the lectures, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." What Sagan does do is insist on the primacy of scientific method and scientific evidence, and he holds the many and various "proofs" of God's existence up to these scientific standards. Most are found wanting. But Sagan is not harsh in his critiques of religious thought; he is more perplexed by theology's narrow and unimaginative vision.

Why would an all-powerful God work only on a local (and recent) project like the Earth when there is a vast, 15-billion-year-old universe out there, with countless galaxies containing countless stars and the possibility of countless worlds? Why didn't God let us know about quantum mechanics and natural selection and cosmology from the get-go? And why would theologians insist on such a provincial version of the creation and God's imagination?

Sagan is not being flip or heretical, though he is intellectually playful and obviously likes the fray. Sagan took his own spirituality seriously -- indeed, he defined science as "informed worship." The closest he comes to articulating his own view of God is to describe admiringly the philosophies of Spinoza and Einstein, who basically considered God the sum total of all the laws of physics. These laws, he emphasizes again and again, govern not just the Earth and humanity but every solar system and every star and every galaxy. They are not local ordinances.

Central to Sagan's personal search for the existence of God is the question of other life in the universe. For him, the requirements for proof of extraterrestrial intelligence are essentially the same requirements for proof of angels or demigods or a God. Sagan spends much of one lecture on the so-called Drake equation, which is a way of estimating the number of technologically advanced civilizations in the galaxy. The equation incorporates several values, including the rate of star formation, the fraction of stars with planets around them, the fraction likely to have evolved intelligent life and so forth.

The confounding value is L, which stands for the average lifetime of a technologically advanced civilization. If you plug in an optimistic value, assuming such civilizations are long-lived, then the equation predicts that there are millions of intelligent societies out there, and likely one just a few hundred light years away. That's a long way by spaceship, but really right next door if you're going at the speed of light, which means that our radio telescopes should be able to pick up signals from other advanced beings who want to contact us.

But what if the value of L is low? What if technologically advanced civilizations don't last very long on average? If highly intelligent races tend to perish quickly, then the Drake equation predicts not millions of such civilizations but one. Us. We are alone.

In 1985, Sagan was especially concerned about the 55,000 nuclear warheads strategically placed around the globe, threatening to make Earth a cosmological loser. A recurring theme in these lectures is that our scientific prowess is double-edged, revealing the awesomeness of nature while landing us in great peril.

Yet this is not a dour book. Far from it. Sagan was fundamentally an optimist, and The Varieties of Scientific Experience is mostly a joyful, celebratory meditation on nature and the expansiveness of the human spirit. The volume was published on the 10th anniversary of Sagan's death in December 1996. For those who have sorely missed his clear and wise voice, it will be received as a gift.

Copyright 2007, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (November 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0143112627
• ISBN-13: 978-0143112624
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #132,371 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

111 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating!, November 12, 2006

By	The Spinozanator (Waco, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

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This review is from: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (Hardcover)

Science's esteemed friend Carl Sagan died prematurely in 1996. What a pleasure it is to read more of his crystal clear prose. In these transcripts of his 1985 Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology at the University of Glasgow, he gives us his rich insights on the relationship between science and religion. William James had a turn in the early 20th century and turned his lectures into the acclaimed "Varieties of Religious Experiences." "Varieties of Scientific Experiences" is edited by Sagan's widow and collaborator Ann Druyan and she acknowledges his admiration for James in the title of this book.

Starting with cosmology, Sagan leads us through a naturalistic view of the universe - meaning except for the most extreme liberal interpretation of God, He is not part of the equation. But the believer who desires the bigger picture should not be scared off - this eloquent book is more considerate and gentle than the recent books on religion by Dawkins, Harris, and Dennett. As usual with Sagan, it is also a treatise on why we should view our world with a scientific, rational mind-set. Sagan's bottom line was always: "Show me the evidence." In an interview, Sagan was once pressed by a reporter for a premature conclusion. When asked, "But what's your gut feeling," Sagan replied, "I try not to think with my gut."

I spent a whole day being stimulated and intrigued by this book and there is not a dull page. An 11th century Hindu logician presented the following proofs for the Hindu "all-knowing and imperishable but not necessarily omnipotent and compassionate God":

1. First cause - sounds familiar
2. Argument from atomic combinations - bonding of atoms requires a conscious agent
3. Argument from suspension of the world - somebody has to be holding it up
4. Argument from the existence of human skills
5. Existence of authoritative knowledge - Vedas, the Hindu holy books

Sagan compares them to the Western arguments:

1. First cause - otherwise known as the cosmological argument.
2. Argument from design
3. Moral argument - attributed to Kant
4. Ontological argument - Man is imperfect, there must be something greater that is perfect, therefore God exists
5. Argument from consciousness - I have self-awareness, therefore God exists
6. Argument from religious experiences

Sagan briefly discusses each item on these somewhat similar lists, ending with, "I must say that the net result is not very impressive. It is very much as if we are seeking a rational justification for something that we otherwise hope will be true." About the moral argument, he says, "It does not follow if we are powerfully motivated to take care of our young or the young of everybody on the planet, that God made us do it. Natural selection can make us do it, and almost surely has."

After each of the nine lectures, Sagan took selected written questions from the audience - most of them from believers and one of them signed by God Almighty himself. He answered them all with wit, grace, and poise and this 37 page segment is not to be missed - the whole book is not to be missed and gets my highest recommendation. Whether or not you've previously read Carl Sagan, you're in for a treat.

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Miss You, Mr. Sagan. , February 12, 2007

By	Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (Hardcover)

I would love to spend a paragraph or two on how lucky we were and are to have had Carl Sagan among us. Of course, anyone reading this review likely already knows that this is true and the extent of its truth. So, I will get to the point.

This is a very impressive posthumous collection of Sagan's Gifford's lectures where he talks about the intersection (or lack thereof) of sceince and religion. Most importantly, he talks about how the religious experience - more appropriately, the experience of extreme awe at our surroundings - is more apt for science than in religion. Where religious awe and wonderment revels in mystery, sceintific awe acknowledges the mystery and goes about extirpate that mystery via some explanation. Wheras religion's version of solving a problem is to postulate magic, science's version of solving problems involves solving them with evidence.

The first few essays are about the idea of the 'religious experience' - the acknowledgement of how small we are and how vast is the universe; the acknowledgement of how sublime all of our surroundings truly are. But science, suggests Sagan, seeks to find out about those surrounding, while religion revels in the idea of the 'incomprehensible.'

There is an essay that continues this theme by postulating on the possible NATURALISTIC origins of life. While we have not solved the puzzle, Sagan walks us through very plausible examples of how the chemical process COULD HAVE gone (certainly more plausible than an infinitely complex god deciding to create all of this, by which you then have to explain how THAT god arose.)

Another essay exposes the very embarassing 'proofs' of god that theologians have come up with through the years. Most atheists or agnostics will already be familiar with most of these, but Sagan rehashes and debunks them with crystal clear prose that is not so much combative as matter-of-fact. (Sagan wins over Dawkins here.)

The next few essays - of concern to Sagan his whole career through - talk about the importance of we humans realizing that just as our existince wasn't inevitable, neither is our continued existence. Sagan died in 1996 and, sad to say, not much has changed in terms of nuclear proliferation, etc. In fact, Sagan died before terrorism really took center stage via 9/11. Had he lived to see it, doubtless these essays would sound more urgent (a la Sam Harris). Yet, he writes of the dangers humans face should they want to live a full and long 21st century.

The common theme in this book - as in his earlier Demon Haunted World - was to guard against the perils of superstition, be it religious beliefs that cannot be subjected to scientific scrutiny, the belief that our planet is the center of everything, the belief that humans continued existence is assured because of divine fiat, etc.

I am not sure how else to end my review of this very worthy book but to say - Thank You, Mr. Sagan (and Mrs. Drunyan).

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A late science ICON presents his personal views on his search for God, January 19, 2007

By	Stephen Pletko "Uncle Stevie" (London, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God (Hardcover)

+++++

Former professor of astronomy & space sciences and former director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University Dr. Carl Sagan (Nov. 1934 to Dec. 1996) has risen from the dead to write a book on his search for God!!

Well, not quite. Sagan's third wife & widow and his longtime collaborator Ann "Annie" Druyan has turned his 1985 lectures (formally entitled the "Gifford Lectures on Natural Theology") that he presented at the University of Glasgow in Scotland into a fascinating book. Astronomer and the Sagans' dear friend Steven Soter wrote scientific updates that appear in the book's footnotes and, as well, he made "many editorial contributions."

The purpose of these lectures as Druyan tells us is as follows:

"Carl saw these lectures as a chance to set down in detail his understanding of the relationship between religion and science and something of his own search to understand the nature of the sacred."

But exactly why did Druyan turn these lectures into a book (which she edited)? Here's her answer:

"In the midst of the worldwide pandemic of extreme fundamentalist violence and during a time in the United States when phony piety in public life reached a new low and the critical separation of church and state and public classroom were dangerously eroded, I felt that Carl's perspective on these questions was needed for than ever."

Thank goodness that she thought this way because she has given all of us a valuable book to be cherished, "a...stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being." For those who have followed Sagan's writings in the past, the science he presents will be familiar and easy to follow. He does though illuminate his discussion with examples from such disciplines as cosmology, physics, philosophy, literature, psychology, cultural anthropology, mythology, and theology. What was especially new and unexpected to me were the religious viewpoints that he presents. I have never read these before and this is what makes this book a treat to read. These religious viewpoints are especially prominent in the last 5 chapters or lectures. They are entitled:

(1) Extraterrestrial folklore: implications for the evolution of religion
(2) The God hypothesis (an excellent chapter!!)
(3) The religious experience
(4) Crimes against creation
(5) The search

Sagan emphasizes an important point right at the beginning of the book in the "Author's Introduction" that he wrote in Glasgow, Scotland on Oct., 1985:

"I want to stress that what I will be saying are my own personal views on [the relationship] between science and religion...I hope only to trace my own thinking and understanding of [this relationship]."

This book has more than 35 figures or illustrations (mainly in the form of color photographs). The bulk of the photographs occur in the first four chapters that have the following titles (I have also included the number of illustrations per chapter):

(1) Nature and wonder: a reconnaissance of Heaven (14 illustrations)
(2) A retreat from Copernicus: a modern loss of nerve (5)
(3) The organic universe (13)
(4) Extraterrestrial intelligence (2)

After presenting all the lectures, the book ends with selected transcribed questions from the audience. Sagan answers these questions with his trademark style of elegance and style punctuating his answers with reason and rationality. I found this section most interesting.

Finally, a note on the photographs. Druyan explains:

"[I and Steven Soter] felt sure that Carl would not have wanted to use the 1985 slides from the lectures. Astronomers have seen farther and more clearly since then. Steve found the gorgeous [and more recent color] images that replace them."

I can validate Druyan's statement. All the photographs ARE gorgeous and a sight to behold.

In conclusion, this book presents the scintillating lectures of the relationship between science and religion by the late scientific icon, Carl Sagan. I leave you with Sagan's final words in the last lecture presented in this book:

"I think if we ever reach the point where we think we thoroughly understand who we are and where we came from, we will have failed. I think this search does not lead to a complacent satisfaction that we know the answer, not an arrogant sense that the answer is before us and we need only to do one more experiment to find out. It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it [as religion does] but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us."

(first published 2006; editor's introduction; author's introduction; 9 lectures or chapters; main narrative 220 pages; selected Q & A; acknowledgements; figure captions; index; figure credits)

+++++