Ancient Astronomy
Ancient Astronomy – Best Of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos (Part 17)
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• http://www.youtube.com/FFreeThinker
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BEST OF CARL SAGAN’S “COSMOS”:
1) 10 Years After: Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Reflect:
2) Lost Between Immensity And Eternity:
3) The Realm Of The Galaxies:
4) Our Galaxy, The Milky Way:
5) Our Solar System:
6) Eratosthenes And The Round Earth Model:
7) The Library Of Alexandria:
A Short History Of The Universe:
9) Artificial And Natural Selection:
10) The Cosmic Year:
11) Tree Of Life – 4 Billion Years Of Evolution:
12) The Miracle Of Life:
13) DNA – The Common Basis Of Life:
14) Abiogenesis The Origin Of Life:
15) Astronomy vs Astrology:
16) Pictures In The Sky:
17) Ancient Astronomy:
18) Triumph Of Modern Science Over Medieval Superstition:
19) The Mysterious Tonguska Event:
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Carl Edward Sagan, Ph.D. (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, astrochemist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.
A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel “Contact”, the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemecki’s film of the same name starring Jodie Foster.
During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, secular humanism, and the scientific method.
http://www.carlsagan.com
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Duration : 0:8:58
The Quality as in …
The Quality as in lack of quality?
Its not too disimilar to many Australian public schools, but the system is quite different. Education seems to be so much more expensive in the US
Sounds like you had an organised and structured homeschooling did it involve learning via correspondence? I’m intrigued.
Well, as an …
Well, as an Australian, I’m sure you’ve at least heard of the quality of the public educational system of American schools in K-12.
However, there are a good number of rather advanced and progressive secular homeschooling curriculum offered.
When I got started back in 1998, we were doing video classes over the internet and doing in depth studies into evolution, molecular biology, college level algebra (in the 8th grade) and actually holding real federal government courses.
Its great in the US
Yes you make a …
Yes you make a valid point. personally I don’t believe homeschooling is necessarily the best option, but I won’t deny that there would be good examples of homeschooling. Its the home schooling by parents that know very little and are devoutly religious that concerns me. I had a friend who was homeschooled while his family travelled the world, lucky bastard
@shandorejunk
I …
@shandorejunk
I agree, wrong of me to assume, but do you see my rational for it?
Here’s one thing I hate, the bad name homeschooling has gotten because of these religious nuts.
I was homeschooled from the end of the 7th grade on, I graduated at age 16, using secular curriculum, receiving several scholarships, including the option for three different full rides to three different universities here in the realm of computer sciences.
Secular homeschoolers often call themselves “unschoolers” now
Try not to make …
Try not to make assumptions, it is a global village. But anyway, teaching is prickly, because you can talk abouit it like “private businesses” but we’re also talking about children being taught absolute rubbish. Homeschooloing is even worse. Where is the line drawn, its parents rights to teach their children how they see fit, but should it be a right to teach them superstitious nonsence? Should a school regardless of funding o turn away someone because they are a non-beleiever? Its complex
@shandorejunk
Or …
@shandorejunk
Or you could look at the bare statistics on youtube users and see the overwhelming majority of users are from the US.
It’s only natural to assume.
A private religious school receiving NO funding from the local, state, or federal government can hire/fire whomever they like as is the right of a private company.
But even that is within bounds of discrimination. But everyone knows they will find work arounds.
@BusinessIDBAI I’m …
@BusinessIDBAI I’m Australian, so I don’t really understand why I need to read the USA constitution and the case I was talking about was an Australian one , sigh, some of you yanks think that your country is the centre of the universe. I’m discussing where the line is drawn, I’m pretty sure religious schools in USA can employ who they like, but the system is quite different. Enlighten me.
@shandorejunk
You …
@shandorejunk
You should look at the first amendment to the Constitution, it not only covers speech, but also the government NOT condoning any religion. Seriously, look it up.
Freedom of PERSONAL religion, not freedom of PUBLIC religion. The government is legally ESTABLISHED as a secular organization. If they believe otherwise, they don’t know the constitution. Period.
The problem is that …
The problem is that religious types think it is Ok to fire someone out of wedlock, or an atheist, or gay/lesbian in schools. They say its their right to have teachers that fit into their schools religious ethos, but where is the line drawn? If this is what they want they should have their goverment funding cut. Freedom of religion should never be allowed to trump equal opportunity. They’d never sack a teacher because they were black, mother out of wedlock is no worse.
I wouldn’t want to …
I wouldn’t want to apply for those types of jobs if that’s their mentality and I certainly don’t want my kids going there. Any organization should be able to hire people on any quality, but once they are hired, they shouldn’t be fired for anything other than poor performance. So, in my opinion, they can choose to hire who they please, BUT they must obey the contract regardless of beliefs/race/orientation. Firing someone just because they had a child out of wedlock is inappropriate.
It is a very fine …
It is a very fine line. I know here in Australia recently religious schools wanted the abililty to breach the equal opportunity act and not be allowed to employ people against their “religous stance” no where no talking of schools hiring Gay Atheist evolutionists, just mothers who were christain themselves but had a child with a partner and wasn’t married being fired. So exactly when does “freedom of religion” trump “equal opportunity” and other rights, and why should this be allowed?
I don’t know, it is …
I don’t know, it is possible to have informed and interesting debates about the words of Carl Sagan. ISagan was all about Science communication, we’ll never get rid of fundies, but there might be some touched by sagans words and want to talk to others who agree.
No disagreement …
No disagreement there! Every person has a right to defend their beliefs, but not at the expense of other beliefs. =)
@Forlo12345 I don’t …
@Forlo12345 I don’t think its radical at all. Freedom of religion shouldn’t equal freedom to preach bullshit. people have a right to protect aspects of their cultural heritage, but their should be no rights protecting morons who want creationism taught in a science classroom. New religions should be rejected and disbanded, like scientology (and maybe mormons haha).
Fundies are using …
Fundies are using government protected status to push their views on everyone. Anyone can create a religion and for tax exempt status (the scientologists pulled it off!). And so the fundies will try to use their status to push religion into schools. The 1st amendment protects people’s choices of religion, but isn’t meant to support it. This may seem radical, but I think we should remove ALL government programs meant to give tax breaks to religious groups (unless it’s community service).
Well, I don’t know. …
Well, I don’t know. For every person it’s different. In fact, I used to be a Christian, then I became a deist, and now agnostic. It took me about ten years to accomplish that. One of my friends took a few months to do that. And I know someone else who, after 20 years, is still questioning his faith but refuses to deconvert. I don’t know, for every person, it requires a separate form of logic to convince them they don’t need to factor a supernatural being into the equation.
I do agree with you …
I do agree with you though, there will always be questions that science simly cannot answer, and there will always be a shrinking God but never shrunk out of existance. But what should we do about the fundies who hold science back? Do you realise that the same “freedom of religion” that protects moderate christians also protects the fundies with their backwards ideas? How big should the umbrella be?
Well said. Isn’t …
Well said. Isn’t this basically the definition of faith. Its not as blind as a fundamentalists dry hope in a “god of the bible”. At what stage does a moderate christian basically turn into a panatheist though?
Exactly! Religious …
Exactly! Religious people choose to believe in a God because we can logically explain everything in the universe except for what happened before it was created. So, like every religion, people will invent some creative explanation for what we can’t explain and call it: “God.” For all that we can discover, there is still a limit to how much knowledge that we can attain. So, moderate Christians will have to believe in a “shrinking” God, but I don’t think that belief will ever disappear.
@Forlo12345 YEs, …
@Forlo12345 YEs, but the poor old moderate christain will have to continue to believe in a “shrinking” God as science discovers more and more.
Not all Christians …
Not all Christians believe that. Rational Christians have the common sense to accept the theories of evolution, abiogenesis, and the big bang. These Christians DO believe the fact of evolution and the fact that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old and that the Universe is older by nearly ten times that much. So it’s a question of fundamentalism. Christian fundamentalists do not believe in facts if they go against their fragile beliefs. Moderate Christians will accept facts no matter what.
Christian still …
Christian still believe that the Universe exist 10,000 years ago. And the earth exist 6000 years ago. Also, they believe that God will resurrect the dead.
They are so stupid.
@ SagansCosmos. …
@ SagansCosmos. Maybe you should just delete the comments section, because I don’t think it’s really that necessary for these kind of educational videos, and it really only just gives the uneducated morons like saynotodarwin a canvas to write slander upon. It’s not like they won’t find another corner of the internet that will play host to their brainless voices.
To be lost in the …
To be lost in the vast magnificent void is not a harsh fate or criticism. But to be lost and consumed in the great miasma of human stupidity… that is not something to envy or be proud of.
i know what i can …
i know what i can see hear smell and taste. i know its stupid to believe any information without evidence. i know how to roll a j,and make my girlfriend scream and wake the neighbors