Carl Sagan Quotes
If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.
Sagan, Carl. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House, 1995, p. 434.
This is a modern summary of the philosophy of Benedict Spinoza who developed the modern philosophical foundation of science and scientific thinking. When the authorities are clerics and religious leaders, their authority gets undermined which is why the Jews, Christians, and Muslims all excommunicated Spinoza. For the scientists, they themselves are to be rejected as determiners of knowledge and truth so they tend to do poorly in political disputes because the good scientists would never assert a belief that the politicians should listen to them just because they are great scientists and they “know.” It is the ideologues and junk scientists who are sure of their testimony and can advise with certainty. See linked quote(s).
Alvarez was one of the key physicists who developed the atom bomb and was the scientist selected to accompany the plane bombing Hiroshima. There was considerable friction in the Manhattan Project development of the bomb between the scientists and the military.
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages intended to be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them.
