- #1
MirabileAuditu
"Cosmos" - A Critique
“Cosmos”, by Carl Sagan
A Critique by MirabileAuditu
Note: Carl Sagan was a scientist and teacher at Cornell University. Unfortunately, he demonstrated an extremely left-wing bias, while contradicting himself and saying things that were either untrue or patently silly. Scientists should not do any of these things, much less all of them. Whether Professor Sagan was exactly quoted, or paraphrased to conserve time, space, and words, the intent and context were preserved as best this reviewer knows how. Since liberals/leftists/progressives/”moderates” (ha ha ha) hatefully attack “Neocons" like me in the most reprehensible, most condescending, most vile manner possible, it is high time that they got a taste of their own smashface sarcasm.
Note that I have generously quoted the author in order to avoid or at least minimize the anticipated criticisms by Sagan’s fellow leftists of my taking anything out of context. (My comments follow parenthetically.)
Page 4: “In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. (In a human perspective, most cosmic concerns seem insignificant, even foolish, and certainly expensive to pursue.)
P5: “Every star may be a sun to someone.” And “There are a hundred billion galaxies, each with a hundred billion stars.” (On P 270, he says, “There may be a million worlds . . .” On P 301, he calculates the number of planets in the Milky Galaxy with technical civilization to be “~10" and it “might be as small as 1". A difference of six orders of magnitude is pretty unscientific.)
P 8: “The laws of nature are the same throughout the Cosmos. We are now two million light years from home.” (The first is an untestable assumption. Sorry, Professor, but just about EVERYONE is at home here on earth. It took Voyager 11 years to make it to Jupiter. We aren’t going anywhere.)
P 11: “On some [worlds], intelligent life may have evolved, reworking the planetary surface in some massive engineering enterprise.” (But here we can’t even patch the hole in our ozone layer, or divert a hurricane.)
P 12: “Human beings, born ultimately of the stars and now for a while inhabiting a world called Earth, have begun their long voyage home.” (A scant 2,000,000 light years away. See also P 289: Voyager would take “tens of thousands of years” to go to the nearest star.)
P 18: “Cosmos” is a Greek word for the order of the universe. It implies the deep interconnectedness of all things.” (From P 57 of “Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan: There is “much poor planning” in the universe. From P 295 of PBD: “Our world does not seem to have been sculpted by a master craftsman.” Which is it? Deeply interconnected, or poorly planned? Surely those connotations are at odds.)
P 20: “Intellectual capacity is no guarantee against being dead wrong.” (We agree. There is, however, widespread hubris exhibited by “intellectuals”, which is virtually synonymous with leftists such as Carl Sagan.)
P 27: “The environment selects those varieties (of plants and animals) which are, by accident, better suited for survival.” (No evolutionist I ever spoke to said that selection operates “by accident”. They do headstands to avoid the dread word “random”, a synonym for “accident”.)
P 29: “Each plant and animal is exquisitely made; should not a supremely competent Designer have been able to make the intended variety from the start? The fossil record implies trial and error...” (Where to begin? “Exquisitely made” is the opposite of “accident”, on P 27, and “much poor planning” in PBD, P 57. Moreover, adaptability seems to be a brilliant aspect of our creation. It allows life to survive some pretty drastic changes in their surroundings. Finally, if man is so much more “evolved” than everything below him, why do all the ‘inferior’ life forms live on, and in far greater abundance than our own numbers?)
P 31: “Since mutations are random nucleotide changes, most of them are harmful or lethal, coding into existence nonfunctional enzymes.” (Enzymes are complex biological compounds which promote a chemical reaction. If they are “nonfunctional”, they are not enzymes. Which begs the question, since many if not most enzymes are too complex for our best organic chemists to synthesize, how did they “happen” by “accident” ? It is statistically impossible.)
P 32: “Oxygen tends to make organic molecules fall to pieces. It is fundamentally a poison for unprotected organic matter.” (Water too causes degradation [via hydrolysis] of organic molecules. Never fear, however. Evolution conquers all, as it did in the primordial soup. And now the Easter Bunny has something for you.)
P 33: “What a marvelous cooperative arrangement - plants and animals each inhaling each other’s exhalations...” (Just another “accident”? Evidence of “much poor planning”? How would Professor Sagan explain the “evolution” of this “marvelous cooperative arrangement”? Plants knew animals needed their exhalations? Or the converse?)
P 35: “We do not yet know how to assemble alternative sequences of nucleotides to make alternative kinds of human beings. . . . Mutations are rare.” (Chemists cannot begin to synthesize the very nucleotides that “happened” by “accident” from a “rare” mutational progression. Nucleotides are 5,000,000,000 base pairs in length in human DNA. The probability of arriving at human DNA in a random process is far less than one chance in 4 (base pairs) to the 5,000,000,000. In comparison, an event with odds of one in 10 exp 50, statistically defined as “impossible”, would be a foregone conclusion.)
P 93: “Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still.” (Refer to P 57 of PBD: Sagan said there is “much poor planning” in the universe, although he did not say where, and how HE would have done it differently. He did, however, “worry about people who aspire to be god-like”.)
P 103: “The Earth is a tiny and fragile world. It needs to be cherished.” (In a “cosmic perspective”, his “human concern seems insignificant, even petty”. These are his own words, not mine. I believe that elitists such as Professor Sagan, with their eyes on the stars, too often lose sight of humans, and unborn babies, and the need to have standing armies to guard against the many tyrants worldwide. )
P 120: “I found myself making very conservative recommendations on the fate of a billion dollar mission {Viking 1}. (The only “conservative” recommendation possible for billion dollar space pictures is this - “DON’T !”. From PBD, P 269: “What fraction of the GNP for space is too much. I’d like the same thing done for ‘defense’ “. When SHOULD we spend money for defense? When the missles start to fly? Perhaps we shouldn’t invest in fire trucks until there’s a fire. If $40 million for Ken Starr is “too much”, then surely $1 billion for Viking 1 is also “too much”.)
P 121: (Voyager 2 showed that) “Mars was a place.” (For $265 million, you get such wisdom. And pictures of rocks too. Don’t forget those.)
Ibid : ”Where did the rocks come from? What are the rocks made of? Why is the sky pink?”
(If the first $265 million didn’t answer those questions, shall we ante up another $265 million?)
P 123: “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is subject to frequent and unpredictable budget cuts. Only rarely are there unanticipated budget increases.” (Perhaps not everyone shares his enthusiasm for why the Martian sky is pink. Then too Galileo knew that “Mars was a place.” And for much less money. A man’s take home pay too is subject to frequent and unpredictable cuts.)
P 124: “There are limits to what we can do.” (PBD, Page 29: “We will spread through the Milky Way.”)
P 125: “We can be fooled.” (NOOOOOOO ! Scientists? Fooled?)
P 126: “If there is life on Mars, where are the dead bodies? No organic molecules could be found . . .nothing of the stuff of life on Earth.” . . . “[Carbon] makes marvelously complex molecules, good for life. Water makes an ideal solvent for organic chemistry to work in and stays liquid over a wide range of temperatures.” (P 57 of PBD: There is “evidence of much poor planning in the universe”, said Professor Sagan. “Darwin’s Black Box” , by Michael J. Behe, Biochemist: “The presence of water strongly inhibits amino acids from forming proteins.” P 169)
P 127: “...our universe permits the evolution of molecular machines as intricate and subtle as we.” (“Permits”, he said. “Permits” such intricacy. How positively random and accidental. Evidence of “much poor planning”, P 57, PBD.)
P 128: “Hal Morowitz has calculated what it would cost to put together the correct molecular constituents that make up a human being. The answer turns out to be about ten million dollars.” (So you and I are “ten million dollar” “accidents”, of “random mutations”. The Holy Bible sounds much more accurate to me: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”)
P 130: “What shall we do with Mars? If there is life on Mars, it belongs to the Martians.” (P 130: “No organic molecules could be found. No simple hydrocarbons.” How on Earth could a scientist be discussing “Martians” in this day and age?)
P 134: (To terraform Mars) “we would build canals.” (With bulldozers? Powered by internal combustion engines? And bring the water from earth? P 124: “There are limits to what we can do.” P 125: “We can be fooled.” NOOOOO ! Who’d believe it?)
(End of Part I)
“Cosmos”, by Carl Sagan
A Critique by MirabileAuditu
Note: Carl Sagan was a scientist and teacher at Cornell University. Unfortunately, he demonstrated an extremely left-wing bias, while contradicting himself and saying things that were either untrue or patently silly. Scientists should not do any of these things, much less all of them. Whether Professor Sagan was exactly quoted, or paraphrased to conserve time, space, and words, the intent and context were preserved as best this reviewer knows how. Since liberals/leftists/progressives/”moderates” (ha ha ha) hatefully attack “Neocons" like me in the most reprehensible, most condescending, most vile manner possible, it is high time that they got a taste of their own smashface sarcasm.
Note that I have generously quoted the author in order to avoid or at least minimize the anticipated criticisms by Sagan’s fellow leftists of my taking anything out of context. (My comments follow parenthetically.)
Page 4: “In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. (In a human perspective, most cosmic concerns seem insignificant, even foolish, and certainly expensive to pursue.)
P5: “Every star may be a sun to someone.” And “There are a hundred billion galaxies, each with a hundred billion stars.” (On P 270, he says, “There may be a million worlds . . .” On P 301, he calculates the number of planets in the Milky Galaxy with technical civilization to be “~10" and it “might be as small as 1". A difference of six orders of magnitude is pretty unscientific.)
P 8: “The laws of nature are the same throughout the Cosmos. We are now two million light years from home.” (The first is an untestable assumption. Sorry, Professor, but just about EVERYONE is at home here on earth. It took Voyager 11 years to make it to Jupiter. We aren’t going anywhere.)
P 11: “On some [worlds], intelligent life may have evolved, reworking the planetary surface in some massive engineering enterprise.” (But here we can’t even patch the hole in our ozone layer, or divert a hurricane.)
P 12: “Human beings, born ultimately of the stars and now for a while inhabiting a world called Earth, have begun their long voyage home.” (A scant 2,000,000 light years away. See also P 289: Voyager would take “tens of thousands of years” to go to the nearest star.)
P 18: “Cosmos” is a Greek word for the order of the universe. It implies the deep interconnectedness of all things.” (From P 57 of “Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan: There is “much poor planning” in the universe. From P 295 of PBD: “Our world does not seem to have been sculpted by a master craftsman.” Which is it? Deeply interconnected, or poorly planned? Surely those connotations are at odds.)
P 20: “Intellectual capacity is no guarantee against being dead wrong.” (We agree. There is, however, widespread hubris exhibited by “intellectuals”, which is virtually synonymous with leftists such as Carl Sagan.)
P 27: “The environment selects those varieties (of plants and animals) which are, by accident, better suited for survival.” (No evolutionist I ever spoke to said that selection operates “by accident”. They do headstands to avoid the dread word “random”, a synonym for “accident”.)
P 29: “Each plant and animal is exquisitely made; should not a supremely competent Designer have been able to make the intended variety from the start? The fossil record implies trial and error...” (Where to begin? “Exquisitely made” is the opposite of “accident”, on P 27, and “much poor planning” in PBD, P 57. Moreover, adaptability seems to be a brilliant aspect of our creation. It allows life to survive some pretty drastic changes in their surroundings. Finally, if man is so much more “evolved” than everything below him, why do all the ‘inferior’ life forms live on, and in far greater abundance than our own numbers?)
P 31: “Since mutations are random nucleotide changes, most of them are harmful or lethal, coding into existence nonfunctional enzymes.” (Enzymes are complex biological compounds which promote a chemical reaction. If they are “nonfunctional”, they are not enzymes. Which begs the question, since many if not most enzymes are too complex for our best organic chemists to synthesize, how did they “happen” by “accident” ? It is statistically impossible.)
P 32: “Oxygen tends to make organic molecules fall to pieces. It is fundamentally a poison for unprotected organic matter.” (Water too causes degradation [via hydrolysis] of organic molecules. Never fear, however. Evolution conquers all, as it did in the primordial soup. And now the Easter Bunny has something for you.)
P 33: “What a marvelous cooperative arrangement - plants and animals each inhaling each other’s exhalations...” (Just another “accident”? Evidence of “much poor planning”? How would Professor Sagan explain the “evolution” of this “marvelous cooperative arrangement”? Plants knew animals needed their exhalations? Or the converse?)
P 35: “We do not yet know how to assemble alternative sequences of nucleotides to make alternative kinds of human beings. . . . Mutations are rare.” (Chemists cannot begin to synthesize the very nucleotides that “happened” by “accident” from a “rare” mutational progression. Nucleotides are 5,000,000,000 base pairs in length in human DNA. The probability of arriving at human DNA in a random process is far less than one chance in 4 (base pairs) to the 5,000,000,000. In comparison, an event with odds of one in 10 exp 50, statistically defined as “impossible”, would be a foregone conclusion.)
P 93: “Astronomical spectroscopy is an almost magical technique. It amazes me still.” (Refer to P 57 of PBD: Sagan said there is “much poor planning” in the universe, although he did not say where, and how HE would have done it differently. He did, however, “worry about people who aspire to be god-like”.)
P 103: “The Earth is a tiny and fragile world. It needs to be cherished.” (In a “cosmic perspective”, his “human concern seems insignificant, even petty”. These are his own words, not mine. I believe that elitists such as Professor Sagan, with their eyes on the stars, too often lose sight of humans, and unborn babies, and the need to have standing armies to guard against the many tyrants worldwide. )
P 120: “I found myself making very conservative recommendations on the fate of a billion dollar mission {Viking 1}. (The only “conservative” recommendation possible for billion dollar space pictures is this - “DON’T !”. From PBD, P 269: “What fraction of the GNP for space is too much. I’d like the same thing done for ‘defense’ “. When SHOULD we spend money for defense? When the missles start to fly? Perhaps we shouldn’t invest in fire trucks until there’s a fire. If $40 million for Ken Starr is “too much”, then surely $1 billion for Viking 1 is also “too much”.)
P 121: (Voyager 2 showed that) “Mars was a place.” (For $265 million, you get such wisdom. And pictures of rocks too. Don’t forget those.)
Ibid : ”Where did the rocks come from? What are the rocks made of? Why is the sky pink?”
(If the first $265 million didn’t answer those questions, shall we ante up another $265 million?)
P 123: “The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is subject to frequent and unpredictable budget cuts. Only rarely are there unanticipated budget increases.” (Perhaps not everyone shares his enthusiasm for why the Martian sky is pink. Then too Galileo knew that “Mars was a place.” And for much less money. A man’s take home pay too is subject to frequent and unpredictable cuts.)
P 124: “There are limits to what we can do.” (PBD, Page 29: “We will spread through the Milky Way.”)
P 125: “We can be fooled.” (NOOOOOOO ! Scientists? Fooled?)
P 126: “If there is life on Mars, where are the dead bodies? No organic molecules could be found . . .nothing of the stuff of life on Earth.” . . . “[Carbon] makes marvelously complex molecules, good for life. Water makes an ideal solvent for organic chemistry to work in and stays liquid over a wide range of temperatures.” (P 57 of PBD: There is “evidence of much poor planning in the universe”, said Professor Sagan. “Darwin’s Black Box” , by Michael J. Behe, Biochemist: “The presence of water strongly inhibits amino acids from forming proteins.” P 169)
P 127: “...our universe permits the evolution of molecular machines as intricate and subtle as we.” (“Permits”, he said. “Permits” such intricacy. How positively random and accidental. Evidence of “much poor planning”, P 57, PBD.)
P 128: “Hal Morowitz has calculated what it would cost to put together the correct molecular constituents that make up a human being. The answer turns out to be about ten million dollars.” (So you and I are “ten million dollar” “accidents”, of “random mutations”. The Holy Bible sounds much more accurate to me: “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”)
P 130: “What shall we do with Mars? If there is life on Mars, it belongs to the Martians.” (P 130: “No organic molecules could be found. No simple hydrocarbons.” How on Earth could a scientist be discussing “Martians” in this day and age?)
P 134: (To terraform Mars) “we would build canals.” (With bulldozers? Powered by internal combustion engines? And bring the water from earth? P 124: “There are limits to what we can do.” P 125: “We can be fooled.” NOOOOO ! Who’d believe it?)
(End of Part I)