www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall a small but real miracle of grace

I recently saw a video of the late Carl Sagan, the famous astronomer. It was the last chapter of his celebrated television series on astronomy, "Cosmos." At the end, he added an update for the 10 anniversary of the show. Dr. Sagan was not religious and, I believe, he was an agnostic or an atheist. Yet, as he recounted the fantastic opportunities for mankind's growth throughout the solar system and beyond, and also as he recounted the terrible opportunities for our own destruction by nuclear war, he remarked: "It is almost as if there is a God, who said 'I set before you life and death; choose life.' And now, with our technology, it's up to us." I am so glad that toward the end of his life, this great mind finally became at least open to the possibility of God.

Lesson: Never stop praying.

-- John

Let's hope this optimism is confirmed by the posthumous publication of archskeptic Carl Sagan's lectures on God and His absence into a book "The Varieties of Scientific Experience" by his widow, Ann Druyan. I haven't noticed if it is already out.

"God v. Science" debates continue and I read the recent 90-minute face-to-face debate arranged by TIME at its NY headquarters between Richard Dawkins, the Oxford eminent professor, arguing against God's existence and Francis Collins, the Director of the Genome Project and a convert to evangelicalism, defending His existence.

Prof. Collins' defense, borrowing from Catholicism's age-old argument for the co-existence between faith and reason, was impressive.

Scientists are now "evenly" divided, thank God!

Cancer could have quite strange side-effects on people.

I've always been an admirer of Carl Sagan's scientific work and my understanding is that towards the end of his earthly pilgrimage, he was very open to the possibility of God, even if he never really left his agnostic camp.

Shalom,
Memo