The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Search results for “carl sagan”

School Prayer: Diane Ackerman’s Poetic Invitation to Attentive Presence as a Means of Transcendence and Secular Spirituality
School Prayer: Diane Ackerman’s Poetic Invitation to Attentive Presence as a Means of Transcendence and Secular Spirituality

A hymn to the numinous splendor of nature.

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Book Power: Gwendolyn Brooks’s Forgotten 1969 Ode to Why We Read
Book Power: Gwendolyn Brooks’s Forgotten 1969 Ode to Why We Read

“Books feed and cure and chortle and collide.”

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Don Giovanni and the Universe: Aldous Huxley on How the Moon Illuminates the Complementarity of Spirituality and Science
Don Giovanni and the Universe: Aldous Huxley on How the Moon Illuminates the Complementarity of Spirituality and Science

“The universe throws down a challenge to the human spirit… We have a right to our moods of sober exultation.”

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The Founding Father of Neuroscience on Solitude, the Importance of Science in a Nation’s Greatness, and the Ideal Social Environment for Intellectual Achievement
The Founding Father of Neuroscience on Solitude, the Importance of Science in a Nation’s Greatness, and the Ideal Social Environment for Intellectual Achievement

“Oh comforting solitude, how favorable thou art to original thought!”

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Poems of Space: Pioneering Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell Reads “Halley’s Comet” by Stanley Kunitz
Poems of Space: Pioneering Astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell Reads “Halley’s Comet” by Stanley Kunitz

An ode to the transcendent meeting point of outer space and inner space.

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Legendary Cosmologist Martin Rees on Science, Religion, and the Future of Post-Human Intelligence
Legendary Cosmologist Martin Rees on Science, Religion, and the Future of Post-Human Intelligence

“Fundamental physics shows how hard it is for us to grasp even the simplest things in the world. That makes you quite skeptical whenever someone declares he has the key to some deeper reality.”

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Trailblazing Astronomer Maria Mitchell on Science, Spirituality, and the Conquest of Truth
Trailblazing Astronomer Maria Mitchell on Science, Spirituality, and the Conquest of Truth

“Every formula which expresses a law of nature is a hymn of praise to God.”

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We Are Listening: Diane Ackerman’s Ode to the Search for Life Beyond Earth and Our Longing for Cosmic Companionship
We Are Listening: Diane Ackerman’s Ode to the Search for Life Beyond Earth and Our Longing for Cosmic Companionship

A lyrical love letter to “the small bipeds with the giant dreams.”

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The Ethics of Belief: The Great English Mathematician and Philosopher William Kingdon Clifford on the Discipline of Doubt and How We Can Trust a Truth
The Ethics of Belief: The Great English Mathematician and Philosopher William Kingdon Clifford on the Discipline of Doubt and How We Can Trust a Truth

“It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”

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Hallelujah Anyway: Anne Lamott on Reclaiming Mercy and Forgiveness as the Root of Self-Respect in a Vengeful World
Hallelujah Anyway: Anne Lamott on Reclaiming Mercy and Forgiveness as the Root of Self-Respect in a Vengeful World

“Kindness toward others and radical kindness to ourselves buy us a shot at a warm and generous heart, which is the greatest prize of all.”

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