re: #16 LudwigVanQuixote

When I look back on my childhood, more than anything else, it was seeing Cosmos as a boy that inspired me to become a scientist. In many ways, Carl Sagan was my first and greatest Rav.

It was him who awakened me to the duty that comes with doing science as well.

In Cosmos, he spoke of the fate of Hypatia, the last librarian of Alexandria, murdered by a Christian mob sent by the later sainted Cyril.

Sagan said… In all those years the LIbrary stood as a center of learning and a birthplace of discoveries, the scientists never stopped to question the order of the world around them. They never spoke out against slavery or other abuses. When the mob came for them, there was no one to save them.

With knowledge comes responsibility.

AGW is real. Evolution is real. There are real mobs today attacking science, but at least these days we speak out about justice more, and the truths of science, that we really are one species, and that we really do share one planet with finite resources, are being heard.

At least this time, science is kicking the teeth in of the old racism and sexism and the old superstitions.

Good evening, LVQ. That was quite poetic. Props.