The best part of it was when he told the audience, "Think for yourself, and question authority. Don't just believe something because that's what you are told. Make sure you have proof." It was a great explanation of how science works.

The thumpers will be up in arms over some of his comments.

I love NDTyson and the new Cosmos,but no one will ever capture the poetic explanations of the importance of science like Sagan did.Beautiful.

but it is clear that Carl Sagan made a lasting and wonderful impression on him. He would possibly be someone very different if Mr. Sagan hadn't seen the potential in that young man and in one night, nurtured it for all time.

Tonight's episode was a great capstone to the series -- probably the best of the thirteen. I missed one of them.

My thinking is that the Cosmos reboot was great. NdGT took on some issues Carl was not aware of. He also was very hard on the religious right and their pompously proud ignorance. I don't think Carl would have predicted just how far they would have come in the years since he died.

We live in very scary times, both politically and in science denial. We and our children will all pay dearly for that if we don't make some drastic changes very soon.

I fear for our future if that does not happen.

Just change the formatting of a section of the above quote a bit...

Think of the rivers of blood spilled
By all those generals and emperors
So that in glory and triumph
They could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot

Think of the endless cruelties
Visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel
On the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner

How frequent their misunderstanding
How eager they are to kill one another
How fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings
Our imagined self-importance
The delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe
Are challenged by this point of pale light

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark
In our obscurity
In all this vastnes
There is no hint
That help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life
There is nowhere else

that somewhere else, where there is life, contacts us. Heck, within our own lives (this year or last, I do believe) we found water on Mars. Where there is water, there is bacteria. So, already, we are not the only world to harbor life. I think that's cool beyond belief.

is an appreciation of the sheer immensity of what's around us. What is known, as far as the human mind can "know" things, and even more so what is unknown. Particularly, that momentary spark of recognition of that when you look up at the stars at night.

I hope there is life elsewhere too.

that is a true gift

He really put in perspective tonight. Gotta buy the DVDs!

I've heard a clear message the entire series, and the last scene where Sagan's voice, then deGrasse Tyson's, then the empty chair was a beckoning to those youngsters who had previously stayed up for Family Guy after the Simpsons. It was a call for every teacher being pressured to reach out to the same kids through science without pressure.

Did you see the Ron Reagan commercial for atheists about half way through that episode? The world should not exclude questioners.

Of course, the religious fundamentalists are going to have a fit, but like you said… It matters what's true…

I'm gonna get the series for my grandson for Christmas. He's the right age for it. I also think I should donate a copy to my local library.

Maybe donating a copy to a school, too. Especially a religious one.

back to our attention.

I have posted this far and wide tonight, to the ends of our planet and beyond! (With proper acknowledgements of course.)

If there's a single mantra of truth, this is it.

D7

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.

We, humanity, all of us, are doomed if we do not take the reigns of power by any means necessary to steer us off the current path we ride. This is not a political call to action or courage....its an imperative to the future of the homo sapiens species, and for the millions of other species on this Earth unfortunate enough to share this epoch with the most efficient killing machine ever evolved.

This is not about right or left, conservative or liberal, republican or democrat - it is about survival, and quite possibly a survival issue for many people already born, to say nothing of the millions to come who will enter a fight for survival unlike anything humanity has seen in at least 500 years or maybe even 1,000 or more.

The climate is damaged beyond repair already. 400+ ppm of atmospheric CO2 is not a "myth", its also no joke or laughing matter, nor are its long term consequences.

The practice of medicine is on the verge of a 200 year backward step in the next decade if new antibiotics cannot be developed and more control over their use implemented. No more surgeries without 50% or greater dying from post-operation infections. No more hip replacement, knee surgery, root canals, organ transplants, by-pass surgeries or recovery from an innocuous scratch on the play ground. No more recovering from bronchitis or pneumonia. No more easily controlled ear infections or relief to children with pink eye.

We are losing antibiotic effectiveness at an alarming rate. Do you know what a KPC is? You should educate yourself about it if you do not...it stands from Klebsiella Pneumoniae Carbapenamase and its a far bigger deal than a 1,000,000 Benghazis or Bergdahls, and yet 95% of all Americans have got no idea at all what it is, what it does or what it means to their future well-being or potential medical options.... We have been shown directly how evolution and nature out power our puny ingenuity and providential luck by orders of magnitude as lowly single celled life is kicking our collective ass through resistance and evolved defense against the best therapies we can devise. We are not only losing this game everyone, if it were a sporting event like boxing, they'd stop the fight....if it were little league baseball, the 10-run rule would be called...if it were Little Bighorn, we are Custer.

The carrying capacity of the planet has been raced by with scarcely a thought to how we can possibly feed the surplus BILLIONS of lives. The mere fact that so few even realize what the Haber Process is or how it has allowed so many people to eat and live on a planet not equipped to handle their voracious appetites and consumption is utterly jarring. We wallow in collective idiocy and wonder why things are so bad...we suffer fools and whores on the "Science" committees in congress and wonder why nothing seems to change....we decry the evils of money in politics and yet, someone, somewhere has to be affected by the mindless political button pushing ads and slogans in order for them to still bother with the Kabuki theater of elections in the first place.

The predominant economic system of the planet is strangling the majority of the population - and directly leading to all of these other nasty consequences...and yet, we silently watch it happen and pretend its a car wreck and nothing more than a momentary diversion until we go back into our new reality - that 18 inches between your smart phone and your eyes.

I hate modern humanity in all its abuses and inertia. We are a disgusting shell of morality (a cruel joke wrapped in flags, carrying crosses and spouting off platitudes and pap instead of examining what we REALLY stand for by action, not word); and a disgrace to our own wasted potential. If there were actually a god to blame for any of this, it might provide some momentary comfort, some kind of scapegoat to excise our own shortcomings and failure to meet even the lowest of expectations for stewards of the planet; but alas, there is not, and the real blame lies within each and every one of us - we were given the chance to be true gods in history and instead we got I-pads, cable TV and a soon to be censored internet.

Truth be told, the planet is going to shake us off (like a bad case of the fleas...thanks to George Carlin for that wonderfully apt analogy) and evolution will continue on, start over, try again. Maybe a million years from now, after all the damage from humanity has abated; and after the unfortunate species that share this time frame with us have been long gone and fossilized - maybe life will again evolve conscious thought and reason; maybe there will be enough cautionary evidence to survive us that they will learn the lessons we have not, maybe our doom will lead to their success and victory.

To the future, to those whose hate and loathing we all so richly deserve, I am sorry. I am sorry that we were such unconscionable shits, that we were so self-absorbed and small minded that we could not change the inevitable conclusion to the societal wreck we created. I am sorry for what we have done to you and the hellish nightmare world we bequeathed to you. But hey, Kendall Jenner might be flashing side boob on some 5th rate award show that doubles as a celebrity gawk-fest, so I have to run...the DVR on my phone might miss it otherwise.

K&R

Nothing is more important. This will trump EVERY OTHER ISSUE in the days and years ahead. EVERY LAST ONE OF 'EM. Even gun-goons' rights. THIS is MORE important!!!