It is now and always will be worth reading

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	• Cosmos Carl Sagan Ballantine Books, 1985 - 324 pages average customer review:based on 157 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Modern Bible

To this day, the most influential book I have ever read. A launching pad to a life of discovery. I would recommend it be read by every human as part of a high school curriculum.

Brilliant author but ill-informed.

I used to watch "Cosmos" religiously when I was an elementary school student. Every episode of it was enchanting and mesmerizing, considering the superb producer Carl Sagan. Back then, I was just a kid trying to explore the Universe around me and demystify the magic in it. Now, I have read the book itself. There is no doubt that Carl Sagan is a brilliant scientist and author. His absorbing, riveting style takes you from where you are to the remotest corners of the Universe. There are two points that I disagree with him.

For one thing, it might sound very subjective, he was not able to find out the Creator of the Universe, even though he was equipped with a brilliant mind. Every mystery, beauty, harmony in the Universe is ascribed to pure coincidence. To him, somehow the galaxies, planets etc. were formed after the Big Bang by chance. Then, somehow some amino acids came together (?) and after a few steps formed (?) a living cell. Living cells somehow learned to reproduce (?) and this led to more complex organisms (?). The life started in water, these "fish" then decided to continue (?) their life on land. They got legs, they further evolved and led to a wide variety of animals, one of these animals became (?) a human being. After a long time, human beings have become capable of unraveling the very reasons of their existence! Could this extremely long sequence of nearly improbable coincidences be the cause of our existence on Earth, in addition to the exquisite harmony and beauty in the Universe, or is there a super-human, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent Creator?

My second objection is to his remarks as to the discontinuity of the evolution of science between the Ancient Greek Civilization and the European Enlightenment, i.e. 600 AD - 1600 AD. According to his remarks, science did not develop in this intermission, which happens to last one millennium. Yes, the Greek Civilization came to an end about 600 AD, but Islamic Civilization commenced right afterwards. Between 750 AD - 1500 AD, Muslim scholars contributed to humanity in many ways. They translated ancient Greek texts to Arabic and Persian, used the knowledge and made their own original contributions. Therefore, Europeans had a chance to see the ancient Greek texts. [1] Avicenna "Ibni Sina" (981-1037) is known as the father of the modern medicine. His books "The Canon of Medicine" were used as textbooks in European universities until the 18th century. He was also a famous philosopher. [2] Al-Khwarizmi (770-840) is known as the founder of the modern algebra, and the word "algorithm" is derived from his name. [3] Omar Khayyam (1148-1123) was a famous mathematician, chemist and poet. [4] Alhazen "Ibn al-Haitham" (965-1040) was the founder of the modern optics and the author of "Kitab al-Manazir" (Book of Optics). Furthermore, Al-Kindi, Jabir ibn-Hayyan, Al-Battani, Al-Razi, Al-Farabi, Al-Masudi, Alboacen "Al-Mawardi", Al-Biruni, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd, Sharafeddin Tusi, Rumi, Al-Baitar, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Battuta, Ulugh Beg etc. were only several of the hundreds of well-known scientists, scholars, philosophers, poets. It is stunning and shameful that a professor of astronomy and astrophysics never knew these pioneers!

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It is now and always will be worth reading

Martin Gardner is arguably the greatest mathematician of the last century. Not because he solved a large number of complex theorems, but because of the number of people he influenced via his Mathematical Recreations columns in Scientific American. The same arguments can be made regarding the influence Carl Sagan had on science. While he was a very accomplished scientist, his greatest contribution was in making science understandable to the public. Not only did he steer many young people into science, he was also the leading voice in convincing the public that scientific research should be funded. This is another of his books on popular science that sold well and sold the public on the need for public funding of scientific research.
I have read all of Sagan's popular science books and I consider this one to be the best. He spends most of the time describing the solar system and the remainder of the universe that surrounds it. Although some of the data regarding the solar system and the universe is outdated, the quality of the writing and pictures more than makes up for the time frame. He describes how the solar system was created from the remnants of stars that have already lived the bulk of their lives and how the universe continues to evolve and change. Throughout his explanations, Sagan intersperses short details from human history. He describes what was happening on Earth and how that affected the human perception of the cosmos.
It has been twenty six years since this book was written and many new facts concerning the solar system and the universe have been discovered since then. New technologies have allowed scientists to find many planets around distant stars and probes have studied the planets in our solar system in greater detail. It is too bad that Sagan is no longer around to write about it and push for more work. He had no equal to convincing the public of the necessity of scientific research for its own sake and this book is clear evidence as to how good he was. It is now and always will be worth reading.

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Cosmos by Carl Sagan

This book has been used by universities as a media course, and is an excelent resourse for anyone interested in a general review of the cosmos (astronomy combined with general overview of the world). If you wish to enjoy the entire aspect of this book, it would be nice if you could locate the video series that goes with it as well as the student workbook as well.

Brilliant!

Another one of my habitual re-reads, Cosmos dazzles with scientific speculation. I'm easily put-off by authors who lecture pedantically, enthralled by their grasp of a subject and interested in little else than hearing the drone of their own voice. Carl Sagan is NOT that lecturer. One senses intuitively a deep deep passion for our universe and a desire to communicate that passion and to enjoin in questioning and debating and prodding and discovering. Carl Sagan was one of the few modern scientists who managed to garner rock-star fame in an era where universal idiocy is heralded and embraced and celebrated, and his insistence on eradicating ignorance and superstition and pseudo-science was vital in the national debate, and his loss all the more painfully felt in an era when 'Creationism' stands to devour us whole and place one more nail in the coffin of reason. We could sorely use some more Carls... with Cosmos, Carl has left us a magnificent legacy to the dedication to pure scientific inquiry. Thank you for inspiring Carl. You are owed a debt of gratitude for all you have done.

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