From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Wed Oct 03 2007 - 20:25:06 PDT
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct07/Sagan.Dalai.cover.MR.html
Oct. 3, 2007
Carl Sagan and the Dalai Lama found deep connections in 1991-92 meetings,
says Sagan's widow
By Melissa Rice
Religion and science do not have to be at odds. Science, said Ann Druyan,
widow of Cornell astronomer Carl Sagan, can communicate with, learn from and
even benefit from religion and vice versa.
Jon Reis Photography
In 1991 Cornell Professor Carl Sagan had a lengthy conversation with the
Dalai Lama about science and religion.
Druyan, a writer and media producer who collaborated with Sagan for 19 years
until his death in 1996, reflected on dialogues in the early 1990s between
Sagan and the Dalai Lama at a Sept. 28 lecture in Anabel Taylor Auditorium.
For the first time, film excerpts of the meeting between the two were shown
in a public venue.
Sagan, Cornell professor and author of "Cosmos," "Contact" and "Dragons of
Eden," among other books, was perhaps best known for his extraordinary
ability to communicate science to the public. "He wanted to share with
everyone the wonder and awe that science inspired in him," Druyan said.
She stressed that there were political motivations behind Sagan's work as
well: "Carl believed that you can't have a democratic society if you have a
tiny scientific elite and a public who is uncomfortable with the methods and
language of science," she said.
Sagan entered the public eye in the 1960s -- a time rife with changes in
both culture and thought. The Catholic church had just switched from giving
masses in Latin to local languages so that everyone could understand them,
and Druyan said Sagan was trying to do the same for science.
The Dalai Lama, who has had a lifelong interest in science, first met with
Sagan during a visit to Ithaca in 1991. Their discussion continued in India
the following year, where the Dalai Lama cleared his calendar to spend a
full day talking with Sagan and Druyan.
Robert Barker/University Photography
On Sept. 28 at Cornell, Ann Druyan, writer and media producer and widow of
the late Carl Sagan, reflected on conversations Sagan had with the Dalai
Lama on science and religion in the early 1990s.
In the short segment shown of their conversations, Sagan asked the Dalai
Lama about his beliefs in God and what he as a Buddhist would do if a
discovery in science conflicted with Buddhist doctrine. The Dalai Lama
replied that even Buddha was said to question his teachings and that
Buddhists rely on doctrine as "findings" rather than as "scripture."
"If through thorough investigation things become clear, only then is it time
to accept and believe," he said.
"So is there no conceivable scientific finding that would make you no longer
consider yourself a Buddhist?" Sagan responded.
The Dalai Lama said there would be no point at which his spirituality and
his respect for science would come at such odds with each other. "Buddhism
is not so much a religion, but a 'science of the mind' or an 'inner science'
... there is much benefit to learning from [scientists'] findings," he
explained.
Regarding the contributions of religion to science, Druyan said that while
science has developed an amazing library of facts, it does not have the
human social organization and the ability to inspire that religion has.
That's why we have lost that magical excitement with space exploration that
the world once shared, she said.
What science needs are more ambassadors. "We don't have a Carl Sagan right
now," she said -- a well-informed, ethical and passionate leader, versed in
the arts and sciences, concerned about the planet yet willing to "get into
any kind of trouble for the sake of the human future."
Druyan's lecture was one of many events on campus prefacing the Dalai Lama's
Oct. 9 visit to Cornell. Many of the ideas she discussed are put forth in
Sagan's latest book, "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal
View of the Search for God," which she edited.
Graduate student Melissa Rice is a writer intern at the Cornell Chronicle.
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