I was recently introduced to a most wonderful blog, Zen Pencils: Beautifully illustrated quotes from great minds. The author/artist is Gavin Aung Than, a freelance artist living in Melbourne, Australia. A huge shout-out to Gavin for creating something of such lasting positive energy. In many ways, Gavin’s artwork and world view reminds me of the work of Winston Rowntree (a pseudonym! I wish I knew who he really is) who does Subnormality! Rowntree’s work is decidedly more offbeat, but also encourages readers to examine and explore and question the world we live in, and make the most of themselves in spite of the challenges life can offer.

I can’t honestly say how I found Zen Pencils – it could have been a Stumble, or a recommendation from a friend on Facebook, or via email. However it happened, I’m grateful. The post I found first is “Books are Awesome,” a quote by Carl Sagan. Reading the notes led me to another Sagan quote, reflected in the title of this post.

Click the thumbnail to be taken to the original page, which contains the full quote.

Now, I happen to really, really, really love Carl Sagan, in much the same way as I really, really, really love Isaac Asimov. Both were staunch and lifelong humanists, each striving for and encouraging others to grow, to develop, to improve, and to raise the human condition. (For what it’s worth, I have long suspected that the good Dr. Asimov was a closet believer in something greater than man – or at the very least, in the hope that Man could evolve into something far greater than he now is; all you have to do is read his short story, “The Last Question” for a glimpse of that longing.) Whether I’m right or wrong about that, he remained dedicated to humanist principles all his life.

Here’s another bit of Sagan-lore that I love to revisit on occasion, because it just makes me feel so good (along with all the other Symphony of Science videos):

Sagan is undeniably one of the greatest ambassadors of pure science that humanity has ever seen.

Which puts me in a quandary.

Because I’m “a believer.”

Humanists and the religious have been heaving word bombs and vitriol at each other for as far back as human written records go, and I’m here to say publicly, in words that will end up in the cloud forever until the heat death of the universe, that it’s a crying shame, and unworthy of the principles that both espouse. There is room in this great big, vast, endless, amazing, astonishing, wondrous, and (dare I say it) miraculous universe, for science and belief – and have very little left over (the Germans say “nichts übrig”) for people whose sole purpose in life seems to be depriving others of their basic human dignity.

Whether it’s a Nobel prize-winning scientist, ensconced in his well-papered office in the genetics department of a major Ivy League university who bitterly mocks and de-humanizes people of faith, or a Bible-thumping head of a $300-billion-dollar megachurch who foams from the pulpit to televisions worldwide that the Second Coming is nigh because of the wicked unbelievers of the world, or just you and me, neighbors, being dicks to one another, there’s no room in my world for this kind of negative energy.

I’m not about to attempt apologetics for all religion everywhere; the history books and modern news reports are full of horrors perpetrated by one group of  humans on another because of a difference of belief, be it big or small –  a syndrome superbly enough mocked by Jonathan Swift in his analogy of the “big-endians” vs. “little endians” that a simple reference to Gulliver’s Travels will suffice. It is enough for me to say that any person of faith who seeks to make another human being less, for any reason, both misunderstands and defiles the tenets and commandments of whatever god they claim to worship.

Sagan once wrote, “How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, ‘This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?’ Instead they say, ‘No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.’ A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.” Sagan was so close to his own epiphany when he said that, but it seems that he lacked whatever spark was required to take that last step and posit the existence of a God great enough to create the wondrous universe that he described, simply because there was no empirical, measurable evidence of such a creator. What he was left with was wonder and admiration for the unfathomable complexity of the space we live in, and admirable philosophies such as the one found in the Zen Pencils episode that entitles this post.

For me, there is evidence enough. To paraphrase a scripture that I value, all things denote there is a God; the earth, and everything on it, its motion, and also all the planets which move in their regular form, demonstrate that there is a Supreme Creator. Even positing, for the sake of argument, hydrogen atoms evolved to consciousness, there is no compelling evidence to explain the awesome regularity and mathematical perfection we see in nature or in music; no scientific reason to explain why I can remember the amazing Yorkshire puddings my wife made for me last week, or that the slope of a line is defined by the relationship y = mx + b, or that I have a class to teach this morning at 1:40 AM. In my mind, if creation were an accident, our world would be as random and unpredictable as one of Bill Watterson’s offbeat Sunday Calvin and Hobbes strips.

But see, that’s just me. I resonate with the idea that I’m more than a collection of vibrating strings that came together to be me for 80 years or so; I take comfort in looking at the wonders of the universe that we’re just beginning to understand, and having someone to thank for it; and I especially take joy in knowing that I should hang on to my fork, because there’s something better yet to come.

If belief and humanism are to coexist, each must observe certain boundaries. I support the free exercise of religious faith, but not the imposition of one group’s beliefs on others; I support a secular government and public education system which teaches only empirical truths, but one which does not go out of its way to teach that people who do believe in something more than pure science are gibbering idiots. Private schools can teach what they want – that’s their privilege, and that’s why they are private – but I would encourage them to adhere to the same principles of universal human dignity.

Years and years ago, scientists began dreaming of a mind-boggling system that would deliver Curiosity to the surface of Mars. If they had not had the dream, that amazing little beast would not now be puttering around the surface of our solar neighbor, zapping rocks with its lasers and finding evidence of surface water.

It is our dreams that drive our reality. I dream of a world that works for everyone, no exceptions, and that’s what I am working for. The thoughts of Sagan and others like him go into the pot and become part of the energy that is driving me forward.

The Old Wolf has spoken.