Pale Blue Dot or Privileged Planet?

This photo was taken by Voyager 1 on February 15, 1990. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, in the middle of the picture, in the uppermost yellowish light band, you will see a small bright speck. That's us. That's Earth. It is the most distant picture of Earth ever taken (4 billion miles). The picture, taken as Voyager was leaving the solar system, was the result of the advocacy of Carl Sagan, noted atheist and astronomer. Just before his death in 1996, Sagan delivered a commencement address to Cornell University, where he reflected on the meaning of this "Pale Blue Dot" and the meaninglessness of human existence and effort. At best, man must make his own meaning. How tragic.

But is man left without any meaning other than what he can create for himself? If you're interested in an alternative view to Sagan's meaning, or lack of meaning, to human existence, check out the recent documentary film and book, The Privileged Planet, by Iowa State astronomy professor Guillermo Gonzalez and Discovery Institute philosopher, Jay Richards. The authors recently defended the scientific basis for Intelligent Design in an oped in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

I just viewed The Privileged Planet this morning. This is a superb production. Narrated by John Rhys-Davies (of Lord of the Rings fame), it discusses how rare human life is in the universe, and presents a direct challenge to Sagan's beloved Drake's Equation about the possibility of life elsewhere in the galaxy. The whole SETI project is based directly on Drake's unprovable (and therefore, unscientific) thesis.

This film is powerful. To gauge how powerful it is, know that the New York Times and Washington Post screamed headlines earlier this year about a June showing of the film at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. sponsored by the Discovery Institute. Young Earth creationists take over the Smithsonian! Religion hijacks science! A return to the Dark Ages! Bullshit. The movie says nothing about evolution, but discusses cosmology. It certainly doesn't help the Darwinians and naturalists make their case, but hey, they have plenty of help from the materialist academic establishment as it is. Needless to say, after the media hoopla, the Smithsonian publicly denounced the movie. Critics said that the philosophical ruminations at the end of the film made the movie about metaphysics, not science. Uh, anyone ever heard of Carl Sagan's Cosmos, noting it's avowedly atheistic creed stated at the beginning of the first episode? How many decades has the Smithsonian been showing and promoting Cosmos?

You have to see this this video, and make sure all of your friends see it. The movie is an hour long. You can purchase the video; or, if you recklessly ignore copyright laws and have Emule or some other P2P program, you can download the program (289mb) by doing a video search in your P2P program. Of course, I would encourage everyone to purchase the video to help support more productions like this, and I would never recommend violating the law. Just helpful info for the heathen among us.