Space to Think

When Carl Sagan referred to science as a “candle in the dark,” he did not intend for that to mean that science provides a light by which we shall read the Rules Which We Must Unquestioningly Follow. Rather, we are already in the dark. We are floating around out here in the vastness and glory of space and science is the light we can see in the distance. Is it a candle? A streetlight? The lights of Tokyo as seen from a plane? Is it a sun? Instead of attempting to do the impossible and try to freeze energy itself into an unchanging dogma, science gives us the power to not only ask questions about the lights we see; it gives us the most precious gift of all. It teaches us how to learn.