暗淡小藍(lán)點(diǎn)是旅行者1號(hào)在1990年完成首要任務(wù)之際，回頭拍下的整個(gè)太陽(yáng)系的照片，而其中一個(gè)暗淡的大概只有一幀的小藍(lán)點(diǎn)就是地球。天文學(xué)家薩根因此獲得靈感寫(xiě)成了《暗淡藍(lán)點(diǎn)》《Pale Blue Dot》。我是STEM學(xué)科的門外漢，對(duì)天文學(xué)完全無(wú)知，然而看著這張照片，卻為之動(dòng)容。地球在太陽(yáng)系中的那么小，不仔細(xì)看幾乎看不到，照片中的地球看起來(lái)也很孤獨(dú)，和地球上人類的存在那么相似，蒼茫中渺小又孤立，卻是鮮活的生命體。
薩根的這本書(shū)，雖是天文學(xué)，但極具人文情懷，序言與正文都十分動(dòng)人，我感動(dòng)于人類的探索，感動(dòng)于宇宙間的渺茫一瞬卻是人類的歷史長(zhǎng)河，感動(dòng)于從天文學(xué)的角度來(lái)看待生命，對(duì)自己的存在也有了另一層理解的角度。
引用書(shū)中的一段話：
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there -- on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
--Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994
https://book.douban.com/subject/1465244/
以上為上次看時(shí)候的激動(dòng)，周末拿起來(lái)繼續(xù)讀，薩根討論了天主教迫害伽利略的歷史，與如今天主教對(duì)那段歷史的態(tài)度。從本質(zhì)上來(lái)講，我想我和任何一個(gè)無(wú)神論一樣是反對(duì)所有宗教的，如果宗教對(duì)信徒來(lái)說(shuō)相當(dāng)于心理醫(yī)生，對(duì)于社會(huì)來(lái)說(shuō)是歷史的參考，文學(xué)藝術(shù)的痕跡那都沒(méi)什么問(wèn)題。但如果把宗教中的創(chuàng)世論作為認(rèn)知這個(gè)世界的基礎(chǔ)，那么問(wèn)題就很嚴(yán)重了。別的宗教與社會(huì)發(fā)展我不是很了解，但以基督教和美國(guó)為例，可以說(shuō)，基督教如今在美國(guó)的作用是弊大于利的，是另一種洗腦，拒絕事實(shí)的洗腦。
隨著年齡的增長(zhǎng)，我逐漸明白了人性中的各種不足與缺陷?？催@本書(shū)和我最近的感慨是人們不愿意正視現(xiàn)實(shí)和事實(shí)不過(guò)是懦弱的體現(xiàn)。承認(rèn)自己渺小是困難的，承認(rèn)他人的不幸就要承認(rèn)自己對(duì)別人的不幸無(wú)動(dòng)于衷就要承認(rèn)自己麻木不仁，畢竟，所有的人都只有那么有限的能力/時(shí)間/精力…
