The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

Carl Sagan's Search For God

I was moved to read Carl Sagan's "The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God" (2006) after reading the classic study for which it is named: "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902) by the American philosopher and psychologist, William James. As was James's book, Sagan's book consists of the text of Gifford lectures, Sagan lectured in 1985, James in 1901 -- 1902. The Gifford lectures were established in Scotland in 1888 to "promote and diffuse the study of Natural Theology in the widest sense of the term -- in other words, the knowledge of God." Many distinguished thinkers have delivered the Gifford lectures over the years.

Carl Sagan (1934 -- 1996) was an American astronomer who became famous for his efforts in presenting science to a wide lay audience. In spite of the title of his book, which was given not by Sagan but by his editor, Ann Druyan, Sagan's lectures include no mention of James and little consideration of James's approach to religion in the "Varieties". Sagan's book is fascinating nonetheless. But I find it tempting to think of ways in which his approach might be complemented by that of James.

Sagan approaches religion from his background as a scientist. He takes complex scientific ideas and explains them learnedly and eloquently. He covers matters such as the origin of the universe and of the planets, the age of the universe, geological time, the origin of life, the likelihood of finding life on other planets in other galaxies, UFO's, and much else. The book is punchy and provocative without becoming overbearing.

Sagan argues that mankind's source of knowledge of the world comes through science. He argues that the view of the world presented in the Bible, with its creator God active in human affairs, cannot stand the light of scientific scrutiny. He is a skeptic in matters of religion and revelation and he argues that the better course for people is to withhold judgment on matters that they do not know or understand until sufficient reliable evidence is available on which to draw a conclusion. He describes, broadly, in his book how modern science gradually has destroyed the sense of a teleological (purpose-driven) human-centered universe, created and directed by a God with a divine plan, and replaced it instead with universal scientific laws of physics and chemistry. As have many thinkers before him, Sagan examines many of the traditional proofs for the existence of God and finds them wanting. He gives particular emphasis in this book to the argument from design and to the cosmological argument. In his concluding chapter, Sagan comes close to equating the religious search -- in the subtitle of the book -- with the search for scientific knowledge. He concludes (p.221) "I think this search does not lead to a complacent satisfaction that we know the answer, not an arrogant sense that the answer is before us and we need do only on more experiment to find it out. It goes with a courageous intent to greet the universe as it really is, not to foist our emotional predispositions on it but to courageously accept what our explorations tell us." From this book, Sagan's philosophical heroes, whom he mentions many times, appear to be Spinoza and Albert Einstein, excellent company indeed.

I want to make a brief comparison of Sagan's approach with that of William James and to suggest that the two approaches largely bypass each other because they are directed to different questions. Sagan considers religion from the standpoint of scientific knowledge. James, in contrast, took as the theme of his "Varieties" the "exploration of religious themes and religious impulses." James defines the scope of his study as "the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude so far as they apprehend themselves to relation to whatever they may consider the divine." Thus, James explored the phenomena and the experiences of religious life without making any commitment to the cause of or the "objectivity" of these experiences, without commitment to revelation or particular religious dogma, and without challenging the teachings of science. James tried to consider what it was of value that people found in the religious quest and in religious experience. He tried to do so, for the most part, by leaving science free to explore and expand our understanding of the world and of physical law -- as this was understood in James's day and as it has expanded dramatically in our own.

Sagan's account is stimulating, and it reminded me of how much science has indeed changed our outlook on life -- including our religious outlook. I found it liberating. But I found it offered only a partial understanding of the religious search, it purports to describe in the subtitle, and of the religious life. I think religion needs to be approached by, in the words of many religious teachers, "looking within". Such a search need not require the contravention of the teachings of science, the postulating of revelation or of divine entities, or the deprecating of the value of the scientific endeavor. It is a search for meaning and self-understanding. I think this approach goes further even than the approach James took in his "Varieties", but his text suggests it to me. In this sense, I think that Sagan has only studied part of his broad issue. There is room both for his scientific approach and for the complementary approach of William James, who in his Gifford Lectures delivered the still-landmark study of the Varieties of Religious Experience.

Robin Friedman

Intelligent, thoughtful and incredibly patient rejection of foolishness surrounding religion.

Scientific Inspiration

Sagan begins this book with a modern look at the universe without much speculation of its source. It's seems the most important thing to the legendary astronomer is to educate first. In any philosophical argument you must begin with things you know and build from there. The universe Sagan reveals is so much bigger and more beautiful than most people would ever realize. We truly are as grains of sand lost along the beach. Some of his views of religion may seem bias, but then again so often do the views of those who hold these religions dear. What Sagan truly stresses is the idea that, if there is an answer to be found in the universe, it could never be confined to an isolated set of ideals designated to any one tribe, country, political party or faith. The answer is beyond all of us, but it includes us as well. He ends his musing with an appeal to unity that touches something deep within us all - for the first time in history we have the power to destroy ourselves. Would that not mean, by correlation, that we may also save ourselves?