If we seek that nature, then love can be informed by truth instead of being based on ignorance and self-deception.

“Does trying to understand the universe at all betray a lack of humility ? I believe it is true that humility is the only just response in a confrontation with the universe, but not a humility that prevents us from seeking the nature of the universe we are admiring. Is this faint and reedy tune the only voice for thousands of light-years? Or is there a kind of cosmic fugue, with themes and counterpoints, dissonances and harmonies, a billion different voices playing the life music of the Galaxy? Let” They study only a single kind of biology, one lonely theme in the music of life. As a result, our biologists are profoundly limited. We have a common organic chemistry and a common evolutionary heritage.

Organisms that evolve on a quite different world will doubtless sing its praises too. We are descended from the organisms that did well. Those earlier forms of life that were not well adapted died. We earthlings are supremely well adapted to the environment of the Earth because we grew up here. But this is, at least in part, a confusion of cause and effect. Occasionally someone remarks on what a lucky coincidence it is that the Earth is perfectly suitable for life-moderate temperatures, liquid water, oxygen atmosphere, and so on. And on some small fraction of worlds there may develop intelligences and civilizations more advanced than our own. On others, it may arise and die out, or never evolve beyond its simplest forms. On some of the billions of planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, life may never arise. Perhaps the origin and evolution of life is, given enough time, a cosmic inevitability. The abundance of these molecules suggests that the stuff of life is everywhere. Dozens of different kinds of organic molecules have been found there by radio telescopes. In the great dark between the stars there are clouds of gas and dust and organic matter. How did it come about? How, in the absence of life, were carbon-based organic molecules made? How did the first living things arise? How did life evolve to produce beings as elaborate and complex as we, able to explore the mystery of our own origins? And on the countless other planets that may circle other suns, is there life also? Is extraterrestrial life, if it exists, based on the same organic molecules as life on Earth? Do the beings of other worlds look much like life on Earth? Or are they stunningly different-other adaptations to other environments? What else is possible? The nature of life on Earth and the search for life elsewhere are two sides of the same question-the search for who we are. There was once a time before life, when the Earth was barren and utterly desolate. What would it be like? Of what would it be made? All living things on our planet are constructed of organic molecules-complex microscopic architectures in which the carbon atom plays a central role. “All my life I have wondered about the possibility of life elsewhere. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark 'There is no national science,' said the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, 'just as there is no national multiplication table.' (Likewise, for many, there is no such thing as a national religion, although the religion of nationalism has millions of adherents.)” Scientists are naturally cosmopolitan in attitude and are more likely to see through efforts to divide the human family into many small and warring factions. Science itself is a transnational language. Put scientists working in the same field of study together in a room and even if they share no common spoken language, they will find a way to communicate. By its very nature, science transcends national boundaries. It claims access to truths that are largely independent of ethnic or cultural biases. For the defenders of such attitudes, science is disturbing. False or misleading memories are inculcated. Government repression of unpopular views is still widespread. “Ethnocentrism, xenophobia and nationalism are these days rife in many parts of the world.

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