THE SKY

Religion has tried to make humanity 'special.' You are the center of the universe, are you not? The Earth is flat, is it not? And my favorite- the stars and planets are all atached to a great crystalline structure in the sky which gives them their apparent motions! Each new generation of religious leadership must recant the last generation of atrocities they have commited in the name of 'god.'

According to Stephen Hawking, Galileo has probably contributed more to the creation of the modern natural sciences than anybody else. He has been referred to as the "father of modern astronomy," as the "father of modern physics", and as the "father of science". But, Religion to the Rescue! Thank god that Galileo was ordered to stand trial on suspicion of heresy in 1633- the sentence of his Inquisition was in three essential parts:

At the University, Galileo did extensive experimentation with pendulums, finding that they nearly return to the height at which they were released, that different pendulums have different periods (independent of bob weight and amplitude), and that the square of the period varies directly with the pendulum's length (and it does not depend on the arc of the swing). He later used pendulums to make a clock (1641). Galileo also found that the speed at which bodies fall does not depend on their weight. He documented these discoveries in his book called, "De Motu" (meaning "On Motion"). Galileo was appointed professor of mathematics at the University of Padua (1592-1610). In 1593, Galileo invented the thermometer. Some of his many other inventions included a revolutionary water pump and a hydrostatic balance (a device that weighed things accurately in either air or water).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

In 2006, the movie An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore featured the "Pale Blue Dot" photo at the end of the movie. Gore used it in his slide show to demonstrate the need to stop global warming.[12] He said "That's all we've got" in reference to the Earth as a dot seen 4 billion miles away. Gore also paraphrased Carl Sagan when he spoke about the photograph during the documentary.

Later in the book, Sagan's wife, Ann Druyan, challenges readers to pick one of the other planetary dots photographed and featured in the book and imagine there are inhabitants on that world that believe the universe was created solely for themselves. She shared Sagan's belief that humans are not as important as they believe.

Book summary
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994) is a non-fiction book by Carl Sagan. It is the sequel to Cosmos and was inspired by the "Pale Blue Dot" photograph, for which Sagan provides a sobering description[13]. In this book, Sagan mixes philosophy about the human place in the universe with a description of what was known about the solar system at the time the book was published. He also details a human vision for the future. [14]
The first part of the book looks at the claims made throughout history that Earth and the human species are unique. Sagan makes two claims for the persistance of the idea of a geocentric, or Earth-centred universe: human pride in our existence, and the threat of torturing those who dissented from it, particularly during the Spanish Inquisition. However, he also admits the scientific tools to prove the Earth orbited the Sun were (until the last few hundred years) not accurate enough to measure effects such as parallax, making it difficult for astronomers to prove the geocentric theory was false.
After saying that we have gained humility from understanding we are not, literally, the centre of the universe, Sagan embarks on an exploration of the entire solar system.[15] He begins with an account of the Voyager program, in which Sagan was a scientist. He describes the difficulty of working with low light levels at distant planets, and the mechanical and computer problems which beset the twin spacecraft as they aged. Sagan then examines each one of the major planets as well as some of the moons, including Titan, Triton and Miranda, focusing on whether life is possible at the frontiers of the solar system.
Sagan argues that studying other planets provides context for understanding the Earth - and protecting it from environmental catastrophe.[15] He feels NASA's decision to cut back human explorations to the moon after the Apollo program was a short-sighted decision, despite the expense and the failing popularity of the program among the American public. Sagan says future exploration of space should focus on ways to protect Earth. The book was published the year after the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter, an event Sagan uses to highlight the danger Earth faces from the occasional asteroid or comet large enough to cause substantial damage if it were to hit Earth. He says we need the political will to track large extra-terrestrial objects, or we risk losing everything. Sagan argues that in order to save the human race, space colonization and terraforming should be utilized.[15]