Carl Sagan's scientific search for God, revisited

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THE VARIETIES OF SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE: A PERSONAL VIEW OF THE SEARCH FOR GOD

By Carl Sagan

Penguin Press, $27.95, 284 pages.

REVIEWED BY ERNEST W. LEFEVER

Carl Sagan, the well known and articulate astronomer, has few peers in popularizing the rapidly unfolding developments in the heavens. "The Varieties of Scientific Experience," a highly readable volume edited by Ann Druyan, his widow and longtime collaborator, marks the 10th anniversary of Mr. Sagan's death.

The book includes his Gifford Lectures, delivered at Glasgow University in 1985, and his brisk answers to questions from the audience. In response to the question, "I thought science was a servant of mankind and not mankind a servant of science," Mr. Sagan replied: "[If I had] left my science outside the door as I walked in, I would have appeared before you naked."

The book's title is a knockoff on William James' influential "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902). Mr. Sagan admired James' definition of religion as a "feeling of being at home in the Universe." His widow said his scientific experience was characterized by "oneness, humility, community, wonder, love, courage, remembrance, openness, and compassion." Quite a bouquet.

Actually there were three different Mr. Sagans -- the disciplined scientist in search of verifiable facts, the confused pilgrim in search of God and the apocalyptic crusader.

As a popularizer of knowledge about the universe he had few peers. His language is vivid, convincing and, pardon the phrase, down to Earth. I can understand him. When students at Glasgow asked about the mysterious Bermuda Triangle or about those who believe the Shroud of Turin dates to the time of Jesus, he gave common sense, i.e. scientific, answers.