When we view Earth from far away, we see a "Pale Blue Dot" and it is this vision, Sagan believes, that should impress upon us how meaningless we are, how little we matter and how pathetic our fights are. Sagan's man is fallen, although the stars hold the promise of human unity and redemption. He sees men, as do many in Western religions, as arrogant but foolish, and as beings who consider themselves strong and noble but are in reality weak and petty. They see themselves as the center of the universe and think that their conflicts are all-important and worthy of their total devotion. First, Sagan points out that humans seem born with a certain self-importance. The first four chapters outline Saganic theology. In fact, the book's subtitle is "A Vision of the Human Future in Space" and in fact, it is just that. However, Sagan has a broader aim, for Pale Blue Dot is arguably a work of post-Christian Western theology. Indeed, many chapters of Pale Blue Dot focus on the geology of the planets in the Solar System, how to travel to Mars, the history of the Voyager probes, and so on. Pale Blue Dot may initially appear to concern space and space travel it is, after all, written by the famous astronomer and popular science writer Carl Sagan.
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