Learning the age of the Earth or the distance to the stars or how life evolves… what difference does that make?
Well, part of it depends on how big a universe you’re willing to live in. Some of us like it small. That’s fine. Understandable. But I like it big. And when I take all of these into my heart and my mind, I’m uplifted by it. And when I have that feeling, I want to know that it’s real, that it’s not just something happening inside my own head! Because it matters what’s true, and our imagination is nothing compared with nature’s awesome reality.
- Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, Episode 13: “Unafraid of the Dark”