>>339053Sagan's version: If you're in charge of a little world like this, and you conscientiously concern yourself about its temperature and light levels, then - whatever you may have had in mind at the beginning - eventually you care about who's in there. If they're sick or dying, though, you can't do much to save them. In certain ways, you're much more powerful than they, but they do things - like breathing water - that you can't. You're limited, painfully limited. You even wonder if it's cruel to put them in this crystal prison.
But you reassure yourself that at least here they are safe from whales and oil slicks and cocktail sauce.
God's version: If you're in charge of a little world like this, and you conscientiously concern yourself about its wars and natural disasters, then - whatever you may have had in mind at the beginning - eventually you care about who's in there. If they're sick or dying, though, you can't do much to save them. In certain ways, you're much more powerful than they, but they do things - like finding love - that you can't. You're limited, painfully limited. You even wonder if it's cruel to put them in this terrestrial prison.
But you reassure yourself that at least here they are safe from black holes and space demons and Vogon poetry.