I would not hesitate to say that he is one of the most spiritual and loving person I have ever seen. Yes, a scientist can be a spiritual person and be proud of it because his understanding about spirituality is neither narrow-minded nor any less than extremely profound depth. He was a man who will have your feel deep reverence and humongous respect.
For those who don't know him, he was an American astronomer, astrophysicist,a professor at Cornell, a science popularizer and an author. He was a founding member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly known as CSICOP - the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal). He has written hundreds of research papers and his work in astronomy is of very important significance. He initiated one of the most famous skeptical principles, "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". And how can we forget Cosmos? His brilliant way of communication, soul-soothing voice and deeply humble nature, his sheer dedication towards work, his scientific understanding and inquisitiveness about nature makes him a complete package. There have been many brilliant scientists till now but very few touch the hearts of people- Carl Sagan is one of them and probably among the top of them.
His quotes are a fresh reading, very intriguing, profoundly written showcasing his exceptional skills. I am absolutely sure that a single article will never do justice to describe a man for whom the appreciation surpasses all the limits of English vocabulary. He time and again reminded us about the scarily large nature of our Universe but with added wisdom. He taught us to be a skeptic without losing wonder for the "vast and deeply humbling" Universe. I absolutely love this man and his smile.
If you want to know him, read this exceptional piece from him. When Voyager 1 spacecraft left from the planet to explore the solar system, engineers on Sagan's suggestion made it to turn back at take a photo of Earth and they got this-
The absolute tiny dot is Earth. You probably need to look at it again to determine it. Now this surely can be a devastating picture completely redefining what we know about ourselves. It was the first time, somebody took a picture of the planet from this far. At this frightening picture Sagan wrote in his book Pale blue dot-
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
Please please listen to this historic piece with added charisma of his voice as well!
- Here is Carl Sagan taking on religion!
“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.”
- And Carl Sagan taking back on a very widely prejudiced thought about scientists being "dry" because they try to break things too much-
“It is sometimes said that scientists are unromantic, that their passion to figure out robs the world of beauty and mystery. But is it not stirring to understand how the world actually works — that white light is made of colors, that color is the way we perceive the wavelengths of light, that transparent air reflects light, that in so doing it discriminates among the waves, and that the sky is blue for the same reason that the sunset is red? It does no harm to the romance of the sunset to know a little bit about it.”
- An excerpt taken from his one of the many essays-
There is a wide yawning black infinity. In every direction the extension is endless, the sensation of depth is overwhelming. And the darkness is immortal. Where light exists, it is pure, blazing, fierce; but light exists almost nowhere, and the blackness itself is also pure and blazing and fierce. But most of all, there is very nearly nothing in the dark; except for little bits here and there, often associated with the light, this infinite receptacle is empty.
This picture is strangely frightening. It should be familiar. It is our universe.
Even these stars, which seem so numerous, are, as sand, as dust, or less than dust, in the enormity of the space in which there is nothing. Nothing! We are not without empathetic terror when we open Pascal’s Pensées and read, “I am the great silent spaces between worlds.”
- He was a noted skeptic. After an unbiased study, he concluded that there is not enough evidence about any alien activity on Earth, but still for the trash people are-
- And now it is time to look back at the pale blue dot quote-
“Ann Druyan suggests an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?”
- He was a very beautiful thought generator.
- Wish people understand this simple yet insightful message!
- Cosmic chemistry mixed with spiritual wisdom! My personal favourite
On religious terrorism and the importance of human
- This one shows his humble nature hammering the rude skeptics!
Care for humanity!
- And what to say anything else for this than simply amazing?!
- With added benefits of well- refraining from pseudoscience, bad science, non-science and nonsense!
Here is a video of him describing astrology as bunk or bogus- His voice is simply touching!
He was indeed a great person, a reformer, brilliant scientist, a noted skeptic and a celebrity. His work for his students, the revolutionary Cosmos series and his amazing books will always be remembered. He is one of the most famous guardian of real science with deep insight and wisdom.
This post is a second person-specific post. I have earlier written a similar style post for a brilliant philosopher Epicurus. Do check it out.
