CARL SAGAN, 1934-96

Carl Sagan, one of the world’s greatest popularizers of science, died today
at the age of 62, after a long battle with a bone marrow disease.  Sagan was
one of America’s pre-eminent scientists, educators, skeptics and humanists.
 A laureate of the Council for Secular Humanism’s International Academy of
Humanism, Sagan was also a very active supporter of the Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.

Sagan’s award-winning 1980 TV series “Cosmos” turned the ebullient
cosmologist into an international celebrity.  The 13-part TV-series explored
scientific understanding of 15 billion years of cosmic evolution from the Big
Bang to the origin of life and human consciousness.  Sagan’s presentation of
his subject was so fascinating and comprehensible that “Cosmos” attracted an
audience of over half a billion people in 60 countries.  The book from the
series spent 70 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list, including 15
weeks at number 1.

Sagan’s career as a popularizer had begun in the early 1970s when he started
publishing science books aimed at a lay audience and made the first of 25
appearances on NBC’s “Tonight Show”.  His book “The Dragons of Eden:
Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence” won the Pulitzer Prize
for Literature in 1978.  He continued his work as a popularizer of science
and critical thinking right up until the end of his life.  His article in the
March 1996 issue of Parade magazine, titled “In the Valley of the Shadow”,
spoke movingly of his illness and his attitude to death as a non-theist and
skeptic, 
	“I would love to believe that when I die I will live again, that some
thinking, feeling, remembering part of me will continue.  But much as I want
to believe that, and despite the ancient and worldwide cultural traditions
that assert an afterlife, I know of nothing to suggest that it is more than
wishful thinking.”
	“The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is
no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there’s little
good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look
death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent
opportunity that life provides.”

Despite Sagan’s fame as popular writer and TV personality, his main career
was in Academia.  From 1971 until his death Sagan was Professor of Astronomy
and Space Science at Cornell University.  He also worked for NASA and was
responsible for NASA Space Probes Pioneer 10 and 11, and the Voyager I and II
craft contained interstellar messages, and he also worked with the Mariner
and Viking planetary exploration craft.

Sagan actively supported the work of Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and was a great fan of CSICOP’s
magazine Skeptical Inquirer.  In 1987 he was the recipient of CSICOP’s “In
Praise of Reason Award.” 

In 1994 CSICOP created the Isaac Asimov Award to honor Asimov for his
extraordinary contributions to science and humanity.  The first winner of
this award was Carl Sagan. The award was presented at the 1994 CSICOP
Conference in Seattle. The award is in recognition of an individual who
throughout his or her life has shown outstanding commitment and ability in
communicating the achievements, methods, and issues of science to the public.
 When told that the award would be presented to Carl Sagan, Janet Asimov
said, "There is no one better qualified for the CSICOP Isaac Asimov Award
that his good friend and colleague Carl Sagan.  Isaac was particularly fond
of Carl. He was also in awe of Carl's genius, and proud that he was so adept
at communicating science to the public through speaking, writing, and the
visual media."

In his keynote address at the CSICOP Seattle congress, Sagan spoke to an
audience of over 1000 skeptics. In this talk Sagan spoke about his love of
science and the importance of popularization of science:

"Science is still one of my chief joys. The popularization of science that
Isaac Asimov did so well-the communication not just of the findings but of
the methods of science-seems to me as natural as breathing. After all, when
you're in love, you want to tell the world. The idea that scientists
shouldn't talk about their science to the public seems to me bizarre."

On learning of Carl Sagan's death, Paul Kurtz, chairman of the Council for
Secular Humanism and of CSICOP, and a personal friend of Sagan, said, “Carl
Sagan was one of the leading scientific skeptics in the world and a critic of
anti-scientific and irrational attitudes, and perhaps the leading proponent
of the scientific outlook and the methods of science.  His untimely loss is
deeply felt by the scientific and academic community.”

In his last book, The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark,
Sagan wrote:  

"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and
superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason
more sonorous and attractive. Where have we heard it before?  Whenever our
ethnic or national prejudices are aroused, in times of scarcity, during
challenges to national self-elf-esteem or nerve, when we agonize about our
diminished cosmic place and purpose, or when fanaticism is bubbling up around
us-then, habits of thought familiar from ages past reach for the controls.

"The candle flame gutters.  Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness
gathers. The demons begin to stir."

I am afraid the world has just become a bit darker.

Carl Sagan was survived by a wife and five children.  He will be fondly
remembered and sorely missed.

Donations in Carl Sagan's name can be made to:

The Children's Health Fund of New York
317 East 64th Street
New York,  NY  10021

or

The Carl Sagan Memorial Fund
The Planetary Society
65 N. Catalina Avenue
Pasadena,  CA  91106


Matt Cherry
December 20, 1996