Hi all,
I owe a lot to the Cosmos series. Many, many years ago I was a punk rock fashion designer who became so inspired by Cosmos that I gave up all the angst and alienation in order to co-found the Hypatia Cluster, an organization to promote women's involvement in space exploration. Cosmos gave me hope for the future. (Hypatia was an early astronomer/mathametician mentioned in his series.) Later his wife, Ann Druyan, served on our advisory board, and I was able to personally meet them both a few times (Carl three times, Annie twice.)
It was wonderful to have had this inspiration in my life. Very significant!
I owe a lot to the Cosmos series. Many, many years ago I was a punk rock fashion designer who became so inspired by Cosmos that I gave up all the angst and alienation in order to co-found the Hypatia Cluster, an organization to promote women's involvement in space exploration. Cosmos gave me hope for the future. (Hypatia was an early astronomer/mathametician mentioned in his series.) Later his wife, Ann Druyan, served on our advisory board, and I was able to personally meet them both a few times (Carl three times, Annie twice.)
It was wonderful to have had this inspiration in my life. Very significant!
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Sun, September 25, 2005 - 8:52 AMYes,
I'd say my childhood fascination with science was owed totally to Carl Sagan and Jaques Cousteu. The like of either one doesn't exist today for the younger generations, and it is a sad thing when for the lack of such spokespeople to articulate science so well it is under attack by those who wish to promote the teaching of "intellegent design" as science.
We need another one like Carl Sagan to ballence out all of the Pat Robertsons out there. The current imballence just promotes more insanity that Sagan was trying to stop. Someone needs to step up to the plate and make a series similar to Cosmos. -
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Sun, September 25, 2005 - 9:14 AMI completely agree with you!!! -
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Sun, September 25, 2005 - 6:26 PMI was quite excited by the series, and watched it all...
Can't say it changed my life - maybe Feynman has that honor for me. -
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Sun, September 25, 2005 - 11:42 PMCosmos changed my life as well. I was very inspired by Carl Sagan and to this day am still interested in science especially astronomy. He made me appreciate the beauty of the natural world and hope for the future of mankind.
That's one of the regrets I have in my life that I didn't get to meet him before he passed on. I found out about the last lecture he gave in my area after the fact. But his legacy lives on. And I have the entire Cosmos DVD collection in my library. -
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Unsu...
Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Mon, September 26, 2005 - 11:04 AMthere is so much wisdom and adventure in his work. My favorite work was Demon Haunted World. Really puts things into perspective. Any one read it? -
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Mon, September 26, 2005 - 9:58 PMI read Demon Haunted World; in fact, just a few weeks ago. But by the time I read it it was "preaching to the choir" - it was a very nicely written book tho.
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Unsu...
Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Mon, September 26, 2005 - 7:03 PMAbsolutely! I saw it when I was 10. I owe my lifelong fascination with science to Carl, especially making it easy and interesting enough for young'ns like me to understand.
Not to mention that the series also sparked my passion for art/history and anthropology. He clearly had a real love for our world and passed it on through his works. <getting misty>
I do agree, science doesn't seem to be "in vogue" at the moment. Where are its champions? -
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Tue, September 27, 2005 - 5:45 AMWell, here is a champion....
columbia-physics.net/faculty...main.htm
Brian Green even has a good "image" for TV and has enjoyed some hype, he's really got to get a series of his own that's a regular thing Like Cosmos though....
The public who has been exposed to him really finds him likable, and that makes the science he teaches likable as well. -
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Unsu...
Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Tue, September 27, 2005 - 9:44 AMSagan had such a reverence for the Earth, that if he wasn't so entrenched in academia, he probably would have become a pagan.
Come to think of it, anyone know whether he wrote anything along those lines? -
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Tue, September 27, 2005 - 6:16 PMWell, I think you'd find him soewhat dissapointing in that way..
He certainly refers to "mother earth" though - and the reverence is there.
Just not the pagan 'religion' perse. Or any religion of any sort, for that matter. -
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Unsu...
Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Tue, September 27, 2005 - 7:54 PMHe was a strong advocate for atheism. I think it was important for him to offset the relentless pro-christian media, and Demon-haunted is probably the best example of his atheistic vangelism.
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Wed, September 28, 2005 - 10:00 AMI think his wife and co-author, Anne Druyan, had a huge influence on him (and he on her). The two of them together were amazing--their love was very strong, and you could see that they expanded it outward to encompass the entire "cosmos," but particularly the earth and the creatures on it. And because they were parents together, their intensity about such topics as preventing nuclear winter had that extra emotional component.
But Sagan was one of those people who truly believes the scientific method is one of humanity's greatest tools against ignorance, and anything that seemed in any way "murky" (or new age) was not something he'd be likely to touch. If he had a mystic streak, he kept it very private.
The last time I saw the two of them, and their children and nanny, was at a radio station in San Francisco. A friend of mine hosted a show and had asked them to be on it. They were all just about to go on a cruise. He did not look well, and he died within a year. His son was slightly younger than my little girl, and I often think how sad it was that Sam had only a short time with his dad.
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Sun, February 25, 2007 - 1:48 AMYes- I totally agree with all the sentiments about it changing my life- He was an incredible inspiration.
To ask if he had a spiritual side is not a good question though (absolutely no offence meant by this comment) you have to read the Demon Haunted World- The whole point is to not cloud critical thinking with pseudoscience mumbo-jumbo. He most certainly was NOT a pagan- he was an atheist.
He found beauty in the 'natural world' but warned us about confusing empirical evidence and science with quick fix spirituality. One of the points that hit home to me was the fact that science is a doctrine that takes a long time to learn and even longer to master (I am not a scientist by the way), while many ‘spiritual’ beliefs can be made up on the spot or even worse- require no evidence to support them (the question here that immediately crops up of course is what stops someone making anything at all up no matter how destructive- “I don’t need proof, I just know” says the mystic- insanity!!). In a time where the world seems to be swinging back into religious ignorance I don’t think it’s a good idea to attribute any type of mysticism to the man- It most certainly would not have been what he wanted if the Demon Haunted World is to be believed.
Understand, please that I have friends who are religious and spiritual- all belief is sacred. But the world is rapidly heading towards a crisis of resources and ideology, and the last thing we need is to have one of Atheisms’ greatest advocates lumbered with the appearance of the absolute opposite character from who he was! He spent his whole life dismissing the mystic, spiritual and the pagan (unless they were extended metaphors to the Scientific Method).
In answer to you're question- I know of nothing he wrote about paganism, but he most definitely wrote sentiments against it.
I never had the honour of meeting him, the world is a sadder place without him. -
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Re: Cosmos was a turning point in my life
Sun, February 25, 2007 - 9:43 AMI was already a science freak when I started watching Cosmos, and so the series was not much of a turning point in my life for me. Nevertheless, I was strongly inspired to become even more of a science freak than I already was. By the way, I did have the pleasure of corresponding with Sagan a couple of times whereby he sent me REAL LETTERS, not form letters. Thus one of the many cool things about Sagan was that even though he was a bigshot, he did not have the stuck-up attitude that would've otherwise compelled him to ignore my letters to him.
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