Although poor page layout makes it impossible to read a goodly portion of it, here is an interesting article on the spiritual side of Carl Sagan- who was far less the doctrinaire rationalist than most of us imagine.
I once wrote an article where I showed parallels between C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Carl Sagan's Contact. I don't think I was imagining them, as Sagan even had a space shuttle named Narnia in his book. I thought his hostility toward religion was most pointedly aimed at unthinking hardliners. But he seemed to be warm toward Lewis.
I don't see how anybody who has read or seen Contact can miss the point that Sagan had an almost reverential regard for that which lies outside the perameters of our rational understanding.
As an amateur astronomer myself... hey, look... nobody who looks at the Milky Way on a clear rural Iowa night can possibly be a rationalist.
Cosmos, too, is a testimony to the fact that this guy was smart enough to have no illusions that the universe was exhausted by his own imagination. I've always liked Carl Sagan, and I pray that somehow or other Aslan managed to claim him at the end.
Comments
I don't see how anybody who has read or seen Contact can miss the point that Sagan had an almost reverential regard for that which lies outside the perameters of our rational understanding.
As an amateur astronomer myself... hey, look... nobody who looks at the Milky Way on a clear rural Iowa night can possibly be a rationalist.
Cosmos, too, is a testimony to the fact that this guy was smart enough to have no illusions that the universe was exhausted by his own imagination. I've always liked Carl Sagan, and I pray that somehow or other Aslan managed to claim him at the end.