Today is the 10th Anniversary of Carl Sagan’s death, and bloggers are organizing a Carl Sagan Memorial Blog-a-thon, and I feel I have to join in.
I was not quite twelve years old when Cosmos: A Personal Voyage was first broadcast, and while I don’t remember much from those days, I do remember watching that excellent series with wide-eyed amazement at the wonders of the Universe unfolding before me and explained with science. I definitely remember Carl’s belief that life on other planets was quite possible, though we had no proof. This “maybe, but we won’t know until we get evidence” concept became a core of my own personality. It allowed me to accept the possibility of things that might seem outrageous but not believe in them simply because I wished them to be true.
Many years later my mother, knowing how much I liked Carl Sagan’s books, found me a copy of The Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark at a garage sale (she would go garage sale shopping every week without fail) and reading through it focussed the ideas and beliefs I already had floating around. I’m certain the genesis of those beliefs was my young viewing of Cosmos. The subtitle of my blog, “I don’t want to believe, I want to know,” is a quote I took directly from that book and defines not only my feelings on religion but everything else as well.
Though he never had a direct hand in my raising I am in many ways a child of Carl Sagan. With the incredible popularity of Cosmos in the early 80’s, I’m sure there are many, many more. If you’re another child of Sagan, please leave a comment here, or post your own memorial Blog-A-Thon entry.
I remember tuning into Cosmos every week. It was one of the first genuinely interesting science programs, and I learned a lot.
When my kids get old enough to understand the concepts I’ll definitely get them to watch the shows.