![]() Contact is a science fiction novel written by Carl Sagan and published in 1985. While Carl Sagan may not be the only cosmologist and astrophysicist to achieve both scientific recognition from his peers, as well as becoming a popular translator of cosmology and science for the public (e.g., Neil deGrasse Tyson, Steven Hawking, and Lawrence Krauss), he is, I believe the only astrophysicist to have written a fiction novel, as well as the screenplay for the adaptation of that novel into a major Hollywood motion picture. One can catch a glimpse of his insights into these big questions through his work, both for the scientific academy as well as for the public.Īnn Druyan writes, in the Editor's Introduction for “The Varieties of Scientific Experience” that “As a child growing up in Brooklyn, Carl would recite the Hebrew V'Ahavta prayer from Deuteronomy at Temple Services: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might.” He knew the prayer by heart, and it may have been the inspiration for him to first ask, What is love without understanding? What allows us to live in the universe if not love?” The prayer V'Ahavta literally means “and Love.” And more than most of us, he had a rather extensive knowledge of the nature of the universe, its vastness, its origins, and the laws of nature and physics that guide natural phenomena. ![]() Certainly he had contemplated his mortality, his spirituality, his place in the universe. Carl Sagan died at the age of 62, after three bone marrow transplantations for myelodysplastic syndrome. ![]() This edited volume of lectures is a must read for any of us interested in the integration of science and spirituality. In Reference Sagan and Druyan2006, Ann Druyan, Sagan's widow, edited and posthumously published Sagan's Gifford Lectures on natural theology as a book entitled “ The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God” in which he expressed his views on the existence of God in the natural world. I suppose I was too busy with medical school. CARL SAGAN CONTACT BOOK PDF SERIESIt was Sagan who taught me the simplest definition of spirituality when he wrote (Sagan, Reference Sagan and Druyan2006) that “any human being contemplating his place in the universe, was engaging in a quintessentially spiritual endeavor.” I remember the 1980 Pubic television series “ Cosmos,” but didn't pay attention to it. His public writings and lectures did not merely focus on the science of astronomy and astrophysics, but also dealt with existential and spiritual issues from a scientific perspective. I also admired him greatly both as a scientists and a writer for the public. I identified with Carl Sagan's background and early life's experience. His immigrant parents could not achieve their personal career dreams, and so it was left to Carl to “fulfill the un-fulfilled dreams of his parents.” I grew up in a similar post-Holocaust Jewish home, and was fully aware of the burden I accepted to not only fulfill the unachieved dreams of my parents, but also justify my parents' survival (survivor guilt - “why did we live and so many others died?”) by impacting the world in a profound and significant way - particularly in the area of easing human suffering. Born in 1934, he was in New York when members of his extended family in Eastern Europe died during the Holocaust. Why I have been thinking about Carl Sagan lately was a bit of a puzzle over the last weeks, but this weekend it all came together for me, as I will explain later, and so this editorial is inspired by Dr Sagan's life and work.Ĭarl Sagan grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and raised by Eastern European immigrant Jewish parents. I've been thinking lately about Carl Sagan the astrophysicist and biologist who is best known for his work on extraterrestrial life and his best-selling book for the public on astrophysics entitled “ Cosmos,” which was made into a 1980 Public Television series estimated to have been seen by between 500 million and 1 billion people worldwide. (Carl Sagan, Contact, Reference Sagan1985) ![]() Just us, seems like an awful waste of space.” ![]()
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