TheOldGuy
Well-Known Member
I discovered this toking celebrity while browsing information on one of my, and most fellow atheists, intellectual inspirations. His name is Carl Sagan. The The late Cosmologist Carl Sagan, beyond being a profoundly influential figure as both a public representative for the secular community and a highly successful voice for the popularization of modern science, was also a talented author, loving husband to fellow scientist and atheist Ann Dyuran and caring father to one son, Nick Sagan.
He was the most respected, recognized, and possibly most idolized physical scientist rivaling Einstein himself. But he was as popular a scientist as he was an atheist. And as popular he was, and through his legacy continues to be, to atheists like me, he was also very popular among theists.
That peculiarity is to me is as surprising as it is intriguing. It interests me to the point of speculation regarding the reason many otherwise polarized theists set theological disagreements aside to make an exception to accept him not only for his work in cosmology, but also for his rich character.
Leaving it to me to empathize for the perspective of the theists, I can only presume that they were captivated by his writings. To elaborate, let me speak further about the extent of his talent.
He didn't just write books filled with bland, coma-enducing scientific jargon. His robust style, or his "voice" as some writers put it, was less like the sort you might read in a scientific text book than it was the sort you might find in Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. He wrote mostly for his love of science, not for his opinions regarding its theological implications.
Breaking away from his career as an author, he lept into an unfamiliar medium late in his life and gave us a glimse of his imagination. And he didn't hold back his bias for atheism. Sagan thoughtfully cast an atheist, Jodie Foster, for the main role in his film 'Contact'. When he wrote the script, he created more than just a science fiction flick. Whether consciously or not, he recreated himself in poetic fashion. 'Contact' managed to give its audience a sense of spirituality, hope, and gave us that tingly feeling we get when we can't reconcile our minds with our hearts.
Sagan accomplished more than just award-winning research. He found a way to bridge the gap between theists and atheists, even if he didn't believe there could be a bridge between theism and atheism.
For all his brilliance, talent, success and fame, attributes most of us can not relate to, we here at 420Times can find ourselves in harmony with this man because he, like all of us, found joy in marijuana. He kept it a secret from a lot of people for a long time, but those who knew him well recall him getting high to help him work. And who can blame him? Cosmology and marijuana go together like football and beer.
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Carl Sagan - Wikipedia
He was the most respected, recognized, and possibly most idolized physical scientist rivaling Einstein himself. But he was as popular a scientist as he was an atheist. And as popular he was, and through his legacy continues to be, to atheists like me, he was also very popular among theists.
That peculiarity is to me is as surprising as it is intriguing. It interests me to the point of speculation regarding the reason many otherwise polarized theists set theological disagreements aside to make an exception to accept him not only for his work in cosmology, but also for his rich character.
Leaving it to me to empathize for the perspective of the theists, I can only presume that they were captivated by his writings. To elaborate, let me speak further about the extent of his talent.
He didn't just write books filled with bland, coma-enducing scientific jargon. His robust style, or his "voice" as some writers put it, was less like the sort you might read in a scientific text book than it was the sort you might find in Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. He wrote mostly for his love of science, not for his opinions regarding its theological implications.
Breaking away from his career as an author, he lept into an unfamiliar medium late in his life and gave us a glimse of his imagination. And he didn't hold back his bias for atheism. Sagan thoughtfully cast an atheist, Jodie Foster, for the main role in his film 'Contact'. When he wrote the script, he created more than just a science fiction flick. Whether consciously or not, he recreated himself in poetic fashion. 'Contact' managed to give its audience a sense of spirituality, hope, and gave us that tingly feeling we get when we can't reconcile our minds with our hearts.
Sagan accomplished more than just award-winning research. He found a way to bridge the gap between theists and atheists, even if he didn't believe there could be a bridge between theism and atheism.
For all his brilliance, talent, success and fame, attributes most of us can not relate to, we here at 420Times can find ourselves in harmony with this man because he, like all of us, found joy in marijuana. He kept it a secret from a lot of people for a long time, but those who knew him well recall him getting high to help him work. And who can blame him? Cosmology and marijuana go together like football and beer.
_____________________________________
Carl Sagan - Wikipedia
