Check out Carl Sagan’s “Best of” video on Youtube. From climate change and the push for solar technology over fossil fuels to the distribution of the US budget away from increasing already overblown defense spending, to dissing trickle down economics. He does it all.
Not just science, but economics, social policy, you name it, he nailed it 25-30 years ago.
“Im not talking about “dole,” I’m talking about making people self-reliant. We are 19th in the world in infant mortality.”
Sagan’s very calm yet forceful delivery, is a far cry from the over the top rhetoric or just plain bombast, the Trump run for the Presidency has brought the election down to. As a public scientist he brought a reasoned analysis to all problems, not just purely scientific ones.
What is heartening in today’s election cycle, beyond the buffoonery of the Donald, is that at the grass-roots level, so many new politicians are running for office all over the country as secular, non-believing, often up front atheists.
The “Nones” (no religious affiliation) of today are running for office and hope to employ Sagan’s same empathy and reason to our problems, eschewing the self-deception of the religious myths that permeate our cultures.
Check out the Freethought Equality PAC highlighting all the sudden new crop of secular candidates vying for office all over the country. They are openly secular and dedicated to science and reason for the good of all.
Carl’s legacy can be implemented by throwing off all our old superstitions and delusions and tackling our social, economic and technological problems with scientific, evidence based reasoning. Its no secret that the majority (if not all) of the climate change denying, science dissing politicians are Republican, religious ones. Many of these same conservative religious politicians support Creationism, diss the Big Bang, and want to deny women’s and gay rights.
I’ve heard it said the 2020 Presidential election could well be Ted Cruz, an extremely Conservative religious Dominionist versus the liberal Methodist and forward thinking Elizabeth Warren. Her liberalism and minimal Xianity would be a step in the right direction towards a more secular government, one that does not rely on the Bible or god-ideas for guidance. Sagan eloquently, compassionately examined that part of the human condition decades ago as well:
Sagan on God
“The trap door beneath our feet swings open…we long to be here for a purpose, even though despite much self-deception, none is evident.”
Echoes of Sagan’s very prescient words are heard in the speeches of our prominent science educators speaking out regularly now: De Grasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Lawrence Krauss, Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, and many more.
Sagan was the intellectual godfather to the New Enlightenment movement we see growing quietly around us today.
It certainly is time to discard old delusions and the arrogant thought that somehow the answers to all our problems are to be found in some old book handed own to us by a primitive, ignorant culture from the most barbaric of human times, instead of through a clear, reasoned and compassionate analysis of the evidence provided by the world as we find our selves in it.
Sagan said it all. Give him a look and a listen.
end religion now
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