Posted by Jason on December 31, 1996 at 15:08:10:
In Reply to: Carl Sagan posted by Amanda on December 30, 1996 at 18:30:38:
: When I subscribed to "Skeptic" magazine over the holidays - the woman who took the call mentioned that they were working on a tribute issue on Carl Sagan much like their first issue on Asimov. It will no doubt be a beauty so I thought I'd share the info. He was a great man and I was looking at other great minds that have died such as Asimov and Russell and a host of others and I'm wondering if anyone has any examples of ones that are alive today - fighting to get science out to the people and perhaps minimizing the effects of religion and mysticism in the process? One I can think of is Stephen J. Gould.
When I learned that Carl Sagan died, I felt saddened by it. I consider him a role
model. I admire him not only because of his views on science and reason, but also
his concern and activity for the community, environment, tolerance of differences,
and other humanistic principles.
Another person I am impressed by is right here in the Skeptic Society. It's Dr.
Michael Shermer (if you're reading Mike, I hope you don't mind a little bit of
flattery ;) ). I'm generally quite impressed by his writings and I consider him
a good role model as well. I like the fact that he stood up to Holocaust
Revisionist bigots (I wouldn't be surprised if he got a few death threats). In
another case, when he was debating Duane Gish, he stood up to an atheist handing
out obnoxious anti-religious hate literature. It's not good enough to champion
reason and skepticism only. Tolerance and concern for the community should be
championed as well.
- Jason