patrick.net

Dan8267 says

I've been an atheist since high school and that's based on reasoning not emotion.

You're lucky I guess that there weren't any big arguments with your family about it, so that this never became an emotionally charged issue for you.

uomo_senza_nome says

I don't think Carl Sagan was an atheist either.

""An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid." - A quote by Carl Sagan.

He was most likely an atheist:

"Contrary to the fantasies of the fundamentalists, there was no deathbed conversion, no last minute refuge taken in a comforting vision of a heaven or an afterlife. For Carl, what mattered most was what was true, not merely what would make us feel better. Even at this moment when anyone would be forgiven for turning away from the reality of our situation, Carl was unflinching. As we looked deeply into each other's eyes, it was with a shared conviction that our wondrous life together was ending forever."
-- Ann Druyan, Epilogue to Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/sagan.htm

Carl Sagan sure sounded like an atheist, especially in the Cosmos series. By the way, everyone should watch that series. It's awesome. I think you can watch it on YouTube.

Billyuns and Billyuns of Stars.

If I ever have the money, I'm going to have my own bedroom-planetarium, with Carl Sagan narrating as the stars turn in the "heavens" of my domed ceiling.

Cosmos! Yes rewatched recently, lots of good, a few bits very dated now.

One the one hand Carl Sagan got to live through a wondrous period of cosmology & planetary exploration. Voyagers were truly a triumph.

On the other I am sad he did not live long enough to see the bonanza of new planets. I remember during Cosmos how fascinating it was to talk about the Drake equation and think about the possibility of other planets being out there, but it was still a big question mark of was it few or many. At least the first few extrasolar planets were found before he passed away. Now with Kepler we know there are LOTS of them.

My god, it's full of stars...

http://www.youtube.com/embed/6Mn-5Wf3Ee0

Ground Control to Major Tom
Your circuit’s dead, there’s something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear....

“ am I floating round my tin can

Vicente says

On the other I am sad he did not live long enough to see the bonanza of new planets.

Yes, it's a shame because we are living in the Golden Age of Physics and Astronomy and Carl Sagan just saw a bit of it and a bit of the rise of the Internet. He would have been proud of that. Still, luckily he was spared the Bush/Obama administrations and the horrors they brought.