[[File:Another agnostic potheadCarl Sagan.JPG|thumbnail|250px|right|Carl Sagan ]]
'''Carl Sagan''' (1934-1996) was a [[liberal]] professor of [[astronomy]] at [[Cornell University]] in Ithaca, New York, who became a celebrity on television and a vocal advocate for increased searches for intelligent life in outer space. ''Time'' magazine reported that Carl Sagan "talked with [[Jimmy Carter]] about such esoteric matters as [[black hole]]s and [[exobiology]] (the speculation that [[extraterrestrial life]] exist)."<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,951539,00.html Frederic Golden, "The Cosmic Explainer," Time.com 20 Oct. 1980.]</ref> He was instrumental in the development of Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence ([[SETI]]).
== Sagan's contradictory statements regarding atheism/agnosticism ==
''See also:'' [[Atheism, agnosticism and flip-flopping]] and [[Richard Dawkins and agnosticism]]
On
[[atheism
]]/[[agnosticism]], Sagan commented in 1981: <blockquote>An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed.<ref name="Sagan2006">[[#Head|Head 2006]], [http://books.google.com/books?id=gJ1rDj2nR3EC&pg=PA70 p. 70]</ref></blockquote>
[[Creation Ministries International]]'s article on atheism points out an atheistic statement that Sagan made:
He often made his opposition to nuclear weapons clear. An episode of Cosmos, "Who Speaks for Earth," dealt with the possibility of nuclear annihilation explicitly.
From a religious point of view, Sagan was an [[Atheism|atheist]] or an [[agnostic]] depending upon how it is interpreted. In practice he was an atheist, but as a scientist could never say with certainty that evidence couldn't arise that is currently unknown that would point toward a god force, he is more correctly described as being agnostic.<ref>http://www.nndb.com/people/324/000022258/</ref><ref>http://www.adherents.com/people/ps/Carl_Sagan.html</ref>
Interestingly, the ending of ''Contact'' does imply to some extent the existence of a Universal Creator. The novel concludes {{Cquote|The universe was made on purpose ... In the fabric of space and in the nature of matter, as in a great work of art, there is, written small, the artist's signature ... there is an intelligence that antedates the universe.}}
== See also ==
*[[Essay: Another agnostic pothead|Another agnostic pothead]] - [[satire]]
*[[Theory of evolution and liberalism]]
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