Carl Sagan

On this day, 77 years ago, Sagan was born.
For me he was just a distant name related to science and astronomy who meant almost nothing to my understanding of the Cosmos. But then one day I stumbled upon a segment of "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" in which he appears explaining the concept of 4th dimension. His explanation, his clever way of expressing such a difficult idea as the concept of adding another dimension to our world, kept my attention and soon I was discovering the totality of his television series and also soon I was amazed by the magnificence of this delicate, epic, visual work. My perception of the reality was stimulated, my notion of the Universe was sharpened and, in a holistic sense, my life could never be the same.
You may think I am hyperbolizing but the fact is that Sagan introduced in my awareness of the Cosmos, in my away of thinking the reality, a new and staggering concept: Science. I think I was trapped in a platonic, man-based philosophical view of the Universe. And, at the age of 19, I first deeply understood that the proper method to "see" the World on which I exist is the use of scientific concepts, is realizing that there is only one cosmological truth that only scientifically skeptical inquiry and the scientific method could decipher. And I begun to comprehend that Science, rather than Philosophy and Abstractionism, can approach us closer to the most wanted answers: Who are we? Where are we? What is the Cosmos?

Carl Sagan showed me that science must be a character building process, that the answers obtained by the scientific method must help us, Mankind, to find an ideal and mostly rational posture towards what surrounds us and ourselves. The scientific method can and should be applied to our behaviour, to our ethics and morality. He also showed me that Science could be a pleasant process and that the pursuit of cosmological answers can hold an exhilarating  nature. His notions of  the "Cosmos" concept, which tell us that we are tightly connected to all everything else and that we are part of something greater, profoundly inspired me

Sagan was an example of how to live rationally. We must search for answers, find them and understand what exists in the Cosmos. And, In the end of this process, we must share what we discovered with the other, enhancing ourselves and what surrounds us. He was a great communicator with a great method of exposing concepts who appeared in the scientific golden era that was the 20th century with a new and positive way of  understanding our existence.

In a deep sense Sagan is a kind of mentor to me, his works influenced widely what I write and the concept behind this blog itself. In his 77th anniversary I want to celebrate and remember his existence, which  means so much to me.