Carl Edward Sagan
1934-1996 · Secular Thought · Renowned
Sagan taught planetary science at Cornell and became the century's best-known voice for thinking like a scientist. His stated position had three parts: mind is a consequence of anatomy and physiology and nothing more; the universe hands you no purpose, so the significance of your life is yours to set; and a hard truth beats a comfort. He denied in print being an atheist, holding certainty in either direction unearned.
Signature
The position Sagan is most identified with in the Profiler:
- Ignorance
- strongly leans Bondage
- Theology
- Agnosticism
Positions on the 8 axes the sources answer
- Natural Processes
- strongly leans Mechanistic (4 on a 0–100 scale from Mechanistic to Purposeful)
- Mind
- strongly leans Brain Only (10 on a 0–100 scale from Brain Only to Beyond Brain)
- Meaning
- strongly leans Constructed (4 on a 0–100 scale from Constructed to Inherent)
- Ground of Being
- leans Immanence (25 on a 0–100 scale from Immanence to Transcendence)
- Truth
- strongly leans Objective (100 on a 0–100 scale from Subjective to Objective)
- Ignorance
- strongly leans Bondage (5 on a 0–100 scale from Bondage to Bliss)
- Conviction
- strongly leans Uncertain (0 on a 0–100 scale from Uncertain to Certain)
- Allegiance
- leans Global (83 on a 0–100 scale from Local to Global)
12 of 20 axes are left blank: the sources do not answer them, or Sagan refused the framing. Nothing is imputed; a blank is not a middling score.
Foundational questions
- Theology
- Agnosticism
What is your position on the existence and nature of God or gods? - Knowledge
- Sense Experience
What is the ultimate foundation of knowledge? - Death
- Annihilation
What happens at death? - Human Nature
- Evolved Animal
What is human nature? - Primary Bond
- Humanity
What is your primary bond and loyalty?