12. CARL SAGAN: Make the most of this life
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, author and the coolest nerd ever. He was famous for making science accessible to anyone with half a brain. His 1980 documentary series, Cosmos, inspired a whole generation of people and I think it’s the greatest television series ever made. I only watched it for the first time five years ago (I wish I saw it when I was 14 instead of 24), but since then I’ve devoured all of Sagan’s books and watched Cosmos again about a thousand times. His work explained so much to me: the history of the cosmos, evolution, civilisation, the beauty of science, the perils of superstition and pseudoscience, the origin of religion – basically life, the universe and everything. Carl Sagan was the teacher I never had.
– Sagan wrote the above quote in an article for Parade magazine in 1996 while in hospital and facing death himself. It’s a beautiful article and you can read the whole thing here.
– I highly recommend you watch Cosmos (it’s on Youtube). Yes, It was made over 30 years ago and it looks a bit dated, but I can honestly say it was life-changing for me.
– If you don’t have a spare 13 hours, then these short 10-minute Sagan tribute clips edited by Milky Way Musings are a good place to start.
– Seth MacFarlane (yes, the Family Guy creator) and Neil deGrasse Tyson (often said to be this generation’s Carl Sagan) are making a Cosmos sequel that will air next year.
– I find Carl Sagan’s voice to be soothing and pleasantly hypnotic. Others think it sounds like Agent Smith from The Matrix.
Discussion (203) ¬
🙂 I love the 7 virgins. lol. fyi, Your turban looks more sikh than taliban.
Thanks Em – damn, I should have showed it to u first!
I’m Indian and yep its totally like a sikh. No probs though.. Ur cartoons are too good. I think I’m gonna take you as an inspiration and will try the comical interpretations of poems cuz whenever I read a particular piece .. I always wanted express my opinions in some way.. writing appeared kind of corny to me. THis is cool.. Will try this stuff this summer itself. Thanks a lot. Keep drawing.
The ‘7 virgins’ is hugely annoying. Love your work Gav and I’ve been a fan for years, but that entire ‘taliban virginal shtick’ – I would’ve expected better.
This cartoon is funny and is poking fun at stereotypes. How come you’re offended by that, but not the stereotype of a Christian soldier who arrives at the pearly gates of Heaven? Get over yourself.
cause he doesn’t have 7 virgins with him, simple as that
jerk
biased negative loser
your negativity towards others seems unfit for this site
also i’d suggest you respond to others in a respectful, dignified manner , something that this sites comics advocate
Are we to assume that the soldier is a Christian simply because of the widespread symbol of pearly gates and angel wings? The notion of pearly gates isn’t even as close to being destructive towards Christianity as the false and destructive stereotype of 7 virgins is to Islam. I’m not Muslim, but I know better than to falsely equivocate “pearly gates leisure centre” with Christianity in the same potency of stereotyping as the 7 doting virgins to Islam. I think you, sir, are the one who needs to get over yourself.
Except that the virgin thing is true. The promise of houri is liberally littered throughout a huge number of Hadith. The number varies, but it is always plural and usually in the high multiple.
You can’t have studied this much at all if you think the promise of houris is “stereotyping”. And by the way, the virgins aren’t doting, they have “appetizing vaginas”. (Al-Suyuti).
Apologetics is fine if that’s your thing, but please try to get it right.
shut the fuck up liar
go fuck yourself faggot
faggot atheist homo
Fuck you, seriously. Know what else is annoying? Short-sighted bigoted losers like you. Ya.
Come on, be polite.
quite a civilised thing to say, you must be so proud of yourself
very positive, respectful comment to make for a site that prefers positivity and respect
Don’t perpetuate negative stereotypes.
I’m also a big fan of Carl, and I totally agree with your comment on his voice. I’ve seen the DVDs for Cosmos in which each episode contains a prefix errata to correct where current science (at the time of the DVD production) corrects any facts stated.
Did your extensive reading also include his Novel? I haven’t actually read this, but I did enjoy watching the movie adaption (Jodie Foster starring).
Cosmos was one of my favorite documentaries. I particularly liked his big calendar where the Big Band was on January 1st, Life on Earth around December and man’s total recorded history in the last few seconds before midnight on December 31st.
Hey David, do you know if Cosmos has ever aired on Aussie TV?
It certainly was, that’s when I first watched it. I thought I was in High School at the time, but IMDB says it was released in 1980, so I must have watched it while I was in College (probably 1st year). But definitely early 80’s. I even bought the Vinyl LP soundtrack so pre-CD era, and it was most likely on ABC.
That’s correct, it was early 80’s on the ABC (it was the only channel I was allowed to watch).
Actually, Carl wrote quite a few books. But, if you’re referring to Contact (of course), I read it. Frankly, Hollywood once again butchered a master work with their treatment of it, though not as horribly as HeinLein’s Starship Troopers.
It’s a rare thing when Hollywood doesn’t turn a jewel into a lump of coal.
You are aware that Carl was involved in that production, right? They worked closely with him on the shape of the story. It’s doubtful he would have thought it as “butchered” as you did. I read the book before the film and I thought they did a great job. Books and films, dude. Different media, different treatments.
I also have a big problem with the message in the end of the movie.
In the book science triumphed over faith when they found a binary message hidden in Pi.
In the movie faith triumphed over science when people believed in her story when she didn’t have a shred of evidence to support her claims.
I have some real problems believing that Carl Sagan would actually agree on such an end. But this is just my feeling.
But the hours and hours of recorded static she brought back supported the claim although not in as obvious a way as a binary message in pi. I don’t think faith triumphed at all. (That part always gives me goosebumps.)
Carl Sagan didn’t sound like Agent Smith from The Matrix. Agent Smith sounded like Carl Sagan. ;^)
My bad – you’re right Marley. Hugo Weaving totally ripped Carl off.
No, he didn’t. He was asked to do Carl by the Wachowskis.
I love this comic strip.
We should stop pointless fighting and just enjoy life.
I still miss Carl 🙁
I <3 you Carl!
I’m with you Eduardo.
This is all around fantastic. Thank you for a morning smile!
You’re welcome!
Awesome, i really love this.
Dr. Sagan significantly influenced my outlook on the universe. Maybe it was because I watched COSMOS back when I was in my early teens.
Mi-ster An-der-son,
There are billions and billions of stars out there…
—
Furry cows moo and decompress.
This is wonderful. You have used Carl’s Big Words and pretty much the World Events of the last 10 years to tell a story that is ultimately about individuals improving their lives. Keep it up; you’re a genius!
Thanks so much Chris – too kind mate!
^+1
… NO I am not crying… just cutting up some onions in my ofice boss…
It’s ok to admit it Colin
Did you see what you’ve done to me? Now I’m crying. Thank you!
Wow – i’m making grown men cry – this is great!
This should be translated into multiple languages.
Beautiful work. Thank you for this.
As Dr. Plait says, Carl Sagan “had a way with words that made them not just profound, not just inspiring, but also warm and rich and enveloping.” I fully agree with that sentiment, and think that everyone should read his books. Even if they already have a Ph.D. in Baloney Detection, they should read his words just because of the great way he says things.
By the way, Ann is teaming with Neil deGrasse Tyson to update the Cosmos series. I know when I showed it to my daughter, she was put off a bit by it’s very antiquated special effects. Kids these days…
Wonderful job. Its nice that Carl Sagan continues to inspire other human beings to do good work. Thats all the afterlife we need.
translated into multiple languages… Thank you for your pen
translated into multiple languages….Thank you for your pen
That’s very cool – thanks
Thanks GAV, it is up-beat to know through you creation that there are so many of us who are like minded with Carl Sagan. In us humanity has a hope:)
You’re right, although sometimes it seems we’re in the minority
Dear GAV,
I believe it is the able minority always lead all the sheep. No fear, no giving up for the right minority.
2 out of the 5 comics I’ve read on your site just now have brought me to tears. Haw man. You really have something here.
Thanks Jason – what as the other one that made u cry?
Love LOVE your illustration! Coincidentally, I wrote something (kind of) similar recently. It’s called An Unlikely Idea http://trustthedevilyouknow.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/an-unlikely-idea/
Thanks mate – nice post
You get that wrong !
It is not about love, it is about PING PONG !
I would love to give you money for poster sized prints of these… *hint*
prints soon – promise
Just found out about you via Reddit. Fantastic stuff, I’ll be checking back often.
Your work is amazing. That’s all I can say.
He’s not making very good use of those virgins…
He’s only got forty and they’ve got to last him for eternity.
Ha – i thought an orgy scene might be a bit much
Educate yourself people: http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/03/11/p15072
Sunan al-Tirmidhi Hadith 2562 says:
The Prophet Muhammad was heard saying: “The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives, over which stands a dome decorated with pearls, aquamarine, and ruby, as wide as the distance from Al-Jabiyyah [a Damascus suburb] to Sana’a [Yemen]”
——————————————————————————–
This is as a weak Hadith that has no Sanad — line or sequence of narration. Although listed in an authoritative collection, this particular Hadith has technical weaknesses in its chain of transmitters and is therefore not considered impeccable. As a result, Muslims are not required to believe in it. Even if the Hadith was true, there is nothing about it that says that if someone commits suicide they would get 72 virgins in paradise.
You need to sell prints of these. Seriously. I would be happy to buy one or two for a good price if the physical quality was good.
Please, please make prints of these, I’d be happy to buy digital or actual print! Fantastic work.
Coming soon
Make them come sooner-er!
Perfectly illustrated to match Carl’s brilliant words. Wish he was still around, but at least we have folks like you around to re-ignite the passion in his writing.
Sir, you’ve just conquered my feed
Muah ha ha – i feel so powerful!
Love these! BTW another great source for some Sagan mashup goodness is symphonyofscience dot com . . .
And I have a question: what’s your policy on relinking or embedding these for other blogs? I’d like to use your “Fear is the mindkiller” on a post that’s tickling my fancy but wanted to ask first.
Just send me an email with exactly how you’re going to use it – i’ll probably be cool with it
I was actually really happy to stumble across this picture the other day. Thanks for doing this.
Like you, Sagan’s work has had a major impact on my life. This world would be a much better place if there were more people like him.
The final comment on Sagan’s voice – so true…!
One of my favourites, along with this: https://zenpencils.com/comic/17-frank-herbert-litany-against-fear/
<3
This just made me misty-eyed during my morning commute. It’s so wonderful. I first encountered Sagan during college years, and at almost every profound sentence I would say: this man gets it. He’s my spiritual, science teacher unofficially.
still my favorite one. Really beautiful. The Ping Pong Democracy imagery is beautiful.
Fantastic blog! This has to be my favourite strip, with the ping pong sequence at the end. Keep up the great work!
Fantastic!
You have captured all the essence in Carl Sagan’s words. One of my all time heroes.
Very nice boss! Carl Sagan was one of the best science writers. I can still feel the awe he evoked in me when describing the cosmos. Almost poetic writing!
“Carl Sagan was the teacher I never had.”
That’s one of the most awesome definitions of him I’ve ever seen or heard.
Is it alright to put part of this in my personal website if perhaps I publish a reference point to this site?
Ok.
omg Gav- this was you?? I got sent this in two different emails on the same day a while back. Glad to hear that this is going viral and you’re getting success with this, all the best!
You should also check out Joseph Campbell. What Sagan did for astronomy, Campbell did for culture.
You’re a genius yourself! To take a very inspirational quote from Carl Sagan and put such a heartwarming story in it… genius!
I love all of your cartoons. I think it’s very nice to see people who still do what they want, even after everybody says that you should do the opposite.
Great work!
the link of the Sagan’s letter is broken
Wow. Thank you so so much for this. This is the greatest message on peace ever; put into a very hard-hitting, touching illustration. You have been doing a phenomenal job.
Btw, as pointed by the guy above, the link to the sagan’s letter is broken. “Sagan wrote the above quote in an article for Parade magazine in 1996 while in hospital and facing death himself. It’s a beautiful article and you can read the whole thing here.”
It takes me to http://www.dotster.com/dotster/sites/fortune-city.bml
Wow. Thank you so so much for this. This is the greatest message on peace ever; put into a very hard-hitting, touching illustration. You have been doing a phenomenal job.
Btw, as pointed by the guy above, the link to the sagan’s letter is broken. “Sagan wrote the above quote in an article for Parade magazine in 1996 while in hospital and facing death himself. It’s a beautiful article and you can read the whole thing here.”
It takes me to http://www.dotster.com/dotster/sites/fortune-city.bml
I searched for the text, it can now be found here: http://www.bauleros.org/saganenfermedad.html
Thanks Rob, I replaced the link in the post
This is brilliant. Definitely my favorite comic on the internet :).
Totally agree. This is the best comic I’ve ever seen.
This is an ammazing quote and an even better cartoon. Hope we get more like this one.
Dude I am starting to dig your website!
Hey, this is absolutely amazing cartoon 🙂
Gav,
I’ve browsed through all your work. And I can’t help but appreciate the marvel of your work. I’m in my own life journey in pursuing graduate school, leaving behind my family and loved ones in the Philippines, and taking on a challenging trip as I try to sharpen my research work.
Your illustrations of quotes through cartoons are amazing, inspiring, and uplifting. Your cartoons just made my day on this quiet Sunday morning.
I hope you continue to keep inspiring more people like me with your work.
Kudos!
Migs
thanks a lot Migs! Good luck with your travels and studies.
I,ve been having a rough couple of months dealing with an ultra spiritual/religious and pushy crowd at work (my boss included!!!), I started feeling quite lonely in my belief of an unique and marvelous chance to be alive in this moment and my lack of faith in the supernatural forces that my coworkers claim control my destiny. Somehow I wasn’t familiar with Carl Sagan’s work. Trough your amazing work today I go to bed with the certainty of not being alone in my viewing of the world’s functioning and the bliss of having been introduced to an amazing man who even in death will be a dear company. I guess the man did got some kind of inmortality after all.
I saw this comic on another blog and it drew me to your work for the first time.
I’m a chemist on my 3rd deployment in Afghanistan (and an Atheist) so this quote, it’s author and the subject matter all made a tremendous impact.
It’s sad to see people who deliberately cast off the burden of tolerance and understanding and cloister themselves in a life of ignorance or are manipulated to commit heinous acts against others for the reward of life after death.
In the most simple ways, we are all the same people and I believe strongly in appreciating life BEFORE death.
– GT
Thanks GT, means a lot coming from a soldier.
LOVE the toon. Not loving the ‘virgins’ thing – that shtick is just getting boring and orientalist.
Awesome comic print. I also love quotes by Carl Sagan.. they are so meaningful..
like
” You have to know the past to understand the present. ” – Carl Sagan
It seems to me that he is not the teacher you never had. I’m not trying to edit what you wrote, just to remind you that he indeed has taught you.
very nice. good imagination and creative indeed. it is so very true that we ignore and overlook things infront of us and chase some mirage in an unknown and distant future.
Wow… that one is amazing! I love it!!
Is this print available for sale? I couldn’t find it, but would love to pay you for it haha
This is an ammazing quote and an even better cartoon. Hope we get more like this one.
This is such an amazing artwork! Very inspiring and touching.
Sagan’s text + your drawing skills = 100% awesome
I love the idea, and I love Sagan, but the problem I have with this cartoon is the implication of moral equivalency between the Western soldier and the Middle Eastern fighter. It seems to me, and maybe I’m wrong, that the illustrator is implicitly asserting that both men are fighting one another for the same ostensibly idiotic reason. This equivalency erases the very real threat the US military and other Western powers pose to countries of the Middle East. The US in particular has waged a hand-full of illegal wars of aggression in the past 15 years, while violating the sovereignty of even more countries with drone strikes, and inducing humanitarian disaster with sanctions. While many Middle Eastern regimes are no doubt tyrannical, the US government (and by extension this soldier) has no right whatsoever to act with such callous belligerence, whereas it is the right of every person guaranteed by international law to resist occupation by any means, including violence directed at military targets. To place these two men next to each other makes their actions seem equivalent when they surely aren’t, and to equate their motivations and label them purely religious is to rob the situation of its context.
I completely agree!
The quote is very interesting. I have a problem with the implied message of the cartoon though. It reminds me of a conversation I just had with someone:
they said something similar to this cartoon: ”
So if it weren’t for God, the Native Americans would still be alive, the Africans would never have been enslaved, the Asians would never have been coerced into building our railroads and then have all their wealth taken away as they were sent to internment camps, we wouldn’t have problems allowing peaceful Muslims to build places of worship, and we’d wouldn’t disown our children because they turn out to? be homosexual, condemning them to a dangerous unloved childhood.
Yea no. God’s not evil.”
And the cartoon implies that without religion, people wouldn’t go to war.
To that I ask: is there any historical precedent for “purely-secular” nations [if you can even say that has ever existed]? behaving “better” than their counterparts?
Or put another way: Lets pretend that the religions of Europe didn’t exist when? the period of world-wide imperialism began. Would that have stopped now purely nationalist/capitalist forces from taking advantage of other races whenever possible?
Love how in the last frame you picture the soldiers playing as the paradise on Earth, using the same colors as in the paradise scenes above 🙂
More of your awesomeness!! You make me hope for the world. You and my 20 year old son who reveres Sagan too. Sometimes I get sad about the state of humanity. Don’t we all; then I find a website like yours, and hear my son talk about space missions, and the Kepler mission and I start to think that perhaps mankind will be o.k for some time. Perhaps.
Appreciate it You’ve got no idea how much I like your post. It’s very stunning. I like it greatly.
Wonderful. Absolutely.
FYI – Seattle Times: Understanding turbans
http://seattletimes.com/news/lifestyles/links/turbans_27.html
good idea , IF we can get white folks to stop going all around the world and starting crap
Love how in the last frame you picture the soldiers playing as the paradise on Earth, using the same colors as in the paradise scenes above
Is was, today only Islã want death. Chritian People not want ar, want confort, consumers. In median age, WE believe heaven, Heil, not actually.
Hi, i feel that i saw you visited my site so i came to go back the prefer?.I’m trying to in finding issues to improve my site!I suppose its ok to make use of some of your concepts!!
You’ve conflated the global war on terror with a discussion of high school metaphysics. The global war on terror isn’t about an existential debate. It’s about imperialism and hubris.
First off, I’d like to say that I LOVE your comics. I use them in my high school classes regularly for all sorts of topics. They are incredibly useful for helping teenagers understand complex, deeper topics. Thank you.
Once I read this comic, I had mixed feelings. I have one class with very strong views on Islamophobia (and all the stereotypes that go along with it), and I know that if they stumbled upon this comic when browsing your blog that they’d be disappointed.
Now, I’d just like to say why without everyone freaking out (which everyone reading the comments might have noticed happened above, with the first comment… yikes!). There are two things:
– Firstly, the afterlife depictions: there’s quite a lot more to the Muslim conception of Heaven than 72 virgins! Just as there’s quite a lot more to the Christian conception of Heaven than harp lessons. I figure you were likely making a parody of each by boiling them down into basic popular conceptions of either faith’s “Heaven”… but I don’t believe this was explicit enough. The depiction instead reinforced negative stereotypes.
– Secondly, why was it the Christian who initiated peace? And why is it the Muslim who we expect to deceptively pull a weapon out once peace is initiated? I would have been so happy to see this flipped, and work against current popular ideas of the untrustworthy violent terrorist.
– Thirdly… and I know I only had two things, but this just occurred to me and I think it’s JUST as if not MORE important than the above two! I know it can be difficult for a blogger to respond to everyone’s comments on their postings… but why not respond to a couple of your fans concerned about the unintentional Islamophobia in this comic? I saw you responded to a wide range of topics, including the turban mix up, but not to anyone mentioning the virgins (lol funny how we see those women as “the virgins”, eh? Just realized my own assumptions!).
That’s my schtick! I don’t mean it to be disrespectful. And I honestly do love your comics, my students love them, and I think I’ll be showing them this comic during Tuesday’s lesson (on underlying + overt racial stereotypes in media). So thank you 🙂 we can use your comics in literally every sort of way now — including deconstruction and critique. It’s good for them to see the multifaceted nature of a person’s work. You might be getting quite a LOT of messages to respond to soon!!
Thank you again.
Whoops. I meant to put Heaven in quotes each time, as I’m unsure of the term for the afterlife in Islam. My bad.
Also, please forgive the late night grammar issues… 🙂
If he flips the comic he loses the opportunity to illustrate that the expectation of the Muslim being the bad guy was wrong. This piece is not Islamophobic – it is anti-stereotype. It’s a little disheartening that recently I have seen several works that have been sympathetic to Muslims that were immediately viewed as Islamophobic.
Though really it is about understanding what an opportunity life is, every day, and not wasting it.
this blog was really great, never seen a great blog like this before. i think im gonna share this to my friends..
Great little quote! Great graphics as well. very spiritual
Wow I found this spot on Yahoo poking around for anything else completely, and now I’m going to have to go back and go the many old material.
I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article.
It was wondering if I could use this write-up on my other website, I will link it back to your website though.Great Thanks.
I’m happy I located this blog! From time to time, students want to cognitive the keys of productive literary essays composing. Your first-class knowledge about this good post can become a proper basis for such people.
Thanks for another wonderful post. Where else could anybody get that type of info in such an ideal way of writing?
I was actually really happy to stumble across this picture the other day. Thanks for doing this.
Great article with excellent idea!Thank you for such a valuable article. I really appreciate for this great information..
Really a great addition. I have read this marvelous post. Thanks for sharing information about it. I really like that. Thanks so lot for your convene.
Im fairly positive theyre likely to be informed a great deal of new stuff here than anyone else!
A debt of gratitude is in order for taking this chance to talk about this.
hugely thought out! Wow i love it! I would be very happy to visit your blog everyday as it gives more knowledge by reading your article.
dedicated server
Such an extremely valuable article. Exceptionally fascinating to peruse this article.
Great website! I truly cherish how it is simple on my eyes and the information are elegantly composed.
Awesome read! This was an incredible and fun article for me to peruse.
This sort of site is giving the heavenly administrations on this website and the particular articles in your online journal. A debt of gratitude is in order for the decent blog.
One of the great article for me as well as all. So, I am happy to get this article which will very handy for me. Thanks for letting a uncommon article.
I will bookmark this post i return future. It is flawless time to make a few arrangements for the future and the time has come to be cheerful.
A gorgeous and pleasant post. Keep it up, administrator.Thank you for offering this to me.
I trust that the custom wakes up after this..This is a better than average article, sir.
This substance is composed extremely well. Your utilization of designing when mentioning your focuses makes your objective facts clear and straightforward.
I basically needed to thank you so much once more. Thanks for your grand posting !
I have perused an articles’ couple on your site now, and I truly like your style. Much obliged and please keep up the viable work.
I simply began in this and I am becoming more acquainted with it better! Cheers, keep doing awesome.
I always like this comic. That’s why I always try to visit this blog. fifa16coinsgenerator.org/
A bag is an essential part of the customer experience, why not have it leave a lasting impression on your customers long after they have left your store. We take every bag project and try to design a bag that will be noticed by your customers and more importantly your potential customers.custom bags
Happy Wheels unblocked is a physics-based game where the only objective is to reach the exit. Choose between a motorcycle, two-wheeled vehicle or a wheelchair and try to find a way out without crashing.
The quote is very interesting. I have a problem with the implied message of the cartoon though. It reminds me of a conversation I just had with someone:
they said something similar to this cartoon..
http://worthreview.com
Its Nice Art and Hard to Understand!!
http://www.loginmaxbet.net
i see nice picture here! great!
Thank you Gavin for your “CARL SAGAN: Make the most of this life” comic post
http://vuelosdelalma.blogspot.com/2013/11/kampung-inggris-pare-kediri.html
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
The strongest impacts of an emergent technology are always unanticipated. You can’t know what people are going to do until they get their hands on it and start using it on a daily basis, using it to make a buck and using it for criminal purposes and all the different things that people do. The people who invented pagers, for instance, never imagined that they would change the shape of urban drug dealing all over the world
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Cool! Really Nice!
Wonderful quote, horrible commentary from other people.
worthy post admin thanks for this really.
http://bit.do/filesharing
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
great artwork. thanks for sharing
also i’d suggest you respond to others in a respectful, dignified manner , something that this sites comics advocate
Comments are closed.