This Carl Sagan quote is truer and more evidentially so at this time than it has ever been !! 🤔🤯
(media.greatawakening.win)
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No he shouldn't be. In the end he made his choices and had his reasons. Also, Jesus said to love our enemies. And I believe that can be extended to one's legacy. Our faiths should be able to stand up to scrutiny and Sagan's perspective should be taken as a challenge to one's ideas. Doesn't necessarily mean he's right. But it's better to bolster one's position with logic, knowledge and reason than refusal of other ideas.
Of course. I don't much like him because I find the positions he took were a bit egotistical and don't stand up to scrutiny, but I feel that way about most modern intellectuals. It has nothing inherently to do with the fact he was an atheist, although many atheists have these tendencies.
I don't necessarily agree that 'love thine enemy' should be applied to people's legacies, however. Should we accord respect to enemies of God? We can consider his ideas in order to soundly refute them, certainly, but I don't think putting him on a pedestal or smearing him is the right call. He was just a regular guy, same as us. My review of him remains the same whether he is alive or dead.
Respecting the legacy is not putting him on a pedestal. And yes, we should respect the legacy of God's enemies. For one, it's educational. And two, if God really is bigger than all of this, then it doesn't hurt anything.
The suppression of ideas and culture is always wrong. That's why the religious right lost the culture war in the 60s. They wanted to control people and used their faith as a justification.
Jefferson said it best, "I have sworn upon the alter of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny on the mind of man"
It is not our place to dictate how others are supposed to live and think. Never has been. Until Jesus comes back to establish His Law, our job is to keep truth, including the past history of "God's enemies" and so forth and to not interfere with the choices of others.
I don't think we particularly disagree, but I see no reason personally to enshrine the philosophy of people who are against God. Let the disciples of the atheists do what they will, but always rebuke them in the open squares with reason, lest the common people be swayed by falsehoods. To that end, we should be well-informed of historical and modern heresies, such that we are amply prepared when we are called upon to defend the faith.
I am not so sure that the reason you cited was the fundamental reason that the right 'lost' the culture war in the 60s. Communist infiltration of western institutions was already ongoing by then.
TLDR: I don't think people like Sagan should be censored - far from it, but I don't think it's the place of the church to teach about secular anti-church ideas or keep a record of them except as a topic for apologia and a warning to future generations. If Sagan did any valuable scientific work, let the scientists revere him as they wish.