SOURCE: "Carl Sagan: Cosmic Evolution vs. the Creationist Myth," in The Humanist, Vol. 41, July-August, 1981, pp. 5-6.

In the following essay, Harnack discusses the success of the television program Cosmos and Sagan's appearance before the American Humanist Association to receive its Humanist of the Year award in 1981.

On April 18, 1981, the American Humanist Association, at their Fortieth Annual Conference held in San Diego, named Carl Sagan 1981 Humanist of the Year.

In his address, Sagan simply yet eloquently noted that plants, animals, and humans are all part of a whole. The Greeks, in glimpsing the distribution of the elements of the cosmos, had a vision of surpassing importance. We now know that we can make all the essential building blocks of life. We believe the single-cell organism, the first form of life, was like a free-floating molecular complex—like DNA—or "naked gene." Yet there is more to discover.

Although most...