Our friends over at csicop.org have posted online a collection of essays by and about Carl Sagan.
One thing that stands out in them is how skepticism was for Carl Sagan a deeply ethical enterprise, not just a debunking hobby, or a way to show how smart we are compared to the numbskulls who believe nonsense. For Sagan, as for so many other leaders in skepticism — though it is not often framed like this — his skepticism came out of a kind of deep moral imperative. Because undue credulity causes so much measurable harm, it follows that there is an ethical obligation to work to mitigate it through speaking out and educating our neighbors. Whether you believe that space aliens are coming to Earth to solve all our problems so we don't have to do any work to fix them ourselves, or you believe that going to a faith healer or New Age huckster rather than relying on medical science to heal you is the right course of medical care, believing in things uncritically can be bad for you and bad for society. Sagan felt that it was the right thing — the morally conscientious thing — to work against those trends.
Pieces that especially illustrate my point about the ethical impulse motivating Sagan's skepticism include “The Burden of Skepticism” and “Does Truth Matter? Science, Pseudoscience, and Civilization.”
Check out the entire online collection here.
Of special interest to me considering my recent move to the JREF is the article “The Ten Outstanding Skeptics of the Twentieth Century.” At the risk of engaging in skeptical hagiography, I note that Randi is named number one skeptic of the 20th Century, just like he is in my book.