Last night was the taping of the Politically Inicorrect show on which I appeared, that will air December 22. The other guests were Julia Sweeney, Victoria Jackson, and Aaron Neville. I must say that after years of being hammered on talk shows, that this one went about as well as it could have short of my being the only guest. Aaron Neville is a singer with a new CD out about his new-found religion and love of Jesus. I talked to him in the green room and found him to be an exceptionally kind and gentle man, but exceedingly shy and quiet. Sure enough, he hardly said a word the entire show. At each break the producers came out and encouraged him to jump into the conversation, but I think it just was not in his nature. Victoria Jackson is the former Saturday Night Live commedian who now lives in Miami-Dade county (she told me she had no problems with her chads!), and is a scripture quoting Baptist, raised a Baptist, and is very serious about her religion. She said she even spent a year in a Bible college. I think she couldn't have learned too much because she thought that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were Jesus's disciples! When the host Bill Mahr introduced the topic by noting that none of the gospel authors even knew Jesus, and that, in fact, these were books written decades after Jesus' death, Victoria blurted out in her inimitable and trademarked squeaky voice, "I can't believe they didn't tell me that in Bible college." Nwas also a Saturday Night Live commedian. She had a wonderful routine where she played the maximally gender obfuscating "Pat" in which each week various characters tried to figure out whether Pat was a h e or a she. Julia was raised a Catholic, did the K-12 Catholic school sequence, etc. But then a few years ago she went to the Galapagoes islands and had an epiphany of sorts. Instead of finding God, she found Darwin. She actually read the Origin of Species (a rarity these days, even among evolutionary biologists), and she described it to me as "a page turner." Wow! Then she read my book HOW WE BELIEVE, joined the skeptics, ordered all of the back issues of Skeptic and plowed through them, and has been reading skeptical and free thought literature ever since. On the show she talked about how she realized that all these creation stories are myths, and, in as articulate a manner as I've ever heard, she explained why living in a world of reality is so much more fulfilling than living in a world of fantasy. She is a wonderful ally to have for science and skepticism and I can't wait to watch her video monologue "And God Said, 'Ha!'" and her upcoming monologue she is working on about all these experiences of finding Darwin, science, and skepticism.
Basically I was given free reign to say whatever I wanted, and for as long as I wanted, and they wanted the show steered toward religion in general, not just the Jesus story, so I spent quite a bit of time talking about the findings in my book on why people believe in God, the role of religion, how morality might have developed in humans, how the small Jesus sect became a world religion, etc. Having done this show before, I simply could not believe that I was allowed to talk, and talk, and talk. It was a nice break from television as usual and I felt good about the whole experience. Check it out on December 22, on ABC TV following Nightline.
I have now had a chance to play all 13 hours of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan's Cosmos series, which aired as a "greatest hits" highlights reel last night on KCET, L.A.'s PBS station, as part of their fundraising drive. It was a welcome change from their usual fundraising faire, which typically revolves around feel-good subjects, like self-help gurus, Deepak Chopra, get-rich-quick money advisors, etc. For me, anyway, Cosmos was a far better "feel good" experience than any of these others could possibly offer.
The new Cosmos is just magnificant. I watched it in the DVD version on a large screen TV with wrap-around sound (four corner speakers plus a center speaker), and I must say it was stunning. I'm sure the VHS tape format is wonderful as well, but in comparing DVD to tapes in general there is no comparison. Either way, there are a number of changes since the original series (TOS): Ann Druyan has a thoughtful prologue to the series on the first disk/tape, talking about how much has happened since 1980 when TOS aired, such as the cold war ending, etc., plus she notes, correctly, how well Cosmos has held up despite 20 years of scientific advances. Obviously most of the history of science material (and I'd forgotten just how much of that there is) is just fine. And where there have been changes in the science, an update pops up on the screen explaining what the new information on a particular subject is. For example, in discussing the 1908 Tunguska event in Siberia, Sagan speculates that perhaps it was Comet Encke impacting the earth. This theory has now been abandoned and the updates says so. In another episode Sagan says that the sun is the ultimate source of all life. An update pops up explaining that life has been discovered in the depths of the ocean floor, living off of the energy produced from the Earth's interior and released through thermal vents. Best of all, they've added new images from the Hubble Space Telescope. This is done whenever Sagan is doing voice over images. My first clue to this, however, was when he was talking about amazing new technologies and there on the screen was a guy on a laptop with a cell phone. Not in 1980!
I have to say that even though I'd seen TOS, and watched various episodes over the years, I was even more impressed with Cosmos, both in terms of it's thoughtful writing and presentation, and its production value. I now know how hard, tedious, and time consuming it is to produce television shows, and I have to say that, cliche as it has become, Sagan really was a master presenter of science. There is no one better in this genre. (Of course, I recognize Jacob Bronowski, James Burke, Richard Dawkins, Bill Nye, and others as first rate science persenters as well. This is not to take anything away from them; just to add to Sagan.)
Below I have appended the description of the next generation (TNG) Cosmos, from the co-producers of this updated series: Ann Druyan and Joe Firmage. Thus, I should say something about this because there was some controversy surrounding Joe Firmage's involvement with both Druyan and the Planetary Society, co-founded by Sagan and JPL planetary scientist Bruce Murray. As most of you probably already know, Firmage is a big star in UFOlogy and among alien abductees (they now call themselves "experiencers"), because he had an alien experience himself (just do a google.com search by typing in "Firmage" and you'll find all sorts of materials on him and his experience and beliefs).
Firmage is the multi-millionaire (we're talking hundreds of millions) founder of U.S. Web who sold the company and now is investing in his various scientific and quasiscientific (pseudoscientific?) projects. He loves science. He is very open minded. The problem is that he is too open minded and does not know how to filter out all the goofy "theories of everything" he has been encountering over the past couple of years. Thus, he has openly embraced Zero-Point energy and other forms of "alternate" energy theories that have yet to be verified by science. He has openly discussed his belief that there are alien intelligences out there in the cosmos, and that he himself had an encounter with one. But Firmage is a very smart guy and quickly realized that his affiliation with the fringes of science has not helped his reputation. For example, I had him on my "Science Talk" radio show for an hour, discussing his internet book "The Truth." He immediately steered the conversation away from UFOs and alien abductions, to talking about how wonderful science is, how science is going to change the future, etc. It was almost as if he used the UFO stuff to get attention so he could then talk about what he's really interested in, which is alternate energies, new internet technologies, etc.
Whatever his motives, this strategy backfired. A year or so later he emerged with new projects, which included giving millions of dollars to the Planetary Society, and millions of dollars to Ann Druyan's numerous science education projects. From talking to the producers of TNG Cosmos series it is clear that without this infusion of capital the multi-million dollar renovation of TOS Cosmos would never have come about. So for that I think we should be thankful to Firmage. And, from what I hear from my friends at the Planetary Society, Bruce Murray and Lou Friedman are giving Firmage lessons in how science really works, and Firmage is now apparently saying about his alien experience "I don't know what happened." Okay, that's a good start. The ability to say "I don't know" is one of the hallmarks of science, so I think we should give the guy a chance. (This statement, by the way, is being made without Firmage giving the Skeptics Society a dime. I just think we should keep an open mind about him and see what happens. How did Reagan phrase it? Trust with verification!)
20 years ago, a television series was introduced that changed our sense of humanity's place in the Universe. Carl Sagan's COSMOS was one of the most extraordinary events in the history of television. Through its awe-inspiring synthesis of scientific storytelling, music, and imagery, over 600 million people in over a hundred countries glimpsed for the first time the harmonies, mysteries, and wonders of nature revealed by science.
In early 2000, we co-founded a company to carry forward Carl Sagan's vision into a new millennium. In the past nine months, we have organized a team of scientists, artists, engineers, and business experts dedicated to a soaring vision: sharing the sense of awakening that comes from understanding our relationship with the Cosmos. Our company - One Cosmos Network - is a 21st century entertainment enterprise crafting new tools and vehicles to take you on an epic adventure of continuing discovery.
Working in collaboration with leading institutions of science, One Cosmos Network is preparing to release breakthroughs in both Internet and television media. In 2001, we will join forces with SETI@Home to expand the search for signals of intelligent life among the stars. We will take you to Egypt to uncover a secret that was buried 100 million years before the first pharaoh was born. We will give you a window seat on board a history-making spacecraft. And beginning on January 1, 2001, we will introduce a new console for navigating the Internet - turning your Web browser into a cockpit for exploring the Universe.
But the adventure we'd like to share with you starts before next year. It is our pleasure to announce the first and most important work of our company: a newly updated, digitally remastered Collector's Edition of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning13-hour television series COSMOS, available now on DVD and VHS, with the Music of Cosmos available separately in a twin-CD format. Beautifully presented treasures of intellectual insight and spiritual nourishment, these history-making productions have a place in every family's home this holiday season. You may purchase these items now at http://OneCosmos.net/onecosmos_outpost.html.
Join us in celebrating the dawn of a new millennium and stay tuned for some amazing adventures in 2001!
Cordially,
Joe Firmage, Ann Druyan