A Letter to Carl Sagan

Dear Mr. Sagan, I heard you say in a recording today that you could accept the idea that God is the totality of all natural laws. In the same breath, you said you could not believe in His personhood because of the lack of evidence for such. I wonder what it was like for you to see His face when you died, to come in contact with the one who made you and all of humanity and the cosmos. Did you doubt in that moment? Did you wonder whether you were hallucinating, as you said up to 25% of humans do? Or was all that washed away in his presence? So much of critical thinking, as you have said is so important for us, is a defense against the fallen nature of humankind. As you said, we need critical thinking so we won't be deceived by every charlatan that happens our way. So what happens to critical thought in the presence of Truth and nothing more? You were such a gift from God, yet you refused to offer up to Him the part of yourself that is beyond knowing—your faith. You were concerned that faith was a tool of religion, another institution built by men of power who continued to feed people superstition to maintain their control of them. I will agree with you regarding religion, but faith is another matter. To believe, you said, was to be convinced of the evidence. This is not the way of faith, however, but the way of science. It is therefore clear to me that you placed your faith in science since you concluded that it is the only way to truth. It pains me to see how close you were to Him. You saw His creation and the laws of His nature, and held the wonder close to your heart—the very wonder that was intended to draw you to Him. But somewhere along the way something happened to you that you warned us all about—you were deceived by men of power that the only way to truth was science. What you described as a breathe of fresh air in your college years was undoubtedly the opening of your mind, but also the tragic wind from the closing of your heart's door to a God whose love is beyond any of our comprehension. I pray that God granted you mercy as you stood before Him, that he saw the wonder of a child in your heart and recognized the origin of your deception, and with a word, dispelled all, and that your final and first words were, “I believe.” One day on the shores of the cosmos, I hope to see you, and you can use your genius to explain the mysteries of how the Creator and His creation are intertwined and hold together. And I will see His glory in your wonder. Until then.