You're welcome. One of the great regrets of my life was that I never got to meet Carl and thank him. I loved science as a kid, but I've never had the kind of mind that it requires. So I felt shut out of that world - until Carl came along. I watched Cosmos when it first aired, and then began to look out for anything Carl did that I could access. It was as if this wise, kind man was holding a door open for me and saying, It's okay, come on over. Even if you can't live in that land, you can look. It's allright. He opened up a whole world for me, and I'll always be grateful for it.

Plus, I deeply believe that all the nasty, horrifying antagonism that has arisen between science and religion in the last twenty years is due in big part to Carl not being there anymore. He was like a buffer between them, the public face of science, and it was a calm, polite, kind face. Because his focus was on educating as many people as he could about science, he never called people names or made them feel bad either about not knowing science, or about having religious belief. He was smart enough to know you don't get anywhere that way - he even said so publicly, and chastised those in the scientific and atheist communities for the tensions he saw, which weren't nearly as bad back then. Again, the calm voice saying, Hey, let's calm down, everybody. Don't be mean. You don't have to be mean. Who in the scientific world is bothering to say that anymore? Hell, even Carl's successor, Neil de Grasse Tyson, is a complete asshole when it comes to things he can't be bothered with. Carl had a well-rounded education, so he knew the value of all those subjects atheists sneer at these days, if not as focuses of belief, then as important cultural phenomena that shaped our entire worldview. With that voice silenced, it's all turned into armed camps that just hate each other. You know, for people who go on about how you don't need religion to be decent, I don't see much fucking decency in a lot of that camp.

*sigh*