Carl Sagan always advocated scientific skeptical inquiry and the scientific method, pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He spent most of his career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Sagan and his works received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book The Dragons of Eden, and, regarding Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, two Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award and the Hugo Award. He married three times and had five children. After suffering from myelodysplasia, Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62 on December 20, 1996.
I found that last word, "atheist", tacked on hastily to the end of the video title, all too fitting.
Sagan was an agnostic. Many people, including the dudes in my gym's dry sauna last week, seem to think that agnosticism loosely equates to theism. Nay.
Agnostics profess mankind's inability to definitively know whether or not a divine deity exists (or multiple deities, whatever). Now, unless there was a major press release today that I've missed, this seems the most scientifically informed stance to take.
We can talk about who has the burden of proof for proving or disproving the existence of the divine, or we can stop pointing fingers, and get back to doing whatever gives us the warm and fuzzies. Unless it's the Crusades. Or ISIS. Or moderating /r/atheism.