Sagan's pragmatic pluralism

Sagan and James: both were humanists, contending that we (each and all, as individuals and as a species) have the opportunity and the capacity to make a constructive difference in the world.

James's variety of humanism was also inseparable from his democratic pluralism: "No one of us ought to issue vetoes to the others, nor should we bandy words of abuse. We ought, on the contrary, delicately, and profoundly to respect one another's mental freedom... then only shall we live and let live, in speculative as well as in practical things." Will to Believe

This is a coupling, humanism + pluralism, that I think Sagan shared. He did not share the conventional religious impulse, but neither did he treat it with scorn. The Dawkins-Hitchens "take no prisoners" style may be more entertaining, but it's definitely not more constructive.