The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

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The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

4.31 of 5 stars 4.31 · rating details · 18,354 ratings · 878 reviews

"A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought."

*Los Angeles Times

"POWERFUL . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing."

*The Washington Post Book World

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technolog...more

Paperback, 480 pages

Published February 25th 1997 by Ballantine Books (first published 1995)

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Nov 04, 2012 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I sit before my computer, typing out a review of what is my favorite book. I’m daunted by the magnitude of this task, having just finished the book for the fourth or maybe fifth time. I wish I could remember when I bought this book, likely close to a decade ago, but I’m sure that I must have been awestruck to discover a book written by a man who has influenced my life and my interests to such a great extent.

One of the great memories of my early life was that of waiting to plop down in front of t...more I sit before my computer, typing out a review of what is my favorite book. I’m daunted by the magnitude of this task, having just finished the book for the fourth or maybe fifth time. I wish I could remember when I bought this book, likely close to a decade ago, but I’m sure that I must have been awestruck to discover a book written by a man who has influenced my life and my interests to such a great extent.

One of the great memories of my early life was that of waiting to plop down in front of the TV set for a few Sunday nights in 1980, as our PBS station aired a thirteen part series called Cosmos. Accompanied at the TV by my mom and grandmother, Cosmos captured my imagination in ways that will last my whole life. It was a series not merely discussing outer space, but in fact, it addressed the history of humanity’s understanding of our place in the world, the universe, and in life. Why is the memory of a TV show so incredibly dear to me? I could say that the show opened my mind to concepts and philosophies and possibilities that I never imagined, and that’d be a fair and true statement. What really makes the series so pivotal in my life, though, is that I shared such a formative experience with my mom and my grandmother; two people to whom I owe my life, my intelligence, and, hopefully without too much hyperbole, my essential spirit. At the age of nine, it’s not very likely to imagine that I would have planted myself in front of a television tuned to PBS on a Sunday evening, but the patient guidance and love of my mom and grandmother gave me the gift of knowledge and wonder.

Needless to say, I’ve always been partial to the works of Dr. Carl Sagan. Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark is the first work of Dr. Sagan’s that I’ve read as an adult and in the many years I’ve owned this book, I’ve read it at least four times. Why re-read a book so often? The answer is found in my reverence of the book’s message, it’s point, and it’s passion. Not only have I read it often, but I have made an irregularly observed tradition to start each new year with a fresh reading. At least three times, I’ve picked the book up within hours of watching the ball drop in Times Square, heralding in the new year.

Many who know me, already know this is my favorite book, but I’m deeply challenged when I’m asked what the book is about, and several paragraphs into my review, I’m probably overdue in attempting to answer this exact question. In this book, Dr. Carl Sagan tackles one of the key problems facing our time, as well as repeated throughout the history of our civilization, and that is the propensity for humanity to delve into our darkest superstitions and most bleak behaviors when our knowledge or ego is challenged. It seems that throughout the history of our species, we’ve turned our backs on critical thought and skepticism at times when those with claims to power and zealotry and wealth have found it advantageous and profitable to subvert the masses.

Why discuss witch burnings and crop circles and claims of government coverups of alien abductions from 50 years ago? The answer lies in the here and now. At a time when every facet of our daily lives revolves around technology; when each and every human being lives under the threat of annihilation by nuclear weapons; when communications are global but subject to being monitored in violation of the founding documents of our nation (granted this is a problem that would occur years after Sagan’s death, yet it’s exactly the type of behavior Sagan speaks of), we find that critical thought wanes in the population of our own nation, not to mention that of the entire world. Credulity and old habits creep into our consciousness. Our world, our freedoms, and our lives come under attack.

Go to the movies and watch ghosts haunt a house or watch the undead torment campers in the woods. Turn on the TV, and you’re likely to find tales of alien spacecraft being hidden by the government. You’re equally likely to channel surf past a shopping network selling new age crystals. But where on broadcast television are you likely to find a substantive debate on issues of education or technology? Where do you see education programming talking about the technology that engulfs our very lives? As Sagan points out, imagine the irony that kids can watch a cartoon about a prehistoric family with a dinosaur for a pet (I actually protest... I enjoyed the Flintstones!), but may never have the opportunity to watch a show about the invention or technology of television, itself!

At what cost to our freedoms, will we accept great claims without great proof? What decisions do we as a world culture need to make to grow and prosper and what can we learn from our history, replete with credulity and domination and fear mongering?

Should we shrink from the challenges of education and critical thinking, what price will we pay? Will it be our personal or national economic stability? Will we see our freedoms curtailed (as if we haven’t witnessed that already)? Or will we pay with the extinction of our species?

 The thesis as I understand it, of this book is that we, as a culture and society, may be repeating a common mistake of our history: accepting a diminution of our critical thinking skills at our own distinct peril. Because of the threats we face though, this time we stand at these crossroads at possibly the least opportune of times. Throughout history, those in power or those who seek it, have abused our fears and used them to control the masses to their own advantage or profit. This book begs to serve as a wake up call to anyone willing to accept the challenge not only to read it, but to deeply ponder each of its points and positions. It offers the methods of critical thought as the grand lighthouse by which we can safely steer our course through the treacherous times and malevolent forces we face. Dr. Sagan, true to the book’s title, offers the methods of science as a candle in the darkness in men’s souls.

This book occupies a special place in my life, as I’ve stated. I believe that this is a book of such enormous importance, that it should be required reading in every senior level high school class in the country. It may not be comfortable reading, and Dr. Sagan wrote on an astronomically high reading level (forgive the pun, as Dr. Sagan was of course a world renown astronomer) that it may take weeks or months to fully drink in the material, but the discussion that Dr. Sagan presented are vital. The arguments he presents are vital to our intellect, our freedom, and to our humanity.

For making me think and contemplate, reading after reading, this book scores five stars.(less)

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Sep 19, 2008 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, society

I miss Carl Sagan.

Ever since I was a kid, Carl Sagan has been the face of science for me. I would watch Cosmos and feel a sense of amazement that the universe was as wonderful as it was. He'd be there in his turtleneck and his blazer, smiling as though he'd just heard the coolest secret and he wanted to share it with you. And he did, except that it wasn't his secret. Hell, it wasn't a secret at all - it was the combined results of thousands of years of thoughts, deductions, mistakes, missteps, e...more

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Apr 04, 2012 David rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: The choir that he is already preaching to

Full disclosure here, I did not finish this book; I made the decision to stop reading it after around 100 pages. I kept expecting the science to start at any page, but I got tired of reading accusations that the Weekly World News and Beavis and Butt-Head are sources of ignorance and misunderstanding. I won't argue that either of these are intellectual, but at best these are forms of entertainment and that is largely a product of taste, not intellect. I couldn't risk wasting my time reading anoth...more Full disclosure here, I did not finish this book; I made the decision to stop reading it after around 100 pages. I kept expecting the science to start at any page, but I got tired of reading accusations that the Weekly World News and Beavis and Butt-Head are sources of ignorance and misunderstanding. I won't argue that either of these are intellectual, but at best these are forms of entertainment and that is largely a product of taste, not intellect. I couldn't risk wasting my time reading another 100 pages of more of the same.

The last time I thought that WWN might be reporting real news I was maybe 11 (although I did buy their Saddam and Bin Laden wedding spectacular issue, but only for the pictures). If an adult thinks that stories in the paper are real, their problems will not be solved by not having access to WWN. If he had instead criticized the Discovery Channel for their UFO coverage he'd have a point. They are at least giving a pretense of showing knowledge-based programming. As it stands it's like citing The Colbert Report as a source of vile right wing hate. It completely misses the point.

As for Beavis and Butt-Head, sure it is stupid humor, but just because it is not Sagan's brand of humor doesn't mean that watching it causes stupidity (and merely accusing it of causing stupidity is a pretty unscientific method of demonstration). Not only does Sagan admit that he has never even watched the show, but he does so proudly. This strikes me as an arrogant attempt at justifying his own taste as a sign of mental superiority while cutting down other tastes. Mike Judge's subsequent works have even been quite clever. Sagan might have even enjoyed Idiocracy and considered it a poignant criticism of the very dumbing down of society that his book is supposed to be about.

Sagan was a big marijuana advocate and as such marijuana is absent from his list of criticisms. I am not saying that it causes dumbing down, there certainly are smart people who use it responsibly, but there is also a common stereotype associated with it (I think most of us know more of the stereotype pothead than the intellectual type). I am surprised Sagan was not able to look at his own experiences with this past-time and how they differ from the stereotypes and apply that to other issues.

If this book had dived right into scientific examinations of ghosts and UFOs I would have absolutely finished it. 100 pages may not have been the whole book, but it was far too many pages dedicated to something that was not "Science as a candle in the demon haunted world" for my taste.(less)

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Dec 08, 2007 Trevor rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: philosophy, psychology, science, religion, social-theory

Sagan has been a hero of mine since I saw Cosmos years and years ago. Now that was one of the truly great science documentaries and one that, on the subject of physics, has rarely been bettered.

This is a supurb book. Many people say things like, "I've no idea how people without a belief in the supernatural can bare to live in this world". Well, Sagan gives a powerful answer here.

Sagan understood the infinite joy that comes from understanding something about the world - something that is real. H...more

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Jan 13, 2009 Lightreads rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

Hey, so, guess what? People who read the Weekly World News are stupid, but scientists are awesome! Did you know that?

I just put this book down, 175 pages in. It's not that I disagree with the thesis, because I actually don't at all. Sagan uses the widespread belief in alien abductions to talk about the need for more critical thinking in this world. And I'm totally there -- yes, for the love of God, teach people to distinguish between fact and what they want to be fact. But Sagan goes on -- and o...more

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Apr 19, 2008 Tyler rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: _People who want to think straight

Recommended to Tyler by: _A book review

Shelves: non-fiction

Sagan shows why learning to think in a contingent universe is ... well ... absolutely necessary. My reaction first reading the book was, "I've known for a long time that something's wrong. Now I know what." The discussions the author engages in in the book are eye-openers.

I cannot recommend this book to those who are highly sensitive about their credos, but on other hand, I don't think more open-minded religious people will at all see this as the scathing attack many opinion-makers have attribut...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Arthur rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science

I wish I could give 6 stars to this book (but I guess that just indicates that I give 5 stars too easily). Carl Sagan covers a lot of ground in this book. One of his most important themes is that the scientific method is the best tool we have for separating fact from fantasy. He laments that a general lack of skepticism leads many people to believe in superstitions that can be easily explained. He devotes several chapters to the widespread belief in UFOs and a government conspiracy to hide the "...more I wish I could give 6 stars to this book (but I guess that just indicates that I give 5 stars too easily). Carl Sagan covers a lot of ground in this book. One of his most important themes is that the scientific method is the best tool we have for separating fact from fantasy. He laments that a general lack of skepticism leads many people to believe in superstitions that can be easily explained. He devotes several chapters to the widespread belief in UFOs and a government conspiracy to hide the "truth" that we are being visited by aliens in flying saucers. He explains the history of the crop circle hoax that began in the United Kingdom and was quickly copied by hoaxers in other parts of the world. He explains how Europeans in the middle ages frequently believed they were visited by demons (a succubus coming to seduce a man and an incubus coming to seduce a woman). Nowadays, however, the demons don't visit us anymore. Instead we are visited by aliens. He explains how both of these common beliefs can be explained in terms of complex psychological factors. He also talks about how memories can be altered, and how unreliable eyewitness accounts can be, in particular if they seek therapy with hypnotherapists who help them remember the alien abduction.

Sagan devotes an excellent chapter in the middle of his book to the basic toolkit that one should use to analyze an argument for intellectual integrity, describing the most common fallacies that can sidestep the basic requirements of argument and cause an argument to seem much more convincing than it actually is.

He discusses the modern trend to distrust science, and he discusses some of its causes. For example, he talks about how many people today view scientists as "nerds" and don't see why governments should support "curiosity-based research", thinking that they should focus on specific technological research rather than purely scientific matters. To argue against this idea, he discusses how a specific discovery by a physicist named Maxwell (the idea of electromagnetic radiation, i.e. light, and a few related ideas) allowed later scientists to discover radio waves, one of the single most important discoveries in history. But Maxwell had no idea where his discovery would lead. Rather, he was pursuing a purely scientific question.

In addition to the UFO myth, he discusses the televangelist faith healers and other people who take advantage of a general lack of skepticism for their own gain.

One of the parts of the book I appreciated most was Sagan's conclusion that since today's technology has so much potential for either disastrous or wonderful consequences, it is necessary for scientists today to have much higher ethical standards than ever before. He talks about some scientists who have been influential activists for social change, and other scientists who have been ruthlessly unethical, in particular the scientist whose pet project was the invention of the hydrogen bomb, which Sagan calls the single most odious invention in the history of the world.

I highly recommend this book, especially to people who think that science is overrated or want to get a glimpse into the mind of a scientist.(less)

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Jan 23, 2008 John rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Terry

My first Sagan book was Cosmos, which led me to this one. While Cosmos was good, this was great. It really opened my eyes to how important science is, and the underlying principles of science, and simultaneously how organized religion is virtually 100% philosophically opposed to science.

Religion: Don't think, don't reason, don't use logic. We'll (religious leaders) tell you what to think, what our god(s) wants you to think/do. Our holy book written centuries ago by primitive tribes with no knowl...more

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deleted user Carl Sagan represented the candle of light in a world covered by pseudo-science, superstition, and intolerance, which in essence is the same. He adopt...more Carl Sagan represented the candle of light in a world covered by pseudo-science, superstition, and intolerance, which in essence is the same. He adopted the universe like his hometown, He was fascinated by the variety of cultures, civilizations, languages, and lifestyles. He was in love about history, Anthropology, Biology, and Physics. Science was not longer a tool of few privileged intellectual people. He popularized Science, making it easy, dynamic, and more democratic. Science is the spiritualization of the Universe, it’s the soul in itself.
We are made by the cosmos, we are created by universe’s stuff. Sagan encouraged until the last day his love for the scientific method, and to think in a critical way. He might be giving a lecture about the Greek civilization or explaining the wonders of the roman civilization, and the same time he might be fascinated about biology and physics. He showed a deep fascination about the classical civilization and it’s achievement. The glory of the classical civilization, in Sagan’s words was the library of Alexandria, and his heart was it’s collection of books. We can see his sadness about the destruction of the library of Alexandria, produced with the rise of superstition and intolerance. We can notice his deep fascination about genius like: Aristarchus of Samos, Eratosthenes, or Hypathia, the last woman whose intelligence was the glory and the light of wisdom and knowledge of the classical civilization, her martyrdom along with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria represented a terrible tragedy for the humankind with terrible consequences. The destruction of the library of Alexandria was end of a culture of reason, tolerance and science, and the rising of the superstition which it will last near 1000 years. People stopped to think with critical thinking for adopting any kind of fallacies as way of thought. People stopped to think in a critical and skeptical way, with hypothesis and analysis, as a valuable tools for creating science, and objective knowledge. Sagan used to say if we would have avoided the destruction of the classical civilization, today, we might have been visiting another galaxies… it sounds prophetic, but there’s a sadness in his words.

“The Demon-Haunted World” is one of the most moving and passionate books ever written in the last century. Dictatorships, and authoritarian regimes dislike any kind of critical thinking, recognized as dangerous. Science is a precious instrument of knowledge. Mistrust the argument of any pseudo-science, verify your information, bring hypothesis, any theory or new knowledge must be verified, analyzed with the light of the science. The scientific knowledge constantly interrogate and ask questions to nature, and to our reality. There’s a long process of verification of information, before of adopting any kind of “truth”, that’s the reason because pseudo-science is so dangerous. We’ve seen through human history that human are fallible, and make serious mistakes, bringing tragedy, and death.
Finally, I recommend the reading of this book, it’s an intelligent work, with elegant writing and honesty
(less)
Jun 17, 2008 02:28pm

Jul 01, 2008 Krishan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Skeptics, believers

Magnificent. Carl Sagan takes us on a mind-expanding tour of the landscape of scientific knowledge and the oceans of human ignorance. This deeply skeptical look at our ideas is more than expose of superstition, but an exercise in constructive criticism.
Sagan shows us that science and reason are our greatest tools for understanding and moral judgment.

An excellent companion to the recent 'new atheism' books by Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins, Dennet etc...

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Aug 05, 2012 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, prestamos

This is a book that I think should become textbook in schools across the world. Sure it could use some editing and Sagan really used a lot of the book to discredit UFO's, and that's just fine, I just wish he would have done it in a manner more cohesive with the rest of the book.

Other than that I really liked it. It helped shape the way I think and examine my own beliefs. Everyone should read this at least once.

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Aug 13, 2009 Brooke rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, 2009

For a while now, I've been saying that I need to start reading some non-fiction. For all the time I spend reading, some of that time should be spent learning about things that are new to me. But then I'd groan and say that I'm not yet far enough removed from being a student to be able to do that for fun.

A GoodReads friend recommended this one during a discussion of sleep paralysis and aliens, and I decided that I should approach this like ripping off a band-aid - I grabbed it off the library she...more

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Sep 06, 2007 Lou rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: religion

If you think you're open minded, you are not, until you've read this book. Give it a try. I dare you.

--Wag--

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Feb 17, 2008 Erin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Oct 29, 2009 Kurt rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Shelves: non-fiction, science, history

I really miss Carl Sagan. He was such an interesting and eloquent spokesman for the importance of science and education in our country and in the world. We desperately need another Carl Sagan (or better yet, 100 of him) today as science is being attacked by persuasive ideologues who prefer comfortable delusions over inconvenient truths.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is this: "Part of the duty of citizenship is not to be intimidated into conformity."

The Demon Haunted World is really fant...more

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Nov 14, 2008 melydia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Have you ever read something that filled you with such furvor that you wanted to write your own thoughts along those same lines, but whenever you tried you found you did nothing but repeat the original article?

That's been me all over the place with The Demon-Haunted World. I want to ramble about the wonder of science, the importance of skepticism, the fact that school all but completely robbed me of any desire to learn, the dangers of pseudoscience, the intrinsic value of basic research even if...more

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Mar 04, 2008 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sagan's book is a predecessor to Sam Harris' "The End of Faith". However, I feel that Sagan is a much more literary writer. This book is a nice-drive-down-a-country-road read while Harris' book is more of a get-on-down-the-road read. I really enjoyed this book because it was so comfortable.
Many of the points and arguments in this book are not new, in fact few of them are, but Sagan's style and interesting approach (the world is demon-haunted?!)to the points refresh them and asks the reader to re...more

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Jul 08, 2007 Sean rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sketpics

Carl Sagan's polemic against pseudoscience and apologia for scientific skepticism and post-Enlightenment values. Much of the book is devoted to a fascinating description of the intimate similarities among UFO abductions, recovered memories, fairy myths, and the European witch hunts. Along the way he touches on on a range of other fringe ideas, including crop circles, Roswell, faith healing, and ESP.

While the debunkings are literate and interesting, I couldn't help feeling the book suffers from...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Chris Friend rated it 5 of 5 stars

Fantastically well-written. Sagan has the gift of explanations that illuminate in terms perfectly appropriate for his audience. I believe this is because he has never lost the childish sense of wonder over science. Any work he does, he is convinced it is fantastically interesting, not just good science.

In this brief book, Sagan explains several aspects of how science influences everyday life, calling us all to become more involved... including a call to his fellow scientists to get them to share...more

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Jan 14, 2013 Kimmie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-owned-books, science

This book has something for everyone. I found great interest in the chapters on science in education, and I especially enjoyed/agreed with Sagan's proposal for using sports to teach science. It was painful to read about the problems in education knowing that now, nearly 20 years after this book was first published, our education system has not seen the kind of improvements we desperately need. I think any parent or educator would benefit from these chapters.

I noticed that a few reviewers stoppe...more

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Feb 17, 2008 Graham rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-computer-books

This book revealed to me the main reason why I find religion to be unbelievable: religion is not falsifiable. Granted lacking falsifiability does not logically make it false, however for me it puts it in the realm of Descarte's powerful deceiver, i.e. mental masturbation. Everything else in life is falsifiable, including the oft-referenced love and complex relationships with other humans. They ascribe to the senses, there is feedback. Religious apologetics are constructed to be unverifiable and...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Muriel Franco rated it 4 of 5 stars

O livro discute assuntos variados como religião, política, problemas sociais e históricos, de modo bastante inteligente, utilizando de assuntos ditos como complexos para mostrar o quanto pensamento cientifico é importante. Esse livro deveria ser uma das leituras obrigatórios para as pessoas no mundo que ainda não observam a necessidade de um balanço entre ser cético e crédulo. Por fim o livro é ótimo, embora demasiado as referências sobre UFOS nos capitulos iniciais.

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Sep 29, 2011 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Every human should read this book.

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Jan 02, 2012 Urban Crow rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, non-fiction, skepticism

this book sets out to debunk a lot of the crop-circle, ufo, faith-healer mythology that is out there in the world, and i picked it up for precisely this reason. it’s not that i don’t want to believe on some level, but i also am interested in all explanations for phenomena, particularly about some things. sagan spends most of his time in this book examining ufo claims, but also ventures into other subjects, and ends the book by criticizing the lack for solid education (and specifically science ed...more

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Mar 17, 2009 Darrell rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is the perfect book to start with for anyone interested in skepticism. He explains the difference between science and psuedoscience and why science is a good thing. While some may point out that science brings unprecedented destruction in the form of ever more powerful weapons, Sagan reminds us that “advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.” (11)

He brings up an interesting concept I’ve...more The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is the perfect book to start with for anyone interested in skepticism. He explains the difference between science and psuedoscience and why science is a good thing. While some may point out that science brings unprecedented destruction in the form of ever more powerful weapons, Sagan reminds us that “advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.” (11)

He brings up an interesting concept I’ve never heard of before called psuedo-religion. I never thought there could be a difference between religion and psuedo-religion, since the concept of religion is often so vague. However, there is as much reason for religion to be skeptical of extremism perpetrated in its name as there is for science to be skeptical of psuedoscience.

People shouldn’t just blindly believe what scientists tell them anymore than they should believe what psuedoscientists tell them. Sagan tells us “The method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more important than the findings of science.” (22) It is more important to teach children to use the scientific method of experimentation, observation, and providing evidence, than it is to simply make them memorize facts. Knowing how to think critically and question everything helps them more in their day to day life than a list of facts.

Unlike psuedoscience and psuedo-relgion, science encourages debate and opposing opinions. ”Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy.” (38) Like democracy, science requires an educated populace to work best. When science gets something wrong, the “question everything” attitude of science helps correct it.

Sagan spends the first half of the book explaining why aliens aren’t coming to Earth. He points out that there are many more reasonable alternate explanations for strange lights in the sky and abduction reports. In a chapter on hallucinations, he says, “Another analogy might be that dreams, like the stars, are shining all the time. Though the stars are not often seen by day, since the sun shines too brightly, if, during the day, there is an eclipse [...:], then the stars, like dreams, though often forgotten, may always be seen.” (106)

The second half of the book deals with science and skepticism in general. Skeptics will want to dog ear page 212, where Carl Sagan lists some common logical fallacies. Knowing the fallacies that many people fall prey to will help a good skeptic sniff out flaws in their arguments. To use Carl Sagan’s example, if someone claims that We must institute the death penalty to discourage violent crime, they are committing the logical fallacy of begging the question, also called assuming the answer. We can’t just assume the death penalty will lower crime rates without evidence to back up the claim.

Another common fallacy is observational selection. This is when you only remember the times your idea was right and ignore the times it wasn’t. For example, emergency room nurses claim it is busier during a full moon because they don’t count the times it’s busy when there isn’t a full moon or the times there is a full moon and it isn’t busy.

“A proclivity for science is embedded deeply within us, in all times, places and cultures. It has been the means for our survival.” (317) Knowing which plants are poisonous and knowing the migration patterns of animals helped our hunter-gatherer ancestors survive. Without this knowledge, gained through careful observation, and proved true time and time again, humans wouldn’t have survived.

Everyone has some knowledge of how the world works, we are all scientists in some ways. If the television doesn’t turn on, we form a hypothesis about why this is so. Perhaps the batteries in the remote are dead. We test the hypothesis by putting in fresh batteries and trying again. It’s absurd for anyone to be anti-science when each of us instinctively uses science in our own lives everyday. Science isn’t just one of several different explanations for how the world works, it’s the only explanation backed up with evidence.(less)

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Jan 26, 2013 Lauren Schumacher rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Carl Sagan's passion. His awe and reverence for science is contagious, inspiring, and almost spiritual in quality. I can listen to him speak on almost any subject, so measured is his approach. The main focus of this book is two-fold: to debunk popular pseudoscientific ideas, and to insist on a new regime of logic ruled by the scientific method. The former is fascinating; the latter, rather dreary. It's dreary for many reasons--mainly because I already agree with him (see the review for Th...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Dave marked it as to-read

Shelves: calibre

EDITORIAL REVIEW: "A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought." *Los Angeles Times "POWERFUL . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing." *The Washington Post Book World How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable...more

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Oct 18, 2012 K M rated it 4 of 5 stars

I used to enjoy the articles Carl Sagan wrote for Parade Magazine, and was so looking forward to reading this book. I certainly was not disappointed. It was such an interesting and enjoyable read (but, I did grow a bit weary of the alien abduction stuff). There is a lot of wisdom in this book. I found myself jotting down several quotes that were particularly meaningful, even ten years after the book was first published:

"We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements - transp...more

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Sep 20, 2012 Abbe added it · review of another edition

Shelves: in-library

Amazon.com Review

Carl Sagan muses on the current state of scientific thought, which offers him marvelous opportunities to entertain us with his own childhood experiences, the newspaper morgues, UFO stories, and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of pseudoscience. Along the way he debunks alien abduction, faith-healing, and channeling; refutes the arguments that science destroys spirituality, and provides a "baloney detection kit" for thinking through political, social, religious, and other issues

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Jul 11, 2012 Erin rated it 1 of 5 stars

I hesitated to mark this as "Read" because I couldn't actually get through the whole thing. I was SO excited to read this book: I was under the impression that Sagan systematically explained in reasonable and scientific terms some of the myths and phenomena present in Western culture, and I thought it would be interesting to see how these things came about.
That's not what it is. From the first about 100 pages, I gather that a) Sagan is reeeaaallly in love with science, b) he's not unconvinced th...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Tulpesh Patel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, pop-science

Covering, among many other things, aliens, psychics, witch burning, religion, astronomy, UFOs and military secrecy, with the thread of Carl Sagan’s love of science and the powers of rational, sceptical thinking running through it, The Demon-Haunted World is a bona fide classic in popular science writing. I thought chunks of were so good that it was worth reproducing them as a blog post but it’s only two weeks after having finished the book that I have time to write a full review.

Anti-vaccine cam...more Covering, among many other things, aliens, psychics, witch burning, religion, astronomy, UFOs and military secrecy, with the thread of Carl Sagan’s love of science and the powers of rational, sceptical thinking running through it, The Demon-Haunted World is a bona fide classic in popular science writing. I thought chunks of were so good that it was worth reproducing them as a blog post but it’s only two weeks after having finished the book that I have time to write a full review.

Anti-vaccine campaigns and the proliferation of alternative medicines seem have replaced alien conspiracy theories as the dominant pseudoscience of our times, and the book predates the widespread use of the internet and all the power and utility (for both scientists and perveyors of pseudoscience) that it entails, but on the whole The Demon-Haunted World feels like it has dated very little.

In fact, it repeatedly struck me as I read the book that, 16 years after publication, it feels like little has changed. Sagan calls out Dumb and Dumber and Beavis and Butthead as signifiers in his time that popular culture was heading the wrong direction – these days we rally against Jersey Shore, the Kardashians and Prometheus getting all the science wrong.

Sagan starts the second chapter “The dumbing down of America [read everywhere; whilst the book is very USA-centric, his writing, like science, applies everywhere] is most evident in the slow decay of the substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

What I enjoyed most about Demon-Haunted World is that it is a very humane book; Sagan recognised the frailties of the human mind and the deep emotional need that people have that is filled by religion and psychics. It’s a compassionate book that tries to understand why pseudoscience persists, rather than looking down on people. “The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them — the sense that we have a monopoly on the truth; that those other people who believe in all these stupid doctrines are morons; that if you're sensible, you'll listen to us; and if not, to hell with you. This is nonconstructive. It does not get our message across. It condemns us to permanent minority status.” I liked that at one point, Sagan rails against another skeptical hero-figure, James Randi, and takes him to task for being occasionally intolerant, condescending and lacking empathy for human frailties - something frequently levelled at skeptics and scientists in general.

My favourite chapter was No Such Thing As a Dumb Question, which concentrates on science education in school, Sagan’s main point being, aside from despairing at the performance of the United States in comparison to Japan, Germany and Britain, that we need to move away from memorization of authoritative facts, to teaching and learning how we know; let the scientific method and the sceptical, rational thinking that it entails be the centre of the show, not just the (often astounding) scientific facts. I wholly recommend this book to everyone and everyone, but for this chapter alone, this is a book that all science teachers and science communicators should read.

He lists a set of questions that are framed in such a way that there is no immediately obvious answer (at least to me, anyway) but that can be figured out through research and critical thinking. (For example: ‘You mix violet, green, yellow orange and red paints and you make murky brown. Then you mix light of the same colours and you get white. What’s going on?’). I’m going to answer some of these questions on my blog as and when I get the time. My worry is that it’s just a matter of plugging the question into Google, in which case I have the answer and learned some new facts, but will little of the critical thinking that Sagan was aiming for. This I guess is a genuine worry faced by teachers today.

In the final chapter Sagan urges scientists and skeptics to be more political and we’re starting to see that happening more and more. Two recent examples of this in action (in my native UK) are Mark Henderson’s Geek Manifesto and Ben Goldacre co-writing a Cabinet Office paper calling for randomised trials of government policies.

It seems a little nit-picky given that I liked the book so much but I did find the pacing of the chapters slightly curious, in that there is no real flow between them; each chapter works well as a mini essay, but things like almost verbatim repeated references to how much Sagan misses his deceased parents means it doesn’t quite all hang together. There’s also always going to be an element of preaching to the choir with this kind of book but, in this book more than most, it can be forgiven because Sagan does such a good job of making you feel like you should take your love of science and talk to people about it (and not look down on them for being stupider than you).

I once said, in reference to Jenny McCarthy talking about how vaccines caused her son’s autism, that there’s so much dangerous misunderstanding of science around at the moment that it sometimes feels like were going backwards, to which a friend replied ‘it’s actually the friction that comes with moving forward’, which I thought was lovely and optimistic. Whilst there is a lot of optimism in Demon-Haunted World, Sagan’s worries about the state of science education and science literacy (whatever that means) gives the book a slight melancholic air; it won’t, but you can’t help but worry that the friction caused by the people misunderstanding and misusing science might just bring us to a standstill. A little while back David Colquhoun wrote of the ‘Endarkenment’, that the past 30 years has 'been a period in which truth ceased to matter very much, and dogma and irrationality became once more respectable'. In response to which PZ Myers issued an eloquent rallying cry:

"A few years ago Carl Sagan could write about lighting candles in the dark, and we all focused on that hopeful metaphor of the candle --we need to keep that flickering light alive. Maybe it's past time that we recognized the encroaching darkness as the enemy, and that we need to stop looking inwards at our own individual antique light sources, and think about organizing a more powerful and more incandescent means of illumination to directly fight that wretched ignorance. Use those candles to light a fire. We need to blaze; we need to lase."(less)

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About Carl Sagan

An American Astronomer, author, and renowned promoter of sciences, Carl Edward Sagan was the co-writer and presenter of the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, seen by more than 500 million people in over 60 countries.

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