false 17349 20 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. 252618 book 1995 The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark total:2047|5:1046|4:696|3:256|2:37|1:12| 2047 8868 3078 254 4 10 false false Fri Sep 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 19 09:27:59 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 19 09:45:18 -0700 2008
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 secre...more...]]> 5 4 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Jan 26 13:18:15 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 11:25:39 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 4 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Sat Dec 08 14:48:54 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 08 15:03:54 -0800 2007
This is a supurb book. Many people say things like, "I've no idea how people without a be...more...]]> 2 3 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 28 19:14:03 -0800 2008 Tue Jan 13 19:09:32 -0800 2009
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...more...]]> 1 3 false false Wed Dec 10 12:38:28 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 08 07:28:13 -0800 2009 Full disclosure here, I did not finish this book; I made the decision to stop reading it about 100 pages in. I expected this book to be something different than what it turned out to be--at least as far as I got into it. I was expecting alternate scientific explorations of many supernatural and supe...

more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Fri Apr 18 16:02:37 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 19 08:09:26 -0700 2008
I ...more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Feb 20 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 16 21:55:06 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 17:51:59 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Wed Jan 23 19:28:40 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 19:36:12 -0800 2008 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.
...more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Mon Jan 14 00:49:57 -0800 2008 Tue Jul 01 22:02:10 -0700 2008 Sagan shows us that science and reason ar...more...]]> 4 3 false false Wed Aug 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 01 10:09:40 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 13 18:51:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 2 true true Sun Feb 17 10:08:33 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 10:08:57 -0800 2008 5 2 false false Sat Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Tue Jun 24 12:06:58 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 14 12:22:49 -0800 2008 1
That's been me all over the place with The Demon-Haunted World. I want to ramb...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Mar 04 13:40:18 -0800 2008 Tue Mar 04 13:53:49 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Sun Nov 23 05:34:32 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 05:37:48 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false true Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sun Feb 17 09:49:02 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 17 10:01:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Mar 17 10:51:06 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 17 10:56:47 -0700 2009 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 p...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Nov 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 04:45:55 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 05:16:28 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 19:16:04 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 19:16:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 18:17:47 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 18:25:41 -0700 2009 everyone to read. It's not perfect, but it is very, very good, and about very important things.

Sagan gives great concrete examples of people going intellectually awry, and offers a prescription for accurately understanding the world, along with ampl...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Oct 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 09:37:08 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 04:51:39 -0700 2009
Sagan discussed two main thesis in this book, that skepticism and science are integral to an informed electorate and a competitive, modern nation,...more...]]>