It's hard to say which part of this book I liked the best. The whole thing was fantastic. This is the first book of Sagan's I've read. Wow. I've got to look up more of his stuff. This particular text is about how important skepticism and open-mindedness are to day-to-day life, from evaluating TV commercials to politics. The chapters on supposed "alien abduction" had me laughing my ass off even as I was horrified by some of the stories. Great, great book. I highly recommend it. ( )

Leggere Sagan è - mutatis mutandis - come leggere Montaigne: in mezzo allo sfacelo del mondo, alla disfatta dell'Homo Sapiens Sapiens, ci si rende conto di come, quando possono esistere persone così, ci sia ancora qualche speranza di riscatto, una salvezza forse ancora possibile, una candela accesa che taglia il buio. ( )

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 it doesn't lead to a specific application right away...but Sagan says it all, and he says it better than I ever could. This is one of those amazing books that made me think long and hard about a lot of things. It made me want to know more about the universe, to revisit old assumptions and condescensions, to step back a moment and drink it all in.Sagan speaks as one with a giddy love for the scientific process, one whose healthy skepticism does not make him stodgy or closed to new ideas. Much of the first half of the book is spent more or less on aliens - not only explanations for much of what is attributed to extraterrestrial activity, but why people assume aliens at all. He does grump a little about the dumbing-down of American entertainment and its lack of accurate science, but coming from someone who prizes knowledge so highly, I can understand his disappointment at the popularity of shows like "Beavis & Butthead" and "Dumb & Dumber." Likewise his unhappiness with dwindling popular and government support of science research and education.

This book is absolutely astounding. It's one of the few that I recommend to anyone, even (and perhaps especially) if it challenges some of your closely held viewpoints. It did mine. ( )

Excellent book! It is fun to read Sagan's view on how (and why) people believe different things. Very well written and filled with interesting ideas! Now I just want to read a good novel!!!!!!!!!!! ( )

Carl Sagan does a great job explaining how science works and why some beliefs (such as alien abductions) may have other foundations than commonly accepted. His writing is easy to understand for the non-scientist, but good for the scientist as well. ( )

Within 50 pages I wanted to buy a copy for everyone I know. Sagan explains why I love science perfectly.I wish there were half stars. This is definitely a 4.5. I dropped it from a 5 just because I think some of it reads a little smug/condescending which kind of defeats the purpose of persuasion and popularization. But I also took a bunch of notes from it. ( )

This is one of the most important books I've ever read. In my opinion, it should be required reading, especially to any who hold public office. ( )

Sagan draws together history, psychology, and science in an explanation of why it is so easy for human beings to believe in the supernatural, and why we need to promote scientific thinking as a way to avoid falling into false beliefs. He analyzes our ability (perhaps even our need) to believe in the existence of everything from demons and witches to TV mediums and alien abduction, and shows us how rational thought can help us avoid the traps set by our own psychology. He does all this with great compassion and patience, and without descending into the angry or insulting rhetoric that characterizes so much of the debate between science and belief.

As a non-scientist I really enjoyed this book; I read excerpts from it for a class a year or so ago and finally got around to reading the whole thing. Sagan presents scientific thinking as an approachable and practical alternative with something for everyone, rather than some elusive concept achievable only by brainiacs and nerds. His writing style is personable, easy to read, and even funny; his explanations are easy to follow, without sacrificing accuracy.

Highly recommended to scientists and non-scientists alike. Even if you already understand and agree with the arguments presented in this book, Sagan will help you formulate the idea much more clearly. ( )

Carl Sagan's death was a great loss, not only to the world of science, but to society as a whole. His popular science books were accessible to the intelligent but untrained mind, yet they did not lack in intellectual rigor. This book discusses the importance of approaching matters of science and pseudo-science with that same intellectual rigor.

Sagan addresses here a number of commonly-held, but false, beliefs -- alien abduction stories, crop circles, faith-healing, and the like -- and shows where these fall down in the face of examination. It really is surprising how many people continue to believe in such things, even when fraud is admitted! You can analyze such stories yourself. You don't need Sagan to do it for you, but, in one very valuable section, he provides the tools you'll need, what you need to do, to look for, to develop the ability to think skeptically. They bear repeating, so I will summarize:
1. There should be independent confirmation of the "facts".
2. Substantive debate by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view should be encouraged.
3. Spin more than one hypothesis, and test them.
4. Don't get too enamored of your hypothesis.
5. If what you are explaining as some measure or numerical quality, it's easier to discriminate among competing hypotheses.
6. Every link in the chain of argument, including the premise, must work. If you are going from A to G, and there's a hole between B and C, you can't get there.
7. Remember Occam's Razor (if two explanations fit the data equally well, the simpler is probably the true one).
8. Ask whether the hypothesis can be falsified. You have to be able to check things out., using carefully designed and controlled experiments.

Much of what you need in what Sagan calls your "baloney detection kit" can be learned in any basic logic course. Unfortunately, logic isn't taught in the schools anymore.

Sagan also addresses the disturbing trend in the U.S. (one that hasn't changed since the book was published nearly fifteen years ago) of attacking science, of making policy decisions relating to science based on political considerations rather than the facts. He points out that our founding fathers had a strong belief in science, that Thomas Jefferson, in fact, described himself as a scientist, not as a planter or a politician. These men read, they studied, they argued, they delved into the world of science. That has not been the case in recent decades (there may be some hope, though, in the appointment of a Nobel laureate in physics as President Obama's Secretary of Energy!).

It is, however, in discussing politics that this book is weakest. Sagan's attacks on Edward Teller, while perhaps warranted, seem a bit over the top, and so one naturally questions the objectivity of some of his other political statements. This is, however, a minor part of an otherwise excellent book.

The pity is that the people who ought to read it, won't.

Cracking analysis of everything from flying saucers to miracle cures from one of the world's best science presenters. ( )

Even though I myself am a university student of science, Sagan's views of science - its most basic precepts and its place in the world of yesterday, today, and tomorrow - were revitalising. I thought the first chapters which dealt with the forms of "mass hysteria" both of the past and of today were interesting, but I liked the second part of the book better, which dealt with more political, historical and even philosophical themes. I was already familiar with the basic critical thinking toolbox which Sagan so adequately put "the baloney detection kit" and its application to pseudoscience and other extraordinary claims, which made that part a bit dry. What made the book colourful was the plethora of histories, examples, excerpts and citations that he used for making his points: it is definitely a rich book. ( )

I've always had similar thoughts to what the books overall permise is about - the ease at which good people can descend into irrational mobs - but never had I articulated them in quite this way.

I think this should be required reading for every lynch mob or talk-show host wannabees - think before you judge.

An intense dislike of someone isn't enough to pour hot lead into the "shoes" that someone's feet are locked into. We all think that "oh I wouldn't behave that way" but the social toxin that is "False accusation" never seems to take a vacation and we all have to be viginant, no matter what the times or circumstances.

Echoes of this book can be found in every election, or every vote about who's popular at work and who isn't. There are Demons that haunt the everyday world of victims everywhere. ( )

I'm a big fan of Carl Sagan. I loved the `Cosmos' series, I thought `The Demon Haunted World' was an outstanding treatise on really important subject, and I really dug the movie `Contact'. I have only respect for his views the role and value of science and rational thought in everyone's daily life. So I looked forward to `Billions and Billions', his last work before his sad death a couple of years ago.
Well, while much of the book is true to form, in parts I was a little disappointed. For the first time, and maybe exactly because of his own dreadful circumstances, Sagan allows himself to stray from his stock material, - matters scientific and logical, where he's pretty unarguably right - to matters where, to my mind, he isn't - matters moral and political. So his chapters on the crises facing the world, all of which start out nicely enough, start introducing solutions which have a cloying, left wing, aroma to them.

To my reading of it, Sagan's basic thesis is that we (the proles) can't sort out the world's problems by ourselves, so we need a panel of wise men to legislate them away for us. That's a pile of old rope. Frankly, I have yards more confidence in the judgment (collectively) of the "man on the Clapham omnibus" than of any politicians (and I don't think the latter in any meaningful way represents the former), so I don't buy Sagan's argument at all.

But what bugs me is the unspoken intellectual imperialism of it. "Not only are there Wise Men who must make critical decisions for you", implies Sagan, "but they are people like Me." Well, sorry, but as anyone who has done a Bachelor's degree will know, the only people worse equipped than politicians to make judgments on behalf of the rest of us are people who spend their lives hanging out at places like Cornell University.

As a result Sagan starts sounding less like the completely dispassionate scientist and more like your common or garden sci-fi writer - his conceptions of how useful an idea government is aren't far off the loopy ones Arthur C Clark used to trundle out in his potboilers: you know, where, in five hundred years, finally the human race will Get It Right and we'll all live happily ever after.

Call me cynical, but it don't work like that. Given the history of science, a scientist of Sagan's calibre ought to know that. ( )

OI love how this man's mind works. A true pioneer of science and a debunker of superstition and the irrational ( )

Simply excellent. Hard science is the key. This book condenses and dispels the myths which are prevalent in our culture; that which ignores science and grasps the pseudo and profound nuttiness. ( )

This is a classic must-read for anyone interested in science and skepticism or anyone who has ever found themselves asking questions in the face of broad claims which we are expected to accept. It was Sagan's final book, and it is full of musings and questions which ensures his ideas will continue into the future. I loved how Sagan's mind worked and although I found him a little too placatory to people who may not have deserved it at times, this style ensures that he will be accessible to all readers, not just those who share his beliefs. ( )

I have to admit that I didn't finish this, but I did read over 300 pages. It is quite an excellent book, it just didn't seem to have much more to say. Sagan is widely misunderstood and this book clarifies his common-sense approach to science while impar

As his last original book before his death, Carl Sagan used The Demon-Haunted World as a polemic against what he saw as various pseudoscientific bugaboos plaguing American culture, particularly belief in parapsychological phenomena and UFO abduction narratives. The first portion of the book debunks the thinking behind such phenomena, and proposes rational explanations (such as hypnogogic hallucinations) and historical parallels (medieval religious visions, for instance) for some of these beliefs.

The last half of the book describes the deplorable condition of science education in the United States, and calls for a greater emphasis on critical and rational thinking in education. Sagan was passionate about science and, perhaps knowing his time on Earth was coming to an end, used this last book as a polemic against unskeptical thinking. Throughout the book, he notes the sense of wonder that can come with a scientific perspective on the universe, but at times Sagan comes across as almost hyper-rational, a sustained tone that almost becomes off-putting.

Still, Sagan was one of our most respected and (through his series "Cosmos" and numerous books and appearances) recognizable public scientists. This book is ultimately a plea for the future, a hope that America will give its teachers and students the tools and intellectual freedom to excel in science and the exploration of the universe.

Great Sagan book. ( )

you should carry this around in your pocket and keep reading it. ( )

Reviewed Aug - Sept 2001

The must read book 0voted in the Top 20 skeptic books, Sagan writes to be read by many. Many chapters are essays of their own only linked together for the book. Bits tell Sagan's own story, all are from his experiences. He tells us about his parents and how they taught him to love science even through they new nothing about it themselves. He has broken the book down into subjects...man in the Moon, Face on Mars, Aliens, Therapy, Visions, Witchcraft in medieval times and modern, hallucinations, scientists and nerds as well as several chapters telling us why science is exciting and how to get others to think critically. Four chapters are more political and written with wife Ann Druyan. I loved the chapter with the dragon in the garage and found his stories about witchcraft very creepy. Not lunch time reading material. Tons of quotable material lies between pages, this is surly a great reference book for us all.

16-2001 ( )

I forget what an amazing writer Carl Sagan really is. He's accessible, intelligent, thought-provoking - as well as provoking the occasional "YES!" in your brain when he perfectly states something that you always thought but couldn't quite put into words.
Also a great book to point to when people insist on the idea that atheists are mean, unhappy people who think they know everything. ( )

Are we on the brink of a new Dark Age of irrationality and superstition? In this stirring, brilliantly argued book, internationally respected scientist Carl Sagan shows how scientific thinking is necessary to safeguard our democratic institutions and our technical civilization.
"I worry," writes Carl Sagan, "that as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudoscience and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive." Indeed, in our increasingly technological society, most of us are scientifically illiterate. ""Sooner or later,"" Sagan writes, ""this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces."" The antidote he proposes is the delicate blend of scepticism and openness which is the key to science and also to democracy.
The Demon-Haunted World is more personal and richer in moving and revealing human stories than anything Sagan has ever written. From his own childhood experience, to engrossing tales of discovery, Sagan shows how the method of scientific thought can cut through prejudice and hysteria and uncover the truth.
Warning against delusion, he convincingly debunks ""alien abduction"", ""channellers"", faith-healer fraud, and much else. Along the way, he refutes the argument that science destroys spirituality, asks why scientific study is often stigmatized, and provides a ""baloney detection kit"" for thinking through political, social and other issues.
Controversial, provocative and uplifting, this is sure to be one of the year's most-talked about books.

Science at its best! ( )