The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
by Carl Sagan
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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 hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions. Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks show more such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.--Amazon.com. show lessTags
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Member Recommendations
anonymous user Carl Sagan references this book several times in "Demon-Haunted World"; its full title is "Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds", and it was authored by Charles Mackay in 1841.
30
sgerbic This book may help you understand how/why people can continue to believe in seerers like Nostradamus even when faced with the facts.
20
yarmando Both books explore how a scientific mindset reframes one's perspective on a variety of political and social topics.
Member Reviews
“All science asks is to employ the same levels of skepticism we use in buying a used car or in judging the quality of analgesics or beer from their television commercials.”
Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark will turn 20 years old next year, but it’s just as relevant as when Carl Sagan first wrote it.
Actually, more relevant. While Sagan had to deal with cigarette manufacturers pooh-poohing the tobacco-cancer connection, the war on science had not yet been fully launched. For example, the Kyoto Treaty on global climate change still had bipartisan support. As recently as 2000, then presidential candidate George W. Bush could openly say that he believed in global climate show more change without imperiling his chances in a Republican primary. While occasional retrograde school boards in the hinterlands would attempt to inject creationism into their science classes, anti-evolutionary fervor had not yet become one of the planks of the Republican Party Platform. Nor had a quarter of the United States become so gullible that they would swallow without a murmur or any evidence the nonsense that a duly elected president of the United States had been born on another continent, that a different president had foreknowledge of the 9/11 terrorist attack (or perhaps even conspired in the plot), that biology takes a vacation in the case of “legitimate rape” — whatever that is — and that tens of thousands of scientists are lying about geology, biology, paleontology, physics, biomedicine, and other fields in order to obtain grants. (Who the shadowy figure who is bestowing said grants and what that person could possibly gain from this vast conspiracy somehow never gets elucidated. Go figure.)
Sagan first explains the scientific method and then gets busy refuting the hokum of his day: evidence of intelligent life on Mars, alien visitation, precognition based on dreams or hallucinations, ghosts, “recovered” memories, Marian apparitions, levitation, the notion that critical thinking and science are some form of Western imperialism or atheistic assault. He also explores the horrifying conspiracy theories of the past, primarily the witchcraft and heresy trials in Europe. I did not realize that inquisitors charged the cost of the investigation, incarceration, trial and execution of witches to the victims and their families and then their worldly goods were divided between Church and State. No incentive to prosecute the innocent, is there?
One quotation on the witch hysteria shows how little changes across the centuries: “Those responsible for prosecuting, torturing, judging, burning, and justifying [the witch burnings] were selfless. Just ask them.” Remember that the next time a smug anti-science politician bloviates on your television.
You’ll also be appalled by Sagan’s selection of letters he received in response to a piece he penned for Parade magazine, the weekly full-color newspaper supplement. How so many supposedly literate people could (1) so misunderstand the obvious point of the article and (2) believe so many utterly crackpot ideas actually shocked me — even after my exposure to today’s science deniers.
This is not a volume to check out of your library; you want your own copy to highlight and annotate. Yes, at times Sagan, for decades a renowned astrophysicist at Cornell University, can descend into scientific discussions too advanced — and tedious — for a lay audience (which explains the four, rather than five stars), discussions that stretch for pages and pages. Even so, The Demon-Haunted World serves as a ready reference book for any discussion about the necessity for scientific research and science education. It’s also chockfull of pithy quotations you’ll find yourself tapping again and again. For so many reasons, Sagan’s last great work is indispensable. show less
Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark will turn 20 years old next year, but it’s just as relevant as when Carl Sagan first wrote it.
Actually, more relevant. While Sagan had to deal with cigarette manufacturers pooh-poohing the tobacco-cancer connection, the war on science had not yet been fully launched. For example, the Kyoto Treaty on global climate change still had bipartisan support. As recently as 2000, then presidential candidate George W. Bush could openly say that he believed in global climate show more change without imperiling his chances in a Republican primary. While occasional retrograde school boards in the hinterlands would attempt to inject creationism into their science classes, anti-evolutionary fervor had not yet become one of the planks of the Republican Party Platform. Nor had a quarter of the United States become so gullible that they would swallow without a murmur or any evidence the nonsense that a duly elected president of the United States had been born on another continent, that a different president had foreknowledge of the 9/11 terrorist attack (or perhaps even conspired in the plot), that biology takes a vacation in the case of “legitimate rape” — whatever that is — and that tens of thousands of scientists are lying about geology, biology, paleontology, physics, biomedicine, and other fields in order to obtain grants. (Who the shadowy figure who is bestowing said grants and what that person could possibly gain from this vast conspiracy somehow never gets elucidated. Go figure.)
Sagan first explains the scientific method and then gets busy refuting the hokum of his day: evidence of intelligent life on Mars, alien visitation, precognition based on dreams or hallucinations, ghosts, “recovered” memories, Marian apparitions, levitation, the notion that critical thinking and science are some form of Western imperialism or atheistic assault. He also explores the horrifying conspiracy theories of the past, primarily the witchcraft and heresy trials in Europe. I did not realize that inquisitors charged the cost of the investigation, incarceration, trial and execution of witches to the victims and their families and then their worldly goods were divided between Church and State. No incentive to prosecute the innocent, is there?
One quotation on the witch hysteria shows how little changes across the centuries: “Those responsible for prosecuting, torturing, judging, burning, and justifying [the witch burnings] were selfless. Just ask them.” Remember that the next time a smug anti-science politician bloviates on your television.
You’ll also be appalled by Sagan’s selection of letters he received in response to a piece he penned for Parade magazine, the weekly full-color newspaper supplement. How so many supposedly literate people could (1) so misunderstand the obvious point of the article and (2) believe so many utterly crackpot ideas actually shocked me — even after my exposure to today’s science deniers.
This is not a volume to check out of your library; you want your own copy to highlight and annotate. Yes, at times Sagan, for decades a renowned astrophysicist at Cornell University, can descend into scientific discussions too advanced — and tedious — for a lay audience (which explains the four, rather than five stars), discussions that stretch for pages and pages. Even so, The Demon-Haunted World serves as a ready reference book for any discussion about the necessity for scientific research and science education. It’s also chockfull of pithy quotations you’ll find yourself tapping again and again. For so many reasons, Sagan’s last great work is indispensable. show less
I'm a skeptic by nature, and one who objects to anyone's claiming that I must have a 'spiritual side'. A Myers-Briggs test identifies me as INTJ, meaning that I prefer people (and everything else) to make plain sense. Thus, in my perfect world everyone would simply nod their heads in agreement all the way through this book. That, of course, is a completely unrealistic wish. Sagan's introduction does not do a strong job of setting up his conclusion and consequently creates some vagueness around who his target audience is. A few chapters in, you may think it was only aimed at people who need reassurance that the aliens aren't going to get them. Or more generally, at people like the cab driver from his introduction who have the will to show more think critically but lack the tools. What are those tools, and how should they be applied?
I will only summarize briefly what I think are his most telling points in the main body: that science demonstrably works, evolves in response to new information, is self-policing for being testable and verifiable, and presents no authority figures. He contrasts this with the warning sings of pseudoscience that evades testing, demands belief, claims authority and suppresses dissent. I thought his most wonderful and least offensive comparison was with used car shopping. You would be a fool to take everything the salesperson tells you at face value. You have to apply some basic logic and skepticism to the situation or you're going to buy a lemon. Nobody likes being scammed. The same principle applies when assessing others' claims about how the world and the universe works. Sagan then concludes with a strong argument that the better these principles are preserved by the general population, the stronger a democracy. He should have also led with that.
It's too easy to like a book when I already share virtually all of its opinions at the start. None of this content challenged me, so I tried to be wary of flaws or drawbacks for other readers. Most of these I found in Sagan's adamant atheist stance, with which he acknowledges he's sometimes prone to taking things too far. Suggesting that prayer subjects religion to scientific analysis, where we could run a study on how often it is successful and rate its efficacy, is an example. I'm no believer, but even I know gods wouldn't oblige themselves to meet our service standards. He cannot summon a better word for established religions that have been with us for centuries than 'respectable', but I feel he demonstrates little respect for them even while arguing that science and belief in a god are compatible. I agree fully when he says it would be cruelty to assault the beliefs of people who depend upon those beliefs to see them through the day. I would not agree that he takes measures here to avoid doing so. His straight-ahead approach is not well designed to win new converts to his side.
That, unfortunately, is what I was half hoping for. Some kind of guide to help me to help others. That's silly, wishful thinking that I shouldn't have expected to find by looking in this direction, so I'm satisfied to say I was disappointed in that regard. Of course I'm still going to say it's a fantastically well-argued book by a fantastic author, aged statistics notwithstanding. Opening chapters on the essence of science's importance and the closing chapters on the ties between science and democracy are especially noteworthy and quotable, they just ought to have been paired up a little better. show less
I will only summarize briefly what I think are his most telling points in the main body: that science demonstrably works, evolves in response to new information, is self-policing for being testable and verifiable, and presents no authority figures. He contrasts this with the warning sings of pseudoscience that evades testing, demands belief, claims authority and suppresses dissent. I thought his most wonderful and least offensive comparison was with used car shopping. You would be a fool to take everything the salesperson tells you at face value. You have to apply some basic logic and skepticism to the situation or you're going to buy a lemon. Nobody likes being scammed. The same principle applies when assessing others' claims about how the world and the universe works. Sagan then concludes with a strong argument that the better these principles are preserved by the general population, the stronger a democracy. He should have also led with that.
It's too easy to like a book when I already share virtually all of its opinions at the start. None of this content challenged me, so I tried to be wary of flaws or drawbacks for other readers. Most of these I found in Sagan's adamant atheist stance, with which he acknowledges he's sometimes prone to taking things too far. Suggesting that prayer subjects religion to scientific analysis, where we could run a study on how often it is successful and rate its efficacy, is an example. I'm no believer, but even I know gods wouldn't oblige themselves to meet our service standards. He cannot summon a better word for established religions that have been with us for centuries than 'respectable', but I feel he demonstrates little respect for them even while arguing that science and belief in a god are compatible. I agree fully when he says it would be cruelty to assault the beliefs of people who depend upon those beliefs to see them through the day. I would not agree that he takes measures here to avoid doing so. His straight-ahead approach is not well designed to win new converts to his side.
That, unfortunately, is what I was half hoping for. Some kind of guide to help me to help others. That's silly, wishful thinking that I shouldn't have expected to find by looking in this direction, so I'm satisfied to say I was disappointed in that regard. Of course I'm still going to say it's a fantastically well-argued book by a fantastic author, aged statistics notwithstanding. Opening chapters on the essence of science's importance and the closing chapters on the ties between science and democracy are especially noteworthy and quotable, they just ought to have been paired up a little better. show less
Carl Sagan takes on pseudoscience. This book extolls the value of skepticism, critical thinking, and the scientific method. It should be required reading in my opinion. Unfortunately, those that could benefit most from applying more rigor in deciding what to believe will likely never read it. Originally published in 1995, he has proven to be prescient, as pseudoscience is even more prevalent than ever in recent years. Witness the rise in the number of shows about ancient aliens and paranormal activity, not to mention fake news. Outrageous claims are made and spread from person to person, and people believe these claims without questioning or proof. Why does this happen and what can we do to prevent it? Sagan attempts to answer these show more important questions.
This book is very readable. It does not require a deep understanding of science. Sagan writes in a way that is easily understood, while not becoming overly simplistic. He does not use jargon and, not surprisingly, presents evidence in a logical manner. He provides helpful analogies and treats his audience as bright and capable of understanding. He shows how scientific advances are fueled not only by hypothesizing, rigorous testing, and analysis of results, but also by curiosity and imagination.
I was surprised by how many areas outside the specifics of scientific inquiry are covered in this book, including literature, history, politics, religion, communications, education, economics, ethics, social norms, culture, and more. Science touches on almost every aspect of our lives but is largely ignored by many. Sagan’s subject matter includes debunking of such issues as crop circles, alien abductions, ancient astronauts, ESP, UFO’s, astrology, New Age mysticism, and the like. He reminds us of the importance of not confusing cause and effect, questioning claims that cannot be tested, requiring evidence to support assertions, and remaining skeptical about authoritative statements, especially if monetary gain is involved.
We are bombarded daily with outrageous claims (click bait, anyone?) urging us to simply believe without scrutiny, so healthy skepticism is becoming increasingly more important in our inter-connected world. Carl Sagan died in 1996, when the world wide web was in its infancy. One can only wish he were around today to help refute today’s absurdities, which are so obviously spurious in origin. I know I am “preaching to the choir,” since avid readers regularly engage in evaluative thinking. Even though some of the references are dated, this book contains an important and still relevant message on the value of critical thinking skills. I found it fascinating. Highly recommended. show less
This book is very readable. It does not require a deep understanding of science. Sagan writes in a way that is easily understood, while not becoming overly simplistic. He does not use jargon and, not surprisingly, presents evidence in a logical manner. He provides helpful analogies and treats his audience as bright and capable of understanding. He shows how scientific advances are fueled not only by hypothesizing, rigorous testing, and analysis of results, but also by curiosity and imagination.
I was surprised by how many areas outside the specifics of scientific inquiry are covered in this book, including literature, history, politics, religion, communications, education, economics, ethics, social norms, culture, and more. Science touches on almost every aspect of our lives but is largely ignored by many. Sagan’s subject matter includes debunking of such issues as crop circles, alien abductions, ancient astronauts, ESP, UFO’s, astrology, New Age mysticism, and the like. He reminds us of the importance of not confusing cause and effect, questioning claims that cannot be tested, requiring evidence to support assertions, and remaining skeptical about authoritative statements, especially if monetary gain is involved.
We are bombarded daily with outrageous claims (click bait, anyone?) urging us to simply believe without scrutiny, so healthy skepticism is becoming increasingly more important in our inter-connected world. Carl Sagan died in 1996, when the world wide web was in its infancy. One can only wish he were around today to help refute today’s absurdities, which are so obviously spurious in origin. I know I am “preaching to the choir,” since avid readers regularly engage in evaluative thinking. Even though some of the references are dated, this book contains an important and still relevant message on the value of critical thinking skills. I found it fascinating. Highly recommended. show less
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This phrase, coined by Carl Sagan in 1979, encapsulates the spirit of both skepticism and the scientific method. If only humanity could finally learn it, then a book like The Demon-Haunted World would be mostly unnecessary.
Instead, things like astrology, the healing power of crystals, homeopathic medicine, belief in ghosts, telepathy, ESP, and a thousand other superstitions and conspiracy theories—and, I may add, religion—continue to thrive, based on, how Sagan would put it, “crummy evidence”—anecdotes, personal experiences, hallucinations, misconceptions, wishful thinking, and appeals to tradition, authority, and emotions.
We have outgrown some things. You won’t find any show more modern books admonishing the burning of witches or outlining the dangers of bloodletting, yet there are certain delusions that we can’t seem to shake—delusions that crop up again-and-again in different forms and that make this book perennially relevant.
The problem, as Sagan notes—then as now—is that we go about teaching science all wrong. We present it as a body of knowledge, an assortment of facts, rather than as a method of thinking. This is a big mistake, principally because pseudoscience is presented in the same way. No wonder most people can’t tell the difference; they were never given the tools to make the distinction.
This book provides these tools, in the process debunking several persistent, weird cultural beliefs, such as supposed alien abductions. Aliens, Sagan notes, are just repurposed, sexually aggressive demons and spirits of an earlier age. As the folklorist Thomas E. Bullard wrote:
“Science may have evicted ghosts and witches from our beliefs, but it just as quickly filled the vacancy with aliens having the same functions. Only the extraterrestrial outer trappings are new. All the fear and the psychological dramas for dealing with it seem simply to have found their way home again, where it is business as usual in the legend realm where things go bump in the night.”
The alien abduction phenomenon does tell us something though, less about the existence of extraterrestrial beings and more about the ways we all can deceive ourselves into believing improbable things. This book is the remedy for such undisciplined thinking.
In a key chapter titled “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan summarizes the elements of clear, disciplined thinking, which, most importantly, includes the habit of “spinning multiple hypotheses” to explain any given event, searching for ways to disprove each hypothesis, and, when two hypotheses explain the data equally well, choosing the simpler one (Occam’s Razor). How much better would the world be if people consistently subjected their own beliefs to this rigorous process of self-doubt?
In fact, what we have, overall as a society, is the opposite. As Sagan presciently wrote:
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
This book is the much-needed antidote, but will people embrace, or continue to ignore, its message? show less
Instead, things like astrology, the healing power of crystals, homeopathic medicine, belief in ghosts, telepathy, ESP, and a thousand other superstitions and conspiracy theories—and, I may add, religion—continue to thrive, based on, how Sagan would put it, “crummy evidence”—anecdotes, personal experiences, hallucinations, misconceptions, wishful thinking, and appeals to tradition, authority, and emotions.
We have outgrown some things. You won’t find any show more modern books admonishing the burning of witches or outlining the dangers of bloodletting, yet there are certain delusions that we can’t seem to shake—delusions that crop up again-and-again in different forms and that make this book perennially relevant.
The problem, as Sagan notes—then as now—is that we go about teaching science all wrong. We present it as a body of knowledge, an assortment of facts, rather than as a method of thinking. This is a big mistake, principally because pseudoscience is presented in the same way. No wonder most people can’t tell the difference; they were never given the tools to make the distinction.
This book provides these tools, in the process debunking several persistent, weird cultural beliefs, such as supposed alien abductions. Aliens, Sagan notes, are just repurposed, sexually aggressive demons and spirits of an earlier age. As the folklorist Thomas E. Bullard wrote:
“Science may have evicted ghosts and witches from our beliefs, but it just as quickly filled the vacancy with aliens having the same functions. Only the extraterrestrial outer trappings are new. All the fear and the psychological dramas for dealing with it seem simply to have found their way home again, where it is business as usual in the legend realm where things go bump in the night.”
The alien abduction phenomenon does tell us something though, less about the existence of extraterrestrial beings and more about the ways we all can deceive ourselves into believing improbable things. This book is the remedy for such undisciplined thinking.
In a key chapter titled “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan summarizes the elements of clear, disciplined thinking, which, most importantly, includes the habit of “spinning multiple hypotheses” to explain any given event, searching for ways to disprove each hypothesis, and, when two hypotheses explain the data equally well, choosing the simpler one (Occam’s Razor). How much better would the world be if people consistently subjected their own beliefs to this rigorous process of self-doubt?
In fact, what we have, overall as a society, is the opposite. As Sagan presciently wrote:
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time - when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
This book is the much-needed antidote, but will people embrace, or continue to ignore, its message? show less
It has been many years since I read one of Sagan's books and from how much I enjoyed this one, it has been much too long. Sagan runs down a litany of the paranormal and popular beliefs and probes each one delicately: witch hunting, UFOs and alien abductions, therapy, and more. I stress "delicately" since Sagan's atheism and secular humanism seem eternally human and open-minded, say as opposed to the jaded and crusty Richard Dawkins. Much of this material came out initially in Parade magazine and here Sagan gets to revisit it in compilation, often including reader's remarks such as on the veracity of alien abductions and what hope there may be for the United States education system. Yes, Sagan goes there with some of his own show more prescriptions especially for science and mathematics education. show less
Reviewing a book published almost thirty years ago probably eludes any rational justification. I first read The Demon-Haunted World when it was still a much-newer book and long before my ego developed to a point that motivated me to publish a review of anything I read. Now, however, having just finished a re-read, I'll, presume to share a few thoughts.
The Demon-Haunted World is not a science book but rather a book about science and how open yet skeptical scientific inquiry can rationally answer and explain phenomena that are otherwise seemingly mysterious, other-worldly, inexplicable or “miraculous.” Sagan's explanations include examinations into how humans are rather easily misled into accepting causes that are pseudo-scientific at show more best, and the book ends with the admonition that we would be better educated if our schools taught skepticism as part of the curriculum.
Did I enjoy the book as much during this re-read as I did when I initially read it? Perhaps not quite, simply because some of the examples, which range from hoaxes to sincerely held superstitions, seem a bit dated now. For instance, the appearance of flattened patterns in wheat fields, popularly named “crop circles” and widely attributed to extraterrestrial “aliens” has now faded from public view (and from news headlines). The fact that some of the peculiar occurrences cited in the book may no longer be relevant to younger readers leads me to rate the book at four stars rather than the five that I would surely have accorded it at an earlier time. Yet, let us not erroneously conclude that the book is obsolete, for its lessons as to the importance of the scientific method in examining the phenomena around us, in being open to new ideas yet remaining skeptical until they have been proven to be realistic, and in developing our ability to recognize a bamboozle when we see one are as valid now as when Sagan wrote about them.
To convey an idea of Sagan's writing style and of just a few of his observations, here are some random passages from The Demon-Haunted World that I found particularly insightful:
“[M]ilitary, political, and intelligence communities tend to value secrecy for its own sake. It's a way of silencing critics and evading responsibility—for incompetence or worse. It generates an elite.... With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science.” (Page 90)
“In the sixteenth century the scholar William Tyndale had the temerity to contemplate translating the New Testament into English. But if people could actually read the Bible in their own language instead of arcane Latin, they could form their own, independent religious views. They might conceive of their own private unintermediated line to God. This was a challenge to the job security of Roman Catholic priests. When Tyndale tried to publish his translation, he was hounded and pursued all over Europe. Eventually he was captured, garroted, and then, for good measure, burned at the stake.” (Pages 122 & 123)
“President Ronald Reagan, who spent world War II in Hollywood, vividly described his own role in liberating Nazi concentration camp victims. Living in the film world, he apparently confused a movie he had seen with a reality he had not. On many occasions in his Presidential campaigns, Mr. Reagan told an epic story of World War II courage and sacrifice, an inspiration for all of us. Only it never happened; it was the plot of the movie A Wing and a Prayer.... It is not hard to imagine serious public dangers emerging out of instances in which political, military, scientific or religious leaders are unable to distinguish fact from vivid fiction.” (Page 140)
“Without physical evidence, science does not admit spirits, souls, angels, devils, or dharma bodies of the Buddha. Or alien visitors.” (Page 267)
“All the mammals—and many other animals as well—experience emotions: fear, lust, hope, pain, love, hate, the need to be led. Humans may brood about the future more, but there is nothing in our emotions unique to us.” (Page 268).
“[I]n the 1980s, [Edward] Teller sold President Ronald Reagan the notion of Star Wars—called by them the “Strategic Defense Initiative,” SDI. Reagan seems to have believed a highly imaginative story of Teller's that it was possible to build a desk-sized orbiting hydrogen-bomb-driven X-ray laser that would destroy 10,000 Soviet warheads in flight, and provide genuine protection for citizens of the United States in case of global thermonuclear war. . . . Ten thousand American scientists and engineers publicly pledged they would not work on Star Wars or accept money from the SDI organization. This provides an example of widespread and courageous non-cooperation by scientists (at some conceivable personal cost) with a democratic government that had, temporarily at least, lost its way.” (Page 288)
“For 99 percent of the tenure of humans on earth, nobody could read or write.... Everything was passed on by word of mouth. As in the children's game “Telephone,” over tens and hundreds of generations, information would slowly be distorted and lost. Books changed all that. Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wisdom of our species; to understand the point of view of others, and not just those in power; to contemplate—with the best teachers—the insights, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds there ever were, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history. They allow people long dead to talk inside our heads. Books can accompany us everywhere. Books are patient when we are slow to understand, allow us to go over the hard parts as many times as we wish, and are never critical of our lapses. Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.” (Page 357)
To conclude these observations, I would say only that Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is decidedly key to understanding the world and is well worth the time one may expend in experiencing it. show less
The Demon-Haunted World is not a science book but rather a book about science and how open yet skeptical scientific inquiry can rationally answer and explain phenomena that are otherwise seemingly mysterious, other-worldly, inexplicable or “miraculous.” Sagan's explanations include examinations into how humans are rather easily misled into accepting causes that are pseudo-scientific at show more best, and the book ends with the admonition that we would be better educated if our schools taught skepticism as part of the curriculum.
Did I enjoy the book as much during this re-read as I did when I initially read it? Perhaps not quite, simply because some of the examples, which range from hoaxes to sincerely held superstitions, seem a bit dated now. For instance, the appearance of flattened patterns in wheat fields, popularly named “crop circles” and widely attributed to extraterrestrial “aliens” has now faded from public view (and from news headlines). The fact that some of the peculiar occurrences cited in the book may no longer be relevant to younger readers leads me to rate the book at four stars rather than the five that I would surely have accorded it at an earlier time. Yet, let us not erroneously conclude that the book is obsolete, for its lessons as to the importance of the scientific method in examining the phenomena around us, in being open to new ideas yet remaining skeptical until they have been proven to be realistic, and in developing our ability to recognize a bamboozle when we see one are as valid now as when Sagan wrote about them.
To convey an idea of Sagan's writing style and of just a few of his observations, here are some random passages from The Demon-Haunted World that I found particularly insightful:
“[M]ilitary, political, and intelligence communities tend to value secrecy for its own sake. It's a way of silencing critics and evading responsibility—for incompetence or worse. It generates an elite.... With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science.” (Page 90)
“In the sixteenth century the scholar William Tyndale had the temerity to contemplate translating the New Testament into English. But if people could actually read the Bible in their own language instead of arcane Latin, they could form their own, independent religious views. They might conceive of their own private unintermediated line to God. This was a challenge to the job security of Roman Catholic priests. When Tyndale tried to publish his translation, he was hounded and pursued all over Europe. Eventually he was captured, garroted, and then, for good measure, burned at the stake.” (Pages 122 & 123)
“President Ronald Reagan, who spent world War II in Hollywood, vividly described his own role in liberating Nazi concentration camp victims. Living in the film world, he apparently confused a movie he had seen with a reality he had not. On many occasions in his Presidential campaigns, Mr. Reagan told an epic story of World War II courage and sacrifice, an inspiration for all of us. Only it never happened; it was the plot of the movie A Wing and a Prayer.... It is not hard to imagine serious public dangers emerging out of instances in which political, military, scientific or religious leaders are unable to distinguish fact from vivid fiction.” (Page 140)
“Without physical evidence, science does not admit spirits, souls, angels, devils, or dharma bodies of the Buddha. Or alien visitors.” (Page 267)
“All the mammals—and many other animals as well—experience emotions: fear, lust, hope, pain, love, hate, the need to be led. Humans may brood about the future more, but there is nothing in our emotions unique to us.” (Page 268).
“[I]n the 1980s, [Edward] Teller sold President Ronald Reagan the notion of Star Wars—called by them the “Strategic Defense Initiative,” SDI. Reagan seems to have believed a highly imaginative story of Teller's that it was possible to build a desk-sized orbiting hydrogen-bomb-driven X-ray laser that would destroy 10,000 Soviet warheads in flight, and provide genuine protection for citizens of the United States in case of global thermonuclear war. . . . Ten thousand American scientists and engineers publicly pledged they would not work on Star Wars or accept money from the SDI organization. This provides an example of widespread and courageous non-cooperation by scientists (at some conceivable personal cost) with a democratic government that had, temporarily at least, lost its way.” (Page 288)
“For 99 percent of the tenure of humans on earth, nobody could read or write.... Everything was passed on by word of mouth. As in the children's game “Telephone,” over tens and hundreds of generations, information would slowly be distorted and lost. Books changed all that. Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wisdom of our species; to understand the point of view of others, and not just those in power; to contemplate—with the best teachers—the insights, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds there ever were, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history. They allow people long dead to talk inside our heads. Books can accompany us everywhere. Books are patient when we are slow to understand, allow us to go over the hard parts as many times as we wish, and are never critical of our lapses. Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.” (Page 357)
To conclude these observations, I would say only that Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is decidedly key to understanding the world and is well worth the time one may expend in experiencing it. show less
It's hard to disagree with the common sentiment that this is the best introduction to skepticism yet written. It's an impassioned plea for reason, for the inherent virtue of truth and the power of skepticism. Along the way Carl Sagan demolishes, politely and eloquently, tales of alien abduction, ghosts, telepathy and other popular fictions. But more importantly The Demon-Haunted World is an ode to wonder. Carl Sagan was primarily an astronomer, and more than anybody I’ve read he manages to evoke in words a fraction of the feeling you get when looking at the stars. It's quite the read.
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Author Information
A respected planetary scientist best known outside the field for his popularizations of astronomy, Carl Sagan was born in New York City on November 9, 1934. He attended the University of Chicago, where he received a B.A. in 1954, a B.S. in 1955, and a M.S. in 1956 in physics as well as a Ph.D. in 1960 in astronomy and astrophysics. He has several show more early scholarly achievements including the experimental demonstration of the synthesis of the energy-carrying molecule ATP (adenosine triphosphate) in primitive-earth experiments. Another was the proposal that the greenhouse effect explained the high temperature of the surface of Venus. He was also one of the driving forces behind the mission of the U.S. satellite Viking to the surface of Mars. He was part of a team that investigated the effects of nuclear war on the earth's climate - the "nuclear winter" scenario. Sagan's role in developing the "Cosmos" series, one of the most successful series of any kind to be broadcast on the Public Broadcasting System, and his book The Dragons of Eden (1977) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1978. He also wrote the novel Contact, which was made into a movie starring Jodie Foster. He died from pneumonia on December 20, 1996. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title*
- 악령이 출몰하는 세상 : 과학, 어둠 속의 촛불
- Original title
- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
- Original publication date
- 1995
- Epigraph
- We wait for light, but behold darkness.
ISAIAH 59:9
It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.
ADAGE - Dedication
- TO TONIO,
MY GRANDSON.
I WISH YOU A WORLD
FREE OF DEMONS
AND FULL OF LIGHT - First words
- It was a blustery fall day in 1939.
—Preface
As I got off the plane, he was waiting for me, holding up a scrap of cardboard with my name scribbled on it.
—Body text - Quotations
- Mr. Buckley – well-spoken, intelligent, curious – had heard virtually nothing of modern science. He had a natural appetite for the wonders of the Universe. He wanted to know about science. It's just that all the science h... (show all)ad gotten filtered out before it reached him. Our cultural motifs, our educational system, our communications media had failed this man. What the society permitted to trickle through was mainly pretense and confusion. It had never taught him how to distinguish real science from the cheap imitation. He knew nothing about how science works.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.
- Original language
- American English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 501.8; 306.45
- Canonical LCC
- Q175
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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