A prescient warning of a future we now inhabit, where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy theories play to a disaffected American populace
“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
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 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.
Praise for The Demon-Haunted World
“Powerful . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Compelling.”—USA Today
“A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity.”—The Sciences
“Passionate.”—San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle
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 shelf and started reading it before my brain could realize what I was doing to it.
Luckily, Carl Sagan is wonderfully readable, and his excitement about science shines through every page. I love his balance of skepticism and wonder and his high regard for his field of study. He had me getting a bit sad when he discussed how American schools (mis)handle teaching math and science, and he made a comment that especially struck me: in history, in English, students are constantly exposed to the voices of the masters of the fields. But we're never given anything written by the people who love math and science. We learn numbers and formulas, but we don't learn to love them from the people who discovered those numbers and formulas. This rang especially true for me.
My only complaint is that the first 3/4 of the book is structured so that each chapter transitions into the next one quite smoothly, but the last quarter of the book jumps around a lot and doesn't seem to have as much focus as the first three quarters.
Reading updates
-
Started reading
-
12 August, 2009:
Finished reading
-
12 August, 2009:
Reviewed