The Demon-Haunted World
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Description
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER • “Glorious . . . 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, New Age thinking, and fundamentalist zealotry and the testable hypotheses of science?
Casting a wide net through history and culture, 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. He examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies as witchcraft, faith healings, 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.
Book Information
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3.5/5. Interesting book but I feel that it did not age well. The first chapters were dry and thus a bit hard to read. Sagan focuses a lot on alien abduction and UFO sightings which I am not really interested in. And I feel like today nobody believes in crop circles and alien abductions anymore anyway so it was kind of redundant. Later on there is also a random Maxwell chapter where Sagan discusses the physics of electromagnetism which I am not sure really did fit into this book as I thought this book is about pseudoscience and skepticism, but maybe I just didn’t get it. As dry as the first chapters were, I felt that towards the end the chapters became more interesting though and apart from the focus on aliens Sagan did make some excellent points when he discusses science as means of progress of humanity, hallucinations, influence of politics on science, science and freedom, etc. So I guess I would recommend the book. It was not bad by any means but I think that it didn’t age too well.
Description
LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER • “Glorious . . . 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, New Age thinking, and fundamentalist zealotry and the testable hypotheses of science?
Casting a wide net through history and culture, 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. He examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies as witchcraft, faith healings, 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.
Book Information
Posts
3.5/5. Interesting book but I feel that it did not age well. The first chapters were dry and thus a bit hard to read. Sagan focuses a lot on alien abduction and UFO sightings which I am not really interested in. And I feel like today nobody believes in crop circles and alien abductions anymore anyway so it was kind of redundant. Later on there is also a random Maxwell chapter where Sagan discusses the physics of electromagnetism which I am not sure really did fit into this book as I thought this book is about pseudoscience and skepticism, but maybe I just didn’t get it. As dry as the first chapters were, I felt that towards the end the chapters became more interesting though and apart from the focus on aliens Sagan did make some excellent points when he discusses science as means of progress of humanity, hallucinations, influence of politics on science, science and freedom, etc. So I guess I would recommend the book. It was not bad by any means but I think that it didn’t age too well.