TheDemon-Haunted World

As I began reading this book, I realized that a lot of the issues in this book are similar to the issues the current group of presidential hopefuls are debating. Unfortunately, everything that Sagan says is wrong with politicians happens to be occurring.

This was a great book, and makes me want to continue to hone my skeptical skills as those will always be something required. Way too often we are told to believe, but then are not given the substance of those beliefs. I'm not a person to continue to blindly believe anyone, or anything now, without critically looking at what I'm being asked to believe. I can belatedly thank Carl Sagan for this, and I do thank his wife Ann Druyan.

This was just an awesome book, and should be required reading for anyone entering High School. Unfortunately, most politicians would find that abhorrent, as they require blind faith in the ideas that they are putting forth.

If Carl Sagan was alive today I think he would probably cry if he saw the state of the world. He wrote this book as a kind of wake up call to the people and the government, he pointed out how bad the education system is, he tries to get people to understand how important science is, he warns us not to watch so much crap on TV, go out and get some real-life experiences and he warns us about the government abusing the bill of rights.

Well it looks like everybody has ignored him, in fact to me things feel worse, education is still really bad (always with the cutbacks) in the UK the classes can be huge and kids can get ignored. The rubbish that is on TV is so bad that I have read over 100 books this year, the first time this has ever happened to anybody since the TV was invented (True fact!) and as for the government, at least they are working hard protecting the rich.

Carl has written an interesting book here, he has a brilliant sense of humour and having a chapter in the middle with some of the letters he got from his "fans?" was a touch of class, just lightens the mood a bit for the second half, I do find it amazing that some of these people were actually able to write.

This is one of the most thought provoking books I've had the pleasure to read, Sagan (autocorrect changes it to Satan... Interesting) has taught me all about the baloney detector and that Jesus is conspiring with Aliens to eventually take over the world. (True Fact)

Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/04/06/the-demon-haunted-world-science-as-a-candle-in-the-dark-by-carl-sagan/

There's one thing I don't like about this book: that it took me this long to finally read it.

Carl Sagan is one of my personal heroes (of the "if you could meet any person in history..." variety) who first inspired me at the age of 10 when his Cosmos TV series screened in Australia. Such a knowledgeable, well-read and intelligent man exhibited such a sense of wonder at the universe, whether it be a drop of pond water on a slide under a microscope to stellar nurseries in nebula, taught me that it's possible to discuss, debate or argue with someone with a conflicting viewpoint without making it personal. Even his skepticism (nearly always) had a good-natured, patient, almost paternal quality about it. By his actions he taught me that you don't have to be nasty, dismissive or derogatory - even if receiving that treatment yourself - when wearing one's skeptic hat. I wish more people realised that.

But you know who he was, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this...

This book effectively contains his final words to the world, before his untimely death a year after publication. It teaches the scientific method and demonstrates its application and ease of misapplication in nearly every facet of our lives (including economics), and illustrates the legendary Baloney Detection Kit that many skeptics will have cobbled together out of personal experience: understanding of basic logical fallacies, our tendency towards anthropocentrism and naturalistic fallacies, and - without malice - outlines history's failure to apply such basic concepts. It contains a lot more - I'll leave it to you to read the table of contents from Amazon, etc.

You need to read this book. Whether you're in high school or retired, religious or not, scientist or layperson, housewife or corporate CEO, everyone will gain something out of it. If the thought of such a printed tome is daunting, then the audiobook version is an excellent alternative.