The Demon-Haunted World

Context on why I was sent this epub from my friend in the first place:

I was perplexed over people’s obsession with the most bizarre nonsense. Astrology, crystal healing, modern witchcraft, and many more things I see all too often. My friend suggested this book and sent me over an epub as they felt it’d give nice context around the phenomenon.

Well, I have a much deeper understanding of the issue after reading this book. Sagan deeply loves science and has made me view science in a completely new light, it’s truly inspirational. I’m doing so, he covers pseudoscience and the many wonders of why we believe in things we believe in. Little did I know my questions of why people believe crystals cure cancer has a lot to do with our belief in witches (leading to thousands of burned women at the stake just a few centuries ago) and even things like modern aliens abductions (which have almost no strong evidence to back them up)

Sagan deep-dives into science, morality, how to develop a BS detector, how to think critically, the state of the world and where it may lead, and much more.

As someone who loves science and applies many of its philosophies across my life, it was a wonderful read that opened my eyes to the devolution of our ability to appreciate the beauty of science and critical thinking - instead favoring our crystals and astrology symbols.

Amazing book, that has made me all the more critical of where the world is headed.

Oof. I did not have a good time with this one. It's a collection of essays, all of which seem to have been previously published elsewhere. I'm not sure why this book doesn't indicate that it's actually a collection of Sagan's writings, all somewhat on a similar theme.

Fully half of this book (the front half) is about aliens and alien abductions. The second half provides a bit more variety, but is largely about how the US doesn't respect science enough or needs to protect the scientific method.

I think his main point is valid (science matters?), but wow, I did not need 400 pages on it. It felt so repetitive. The book reminds me a little of another book I read called Capitalism & Disability, which is also a collection of essays. However the editor of that book actually cut sections from different essays where the same point would have been repeated. I wish this collection had used a similar approach instead of choosing to be exhaustive.

Sagan is a big fan of the scientific method, and I am a fan as well, but I don't think he offers enough criticism of it. Especially after reading essay after essay of praise. There is one essay (I don't remember the name) that nods to the knowledge that other people come to without using the "scientific method" as such. For example, there are peoples in the past who have learned things about plants through trial and error that are passed down. But besides that, he doesn't ever acknowledge that the scientific method is still a human-created thing that is our best effort. It's not infallible, and the world of science is not without it's problems with biases. At one point he says how scientific fields used to exclude women, and he implies that it's no longer a problem... and this book is from the 90s. Also, oddly in the same book in which he praises the scientific method, he brings up a remarkable amount of anecdotes to defend his positions.

I'm not at all sure who the audience for this was. If you agree with him, it's boring because he's trying to convince you of things you already think rather than really adding any new insights (or so I felt). If you don't agree with him, I don't think you're picking this up, and I don't think his arguments will win you over.

Once in about the year 2001 previous to the events of 9-11, I was in college and not enjoying the experience. I set foot into a store called On Cue which had an assortment of items such as cds and books and lava lamps. In a section, somewhat to my then irritation, marked metaphysics, was the book The Demon Haunted World I was a psychology major at that juncture, and the emphasis was on science and metaphysics was a naughty word. Surely, Sagan, preeminent among scientists would not have written a metaphysical book?

The book, when I read it then, had a huge impact upon me. It was not so much what it said, but rather that I believed much in an opposite way to what it was saying. The same was true of my psychology major which was part of my misery. What Sagan had to say about science became, to me, the exact sort of arguments as to why science could not work. I appreciated much of what Sagan was saying about the method, we simply disagreed on how and why and when it could be used and what the limitations of such a method were.

What I did not remember having read it again was all the alien abduction time and energy Sagan put into this book, along with fairly frequent allusions to Satan or Satanism or all the above. Nearly half the book is about this content. When someone spends that much time on trying to refute something, the old quote "Thou doth protest too much" comes to mind. Sagan, being a major part of the space community, was in a position to know some things others did not. Whether or not he neglects to mention those things or looked the other way is a matter of opinion on the basis of this book. At the very least, some large mechanisms of denial are present.

The book then, was metaphysical after all mostly because it is not resting on science to prove or disprove any of these claims, but it talks about how science ought to work or does work. A discussion of that sort is epistemological, which is necessarily metaphysical.

Likewise, Sagan finds himself in domains he does not fully understand. When he goes after astrology, it appears that he is going after a simple sun sign. A sun sign is no where near the operational definition of astrology just like the term mathematics does not fully describe quantum mechanics. One must learn quite a lot of very specific mathematics before one begins to be conversant on a quantum matter. Why then does Sagan not invest the time in properly defining astrology? Probably because he is using a straw man version to kick around. He's guilty of this several times over in this work.

What I noticed now, with the wisdom of twenty years added to my tenure on the planet in this work is that Sagan is struggling between his natural childhood inclination to believe in magical things, and the world of adults and what is real and pragmatic. The child Sagan grows up into an adult who though they might wish magical things were real, cannot find a platform on which to stand in order to substantiate their existence and so concludes no such things are real. Instead, the magic is transferred to the laws of nature and what one can do with them. These laws in Sagan's mind are codified within the body of Science.

Alas, the candle of science is not going to keep the demons away. For that, one is more likely to have success with a Bible. The reason science cannot keep the demons away is because it does not believe in them in the first place, which suits the demons just fine. Though Sagan takes careful pains to bash the Bible as being blood-thirsty, it occurs to me that nowhere did God suggest to Moses or Joshuah to build a hydrogen and/or an atomic bomb. No, it would seem those whispers were only heard by the God of Science, whoever or whatever that may be. When this bastard child that possibly destroys the whole globe was born, the scientists were lauded as heroes and geniuses. For every person science saves from death with penicillin, surely the potential to destroy the entire world of all living things negates the advance?

No one ought to go about life believing everything he or she is told. This includes works by scientists. If Sagan's book can withstand a scientific sort of scrutiny applied to it, would it not be the case that the work would pass his own test? And, on the other hand, if it does not, would that not mean it has failed in the endeavor it outlines? Herein lies the key. In the desperation to dismiss authority and find the limits of knowledge, one often finds themselves as an authority imparting knowledge. We become the shadow of the thing we were struggling to come to terms with. Unfortunately, Sagan does this.

Despite all this, however, I still found some gems in this book and again it has informed my thinking in a way it could not have done before and does not intend to do. Perhaps Sagan's book is close enough to some truths even if it is denying them that they sprout despite the wishes of the author. In that, I suppose Sagan would find himself in the company of Peter, and hopefully not in the company of Judas.

I'm not convinced that it's unabridged as advertised :-(; there appeared to be sections missing, but it's an excellent book! I was able to get a PDF copy online, and we'll see whether all parts are complete in this one.
It was written almost 20 years ago, but some of the same problems with government and society regarding science are definitely still applicable!

I was very right! It was definitely not unabridged; I just listened to and unabridged audio copy of it from audible (at least trustworthy!), and it's amazing how much more there was to the book. The amount that was in the original copy was definitely good, but the entire book has so much more. The end of the is vaguely political in that it points out how little our country is paying attention to our obligations and legacy in terms of science and even technology! And this is all before the age of Trump when he gets nothing but worse! Overall, it's still a great book; the world lost a fabulous scientist when he died :-( .

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.