The Demon-Haunted World

Less about biology specifically and more about the general value of the scientific method and rationalism; I think that this book should be read by everyone. Never smug or condescending, Sagan and Druyan show how easily one can be misled by mystical thinking and illustrate the many dangers of credulity.

From cargo cults to baloney detectors, this book is a primer for life in the modern world and how to recognize and protect against disinformation and one’s own biases. I have more than once bought copies of this book for people who are overly enthused about crystals.

As with my first recommendation, this book pulls together many of the ideas about people’s beliefs and thinking that I had growing up.

While I read it in ‘early middle age,’ it again synthesized a good many questions across a very broad range of topics. In the process, the book helped to solidify my own thoughts about the world in which we live and how to learn more about our Universe.

The Dark Ages were a time of superstition and magic, of true causes those living then knew little. The science of the Enlightenment pushed back that darkness and gave us a more clear-headed view of the world.

Sagan showed me how that view was under attack and how to make the candle of truth burn a little brighter.

Carl Sagan was a huge influence when I was younger, helping to popularise science, and this book encourages us to be more questioning and critical in our thinking.

One of Sagan’s phrases has stayed with me ever since: “The methods of science—with all its imperfections—can be used to improve social, political, and economic systems.”

In an age when truth and objectivity are under assault, and opinions and prejudice are given as much weight as facts and evidence, we need a more rational, scientific, and objective approach to politics to help restore a much-needed sense of balance and sanity to our… show more.

The Demon-Haunted World is really the bible of science-based skepticism, to use a somewhat ironic turn-of-phrase. It’s a text that helped form and shape the modern skeptic movement, reminding us that science isn’t some wet blanket thrown upon our fanciful beliefs, but a system that should bring us hope. The tone of the book is not as aggressive as Hitchens or Dawkins, but encourages skepticism and the embrace of the scientific method as only one of history’s premiere science communicators can. Through its exploration of science, pseudoscience, and the human struggle for knowledge, The Demon-Haunted World serves as a primer… show more.

It’s not often a world-famous scientist does a great job explaining the scientific method to the general population. Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan teach how to think critically about extraordinary claims. In other words, what’s valid and what’s not. What’s sound logic versus flawed thinking. As Carl famously stated, “…Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

My last decade of teaching convinced me that there is little point in the public knowing the universe began in a Big Bang, or that there are planets around other stars if they don’t also understand the steps we scientists used to discover these results are the same we used to discover the Earth is warming and that the world is NOT in fact flat or only 6000 years old. 25 years ago, Sagan wrote the most prescient book I’ve ever read describing the world we live in today of know-nothing pundits and anti-intellectual leaders. In a world gripped by… show more.