The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Ratings128
Average rating4.2
A cri de ceour in favor of the scientific method, and completing the Enlightenment's haphazard hold on our culture!! I CAST THEE OUT, DARK SHADOWS OF AUTHORITARIANISM AND WOO!
In a way, this book is a spiritual ancestor of Conspirituality, another book that covers similar themes of anti-scientific social ape nonsense and its ramifications throughout society and politics - though in the post-Covid age.
THIS book, by the very lauded Carl Sagan, is, in many ways, a very 90s book. So I actually struggled through the first half of it. I would rate the first half 2 stars (!). But I just cannot tolerate chapter upon chapter of garbage - and Sagan spends MANY chapters debunking UFOs, crop circles, the X-Files (!), and other super outdated 90s woo. He then spends a fiery chapter on Medieval witch hunts, and his clear-eyed assessment of them as expressions of patriarchal power and control, chef's kiss. But then it's back to alien abduction stories. Mannnn...
I mean. I guess his argument is that humans' capacity to engage in woo is (a) directly tied to our social ape ancestry, and thus (b) TIMELESS. Oh, how I wish he had lived miraculously until now - so he could lock arms with Tony Fauci and fight the forces of anti-vax fear-mongering. Because, indeed, 1995 Sagan predicts 2025 America dismally well. And his tight linking of Enlightenment ideals - the scientific method AND “liberte, egalite, fraternite” (aka social justice) - was just, mwah, so heartening. Thank you!! We must bang this drum again and again and again!!!
Indeed, the second half of the book was much more exciting - and got me very amped up. He circles back to witch hunts (damn the patriarchy!), laments education and the cultural caricatures of scientists (mad scientists, nerds, etc), ponders the link between literacy/education and civic empowerment and democracy, and - single tear - envisions various utopian scenarios of e.g. our political leaders being intelligent and informed and comfortable with uncertainty. SOB.
By the end, I was:
- Ready to re-read Ted Miguel's research on modern witch hunts (and how they occur more often during periods of food insecurity...): http://emiguel.econ.berkeley.edu/research/poverty-and-witch-killing/
- PUMPED to dust off all my pop quantum mechanics books so I could go “whoooooa”
- PUMPED to read about “scientism” as well (sorry, Carl!!!)
Oh my god what a breath of fresh air! This book should be required reading. It is a well-argued book for reason, rationality and skepticism and a wonderful advocacy for science but his compassion and desire to understand others shines throughout. This book is as necessary now as it was when it was written and unfortunately given human nature I think it will always be relevant.
PS For American readers I love Sagan's idea that the Pledge of Allegiance should be directed to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights instead of to the flag and the nation as it is when the President takes his oath of office.
It's a good book for somebody who's not well accustomed to the scientific way of thinking. Personally, I didn't find many new concepts in Sagan's work. Also, the debunking of conspiracy theories seemed boring to me after a few chapters, this could have been written in another book.
An incredible book which has aged at once splendidly and terribly. Some parts are flat out depressing to read as decades have passed with very little improvement (and in some parts, decline).
Some of Sagan's recommendations feel so impossible at this point that it almost sounds like someone shouting at the sky.
A lot to process.
Apesar de ser um livro de mais de 25 anos, as inquietações de Sagan relacionadas ao obscurantismos, superstições e credulidade são mais relevantes do que nunca. Imagino que ciente das maravilhas comunicativas do mundo moderno, sobretudo a internet, esperar-se-ia maior alfabetismo científico e o fim de crenças despropositadas, contudo isso não se manifestou.
O livro exibe uma sucessão de evidências dos demônios que assolam o mundo, alguns mais assustadores do que outros, mas todos eles tão reais quanto o éter.
Essa é uma leitura imprescindível para um primeiro contato com o pensamento e método científico.
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.
500 pages about how alien abductions aren't real. This should have been a Snopes page instead. This book hasn't aged well.
(before anyone comments: Snopes was created in 1994, 2 years before this book was written).
Meh, i liked much of what this book had to say but much of the examples used and data provided are at this point 20-30 yrs out of date.
This book was published in 1995 and while the underlying concepts and message is very relevant with how much has changed over the past 25yrs its hard to say how the state of our education system now is relative to then.
As an example sagan laments the lack of science based educational media but today we have things like curiosity stream, numerous science baaed non fiction books, youtube science channels, many tv networks devoted to educational programming, improved science education in schools etc...
While there is for sure a segment of society that is willfully or otherwise ignorant of scientific literacy they are the small vocal minorty.
Overall I still enjoyed this book but for sure not feeling it much more than a 3
This book does not show only the importance of science - it also teaches a lot. Never stop asking questions is I think the most significant lesson you can learn from this book.
A must-read for everyone.
Baloney detection kit is all we need to live better lives both as individuals and as a society. It is the only safe-guard we have against human atrocities of any kind, be it stupidity, ignorance or tyranny!
Very quotable and, in the final chapters, extremely apropos the current political situation in America.
অবশেষে শেষ হলো (চাকরি-বাকরি খুব খারাপ জিনিস)। বইটা ভালো, প্রথমদিকে একটু রিপিটেটিভ। এবং, বইটা এক্সপ্লেইন করে কেন অ্যামেরিকানরা ড্যুশব্যাগ, ‘শিক্ষা'। আমরাও সেইপথে হাঁটছি বোধহয়।
A great book about critical thinking. Sagan is very thorough, to the point of being pedant at times, but he examines so many things and in such detail that the overall effect is fascinating and mind expanding.
Sagan made an awesome good case for embracing scientific skepticism, while pointing out its short-comings when deciding moral values over scientific data that might be used to advance unethical practices. The only thing that bothered me, personally, was the overtly acceptance of religion as a complementary way of advancing our spirituality (whatever that means).
Great work in which Sagan dispells the myths of pseudoscience and encourages skeptical thought and devotion to true science.