Rating: 
Summary: Ignorant, not Demon-Haunted World
Review: This book is well written and persuasive about the case that it makes, but I have given it only three stars because I think that the title and descriptions are misleading. This is emphatically NOT a book about Carl Sagan debunking alien abductions, witchcraft, etc. Rather, this is a book in which Sagan explores WHY people believe in such things without any supporting scientific evidence. I expected this book to consist of compelling and devestating arguments or demonstrations as to why alien abductions, etc. are not real. Instead, while Sagan offers the usual arguments (no physical evidence, etc.), I didn't find that he added anything new or particularly insightful. Indeed, to me some of his conclusions--or lack thereof--seemed to support the arguments he is supposedly arguing against. For instance, in cases of multiple abductions, where several people report being abducted together, sharing very detailed account, Sagan notes without further comment that one analyst contends that such instances are the result of multiple people having the same dream, which also doesn't sound very likely to me.
Where this book shines is explaining how little people rely on or even look to science in their everyday lives, and how in the resulting scientific vacuum pop culture and subconcious impulses result in people holding rather bizzare beliefs that are completely unsupported by, if not outright contradicted by, actual facts. Sagan also does an excellent job in examining the witch-burning phenomenon, which is almost undoubtedly one of the costliest (in human life) example of the supremacy of ignorance over rational thought in human affairs.
Finally, I would like to note that may of the chapters in this book are apparently reprints or reworkings of various articles, etc. written by Sagan. Thus, the material is sometimes repetitive, and overall the book is a bit disjointed.
In closing, I think that a more accurate title for this book would be "The Ignorance-Riddled World", because the emphasis is on ignorance and irrationality rather than offering specific refutations of the various refutations of pseudo-science.
TMR
Rating: 
Summary: Sagan is on target with most of the topics here
Review: This book, on the whole, is indeed a sufficient companion for any critical thinker, and Sagan should be commended. I do believe, however, that Sagan errs in at least two areas, and those areas would be UFOs and crop circles. First, to set the stage: I am not an individual easily misled, nor do I draw inferences with insufficient data. It appears Sagan may engage in the later, however, at least two times in the course of this book. It's actually a bit embarrassing, at least in this reader's opinion, that Sagan basically dismissed these two phenomenon which, upon familiarity with the data, are certainly not resolved absolutely.
First, as another reviewer mentioned, some important data regarding UFOs are disregarded. I'm hesitant to cite the Air Force's Project Blue Book (and its predecessors Project Sign and Grudge), which, depending on directives and the individuals involved in and heading the project, could provide some truly ridiculous explanations for UFOs: For example, an unidentified object traveling too slow to be a meteor and changing its direction becomes, officially, a meteor. You can also witness, according to this project, the planet Venus, on numerous occasions, becoming capable of what you would believe to be impossibly fast motion, in addition to weather balloons that travel at many hundreds of miles per hour. Nonetheless, for the majority of the Air Force's project a 20% to 30% "unknown" rate was cited for cases. Consider that, by the Air Force's own estimate, only 10% of cases were actually reported to them, and that the unknown rate for the 10% still translates to hundreds of cases.
The physicality and, in fact, reality of UFOs is also put in dispute. In fact, a minuscule amount of UFO cases are hoaxes or hallucinations, and this is according to the at-times excessively skeptical investigations like Blue Book and the Condon Committee. I'd also be interested to know how the many hundreds of cases in which UFOs were observed on the ground, tracked by ground radar, observed from the air and tracked by air radar would be explained by Sagan. It's also quite a phenomenon when individuals develop radiation sickness after a close-range sighting - that's some hallucination, especially when other physiological evidence exists and multiple, non-related witnesses observe consistent phenomenon in some of these cases.
Now, onto crop circles. The hoax explanation falls on its face here, as well. It is undoubtedly true that some crop circles are hoaxes - hoaxes typically show bent crops, are elaborate in design and lack evidence of radiation, heat and electromagnetism. The same cannot be said for the legitimate, unexplained cases. Such cases typically exhibit gently bent crops (inconsistent with the well known hoaxing method of a simple board) and, most importantly, the difficult to duplicate indeed electromagnetic, heat and radiative evidence. Sometimes mineral deposits are noted, as well. The electromagnetic influence is witnessed by its effect on electronic devices brought into a crop circle. It has also been shown that crop circles can influence brain waves and moods - another indicator of electromagnetic phenomenon. Radiation makes itself known through missing or altered crop seeds and, under microscopic examination, crops within circles are shown to be altered biologically in comparison to control crops outside the circle. Heating, in actuality a consequence of the radiation, is evidenced by holes blown open along the stem nodes: This is an effect of the moisture within the plant being heated and causing the mentioned reaction. Deposits of minerals like iron are noted in some cases, and researchers have concluded some of this iron would be embedded within the plant while it was still molten - this, obviously, is curious, since molten temperatures would burn plants up. So, then, if an individual is familiar with the crop circle data, it would be curious indeed for them to conclude that it is resolved.
In conclusion, there is a middle ground between excessive skepticism and excessive belief, where one attempts to the best of his ability to examine cases while putting his prejudice aside, whatever that prejudice may be. Ideally, people on both sides can put aside animosity, derisiveness and prejudice and work together to supplement one another's knowledge on a subject in order to find what we're all after - the truth!
Rating: 
Summary: A guide to thinking critically about science and the world
Review: This has been my favorite work of non-fiction since I first read it in 1996. Upon re-reading it recently, I was struck by how important Sagan's treatise on critical thinking and "baloney detection" is in today's world. Though the book mostly deals with pseudoscience, antiscience and religion, the tools it presents for critical analysis of evidence and argument should be read by all Americans, particularly those who still believe that we found WMDs in Iraq or that Iraq was involved in 9/11.
We are never systematically taught critical analysis in school (even in graduate study in the sciences at prestigious universities), so it is no wonder that Madison Avenue and, increasingly, our elected officials are able to convince us to purchase products and support policies that are based on logical fallacies and repitition of untrue or distorted "facts". Imagine if the voting public and the press consistently applied Sagan's Baloney-Detection tools to statements made by advertisers and our government, tools such as:
"Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the 'facts'
Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
Arguments from authority carry little weight -'authorities' have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorites; at most, there are experts.
If there's a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) - not just most of them."
This is how and why science works as well as it does. We all have the ability to be skeptical and use these techniques when shopping for a used car, Sagan points out. The key is to apply those abilities consistently to all of life's decisions.
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to skeptical thinking...
Review: This is a great introduction to skeptical thinking which is written in layman's terms. The book covers on a wide range of topics but tends to focus more on witch burnings, alien abductions and UFOs, and New Age Spiritualism. I would recommend this book to anyone!
Rating:
Summary: Required Reading for School Boards
Review: This was one of the late Carl Sagan's last books, and it is certainly one his most important. We live in a credulous society, a culture that seems to be incapable of critical thinking. That's an extremely dangerous situation. When a majority of U.S. citizens believe in astrology; when a voter can read a newspaper expose' on dial up fortune-telling scams and then dial a 900 number in order to decide what to do; well, it doesn't bode well for our country.To some extent, Sagan oversold himself in the late 1980's and early 1990's. His eager sincerity was even parodied - "billyuns and billyuns - but he was an engaging science writer and popularizer. In this book he stepped a bit outside of that usual role, and made some critical and important points about our culture. No thoughtful citizen can read this book, look around and fail to be concerned. I'd make this book required reading, not for students, but for school board members and teachers. If the average citizen is credulous to the point of embarrassment - and that's pretty clearly the case - the solution has to involve the educational system, and especially those in charge. We are not teaching our citizens and future citizens to think critically. In Sagan's phrase, "Extravagant claims require extravagant evidence." For better or worse, the life of the world is logic, and the ability to reason is as important as the ability to read and the ability to do arithmetic. And if you think it's not a problem, you need to read this book, or just attend the public comments portion of a school board meeting, or read the letters to the editor in your newspaper. You should read this book. You should act on the message of this book. Not just because it is a thoughtful, entertaining treatment of an important issue. But because that issue hasn't gone away; and it seems to be getting worse.
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