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Summary: Better than words can express
Review: Having read all of the reviews above this one, I find that I have little to add to the previous praise. However I would like to say that I find it quite saddening that the kinds of people who would not consider reading this book are EXACTLY the kinds of people who SHOULD be reading this book. The world lost a great deal when it lost Carl Sagan. I only hope another candle burns brightly enough for us to see it soon.
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Summary: A candle in the dark
Review: I am a scientist who was greatly influenced by Dr. Carl Sagan, and must applaud his last and greatest work. It clears a path through superstition and ignorance straight to science and knowledge. This book sparks the mind and encourages the sense of wonder that science creates.
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Summary: Nobody clears away the cobwebs like Carl Sagan
Review: Some of the material repeated his earlier articles and books, but it was worth reading again. Sagan does not apologize for shining an intense--and unflattering--spotlight on many cherished but foolish notions. Bunk is bunk, whether it's popular or not. The two or three pages on his "baloney detector" (logical fallacies used to support a lot of pseudoscience) are worth the price of the book.
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Summary: Finally a smart SKEPTICAL book!
Review: I enjoyed reading this wonderful book and I recommend it to everyone and especially to High Schoolers and the like. You new agers and the like out there need to come to grips with science and accept it because it is the only method to explain the real world. Tuff luck! YOU JUST HAVE TO ACCEPT IT!
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Summary: Great book, one of my favorites.
Review: This is a great book but it is sad that it needed to be written at all. I have had recent discussions with someone who believes that the asteroid explosion over Siberia in the early part of this century was a sign from God to the Russians. There are many people who see the world as this person does, a place filled with demons and signs from God, nothing happens without God or demons involved somehow. This book would not be useful to those among us who believe as the person just described because they would call it blasphemous and refuse to read it. It is, however, useful to the ones who must confront these people and their superstitions.
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Summary: Science Bible 101
Review: Sit back and let the wonder of the universe sweep over you. The BEST science book I've ever read. Read it with a highlighter because you'll want to quote this stuff.
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Summary: One of the best of Sagan's books - a must-have.
Review: Simply put, The Demon-Haunted World is very much a compilation of the works of Sagan. In it, he touches on not only the scientific aspects of the world and technology around us, but makes it meaningful, giving us insight into our past, present, and future. It is informative, inspiration, and thought-provoking. A MUST READ for scientists, non-scientists, and curious folks alike. Extremely easy-reading, with little complicated mathematics and scientific gumbo, gives the book a wide appeal.
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Summary: urges skepticism about extraterestrial hallucinations.
Review: At the start, I wondered why Carl Sagan was making all the todo about debunking demons. That was old hat, I thought. Obviously, I was ignorant of how wide-spread the belief in extraterrestrials was. At market checkouts, I am well aware of magazine whose covers display starlets who talk about 8 ways to fix this or that. But I fail to notice the other tabloids. Sagan, on his part, has received enough mail from 'believers' to motivate him to write this book. Sagan generously points out how common hallucinations are among 'normal' people. Such people believe what they see to be the truth, unlike hoaxers. The value of Sagan's extensive research is to show how contempory culture, through the ages, varies and colors our hallucinations. "When everyone knows that gods come down to earth, we hallucinate gods; when all of us are familiar with demons, its incubi and succubi; when fairies are widely accepted, we see fairies; in an age of spiritualism, we encounter spirits; and when the old myths fade and we begin to think that extraterrestrial beings are plausable, then that's where our hypnogogic imagery tends." Sagan makes the case that many 'abductees' have had their memories refreshed by hypnosis; that therapists whose role it is to 'support' their clients are unaware that false memories have been created in patients by subtle cues during therapy; that courts have banned the use of evidence obtained through hypnosis as being unreliable. Sagan's style is entertaining albeit erudite. This book is an excellent advocate for skepticism.
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Summary: on science and empiricism
Review: There are some reviewers who claim Sagan is putting science on too high a pedestal in "The Demon Haunted World." Science, however, is just one branch of empiricism, a field of philosophy descending from Locke and Hume which, at its furthest extreme, was not afraid of examining skeptically even its own premises. As such, to say that the scientific method is "biased" is to miss the point. The scientific method, as Sagan states, is self-correcting; it has no problem with admitting when it is mistaken. (Sagan even devotes a portion of one chapter to admitting when he was wrong, in big ways, in the past.) Science cannot lead to that vague (and sometimes laughable) concept, "The Truth," but then neither can any other school of philosophy, as thinkers from Kant to Derrida have ably demonstrated. Skepticism and empiricism at least put us on a strong footing.
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Summary: biased viewpoint
Review: Sagan has written a good book on the values of skepticism and critical thinking. However Sagan turns a blind eye to the fact that many people who believe in the paranormal, u.f.o.s and so forth are not idiots, but are as skeptical of science and scientific method as scientists are of them. This is nothing more than judging who is supposed to be skeptical. It is true that one must be skeptical of any claim. Only by doubt can we establish truth. However, Sagan seems to think that only scientists and those who believe his way are the genuine truth seekers and all those who believe in religion, the paranormal and miracles must be kooks. Such a conclusion is stupid. Anyone who has taken the time to read good books on the new age, religion and miracles will see that the authors are not kooks but people who really look for the truth. They are as skeptical as any number of scientists. Sagan thinks we have a new dark age upon us he equates with the inquisition. Did he ever investigate the inquisitions side of the story? I doubt it. Most of the book is one long winded attack based on ignornance and bias. Its only saving grace is that he extolls skepticism and critical thinking. I agree with both of these. However, Sagans viewpoints remind me of the man who saw an elephant standing right in front of him, but doubted its existance. Such a position is not skepticism. It is stupidity.
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