Demon-Haunted World

Rating:
Summary: Sagan has written a book that answers the all the questions.
Review: Carl Sagan has written a book that answer
the questions put into our heads about
such things as alien encounters and
out of body experiences. Not only does
he use blindingly convincing examples
from well known scientific resources, but
he also displays it with amazing style and
unequivocial ease.

Rating:
Summary: The Author I Loved After He Died
Review: This book has, in a very short time, become my favorite book, and I recommend it to everyone who I talk to. Its the best resource for skeptical thinking and rationality anyone can have. I read the book last August (1997) and it has changed my outlook on life and has changed the way I look at the world.

Rating:
Summary: It looks like this book is about science.
Review: It is. But far beyond being a book about science, it is science being practiced. It is an example of scientific behavior. Nothing is accepted at face value, but no arguments are dismissed without a good reason. Get Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit and test all ideas and arguments, including your own. Understand how pseudosciences want to have science credibility without paying the price of having science criteria. But don't think it is a numb narrative. Sense of wonder is praised and mourned, as it is killed in educational systems that need to be updated. UFO issues are discussed from very different points of view. Reasonable skepticism is prescribed. Anonymous heroes are introduced. Most of all, I have found balance in reading this book. Read it. If you like it, read and watch Contact and you will really understand what the movie is about. Ney J.S.S.

Rating:
Summary: The worst non-fiction a great mind can write
Review: Yes, indeed Sagan blasts pseudoscience quite effortlessly... his opponents... TABLOID JOURNALISTS who have NO credability in mainstream thought. Though I agree with practically everything Sagan says in this book, he commits an unforgivable sin of logical presentation. NOT ONCE does he explain WHAT then scientific method is. It is very possible that over 50% of all Americans do not know what the scientific method is. Sagan should have devoted some space to explaining what this thing 'the scientific method' is. Though it sounds grand, it has many limitations. Instead of wasting our time with his rantings, he should have taken some time educating.

Rating:
Summary: A book that provokes skeptical thought.
Review: Carl Sagan does a wonderful job explaining what science is and is not. He clearly explains the scientific method as THE way of thinking in this age. The age of reason has already occurred and yet, in America, it seems to have passed us by.

Rating:
Summary: Carl Sagan's own epitaph?
Review: Carl Sagan's latest and last book, The Demon-Haunted World, was completed just before his sudden and untimely death. He dedicated it to a grandson saying: To Tonio, my grandson, I wish you a world free of demons and full of light. Intro: We've arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. ... Comment: I say that Ben Franklin would be proud since Carl expounds upon the Bill of Rights as being a basis for the exercise of free thought and questioning. The book section "about the author" states that the twin philosophies by which Carl lives (lived) were that "Science is never finished" and that "We make our world significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers."

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: This book should be required reading for all students before graduating high school-- to me the book was Carl Sagan's parting gift to us before he passed away. The book puts into plain English what many rational, more skeptical thinkers often have trouble articulating. It provides a needed counterbalance to the pseudo-scientific nonsense that seems to be permeating the media lately. Thank you Carl.

Rating:
Summary: Should be mandatory for ALL high school and college students
Review: Is one of the best books I have ever read on any subject. The book makes everyone think about the subjects that they hold dear to themselves and challenges us to put them to the scrutiny of the scientific system. Teaches the reader how to think on a scientific level, and stresses the importance of everyone having a general knowlege of science, rather then a few people that excel in the subject. An excellent "general reference" book, I have it listed in 4 of the five bibliographies I have written in the last year. A must for all... We will all miss you Dr. Sagan.

Rating:
Summary: An Insightful Book From One of the World's Best Scientist
Review: This is an insightful look into the credulity that has and does plague humankind. Dr. Sagan uses past and present examples to show that superstitious and uninformed beliefs continue to be propagated even as our knowledge of reality increases. Dr. Sagan makes a plea for science to hold firmly to the scientific method, which illuminates the way for understanding reality. Without such a method, discernment is not possible and humankind is doomed to gullibility and wishful existence. Dr. Sagan makes a special plea to scientists and politicians to focus on informing the public on the essence and utility of science; and how it can give them the tools they need to move beyond ancient myths and into the modern age of science and discovery.

Rating:
Summary: Read Cosmos first, then DHW.
Review: Really a sequel to Cosmos, I think, and a very worthy sequel at that. Someday both books may be considered 20th-century phenomena, if only for their astonishing rarity. Centuries from now, assuming humankind survives, Sagan's philosophy will almost certainly be closer to the prevailing worldview than any similar works of our time. So few people today--even writers--seem able to differentiate between reality and superstition, and fewer still manage to do so while maintaining a sense of balance and wonder about the two worlds of science and myth. On the subject of myth only, I believe the late Joseph Campbell came close, but even he could have learned a great deal about that subject from Dr. Sagan. I wish everyone on earth would read this book