Rating: 
Summary: Truly insightful.
Review: When historians, hundred of years from now, look back to our time and wonder whether there were real scientists, people that understood the true purpose of science, amidst all the stupidity in the 20th century, they'll find Sagan, which is not only a real scientist, but a gifted writer. This book exposes his thoughts regarding pseudoscience (the very word he uses throughout the book), religion, mysticism and other topics that conflict with real science.While most people would react to subjects they dislike (Sagan clearly isn't comfortable with alien abductions, demons and such) with flamish thoughts, he exposes the subject clearly, in the same spirit of science that he praises so often on the book, highlighting the evidence (or the lack of it) and coldly analyzing it. Unlike writers sympathetic to those subjects, Sagan won't convince you to share his opinions based on testimonials and dubious evidence; he'll present evidence, real evidence, until you convince yourself about it. Where possible, he'll throw statistics to support his side of the story. Sagan never tells you to believe in *him*, only in the facts he shows. While referring to the Middle Ages as an era of darkness is cliche nowadays, Sagan shows we're immersed in about as much mysticism and disinformation as the Middle Ages were. After reading this book, you'll realize that, despite living in the Modern Age, we're still pretty much science analphabets.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging and wise
Review: The title is both a profound description of the human world before (and without) science, and an apt metaphor for what science really means to us. In particular, Sagan refers in Chapter 7 to the world of Europe during the time of Pope Innocent VIII (was ever a personage more ironically named?) in which "perhaps hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions" of people were tortured and burned at the stake and/or dismembered or otherwise killed for being witches or for consorting with demons and other imagined agents of Satan (p. 122). Sagan wants to remind us very lucky citizens of the twenty-first century just what it was like in the middle ages when the nature of truth was decided by the coercive power of authority and not by observation and evidence. Where would we be without science? is the question of the book, and Sagan's title is the startling answer. We would still be in the dark ages. But what is this magical "science" that makes all the difference in the world? It is common sense codified and repeatedly tested. Instead of accepting the existence of demons or aliens or Satanic conspiracies based on reports from people, the person of common sense asks to SEE the demons. She wants proof of their existence, and he wants that proof verified by others. Sagan has what he calls a "baloney detection kit" (pp. 210-211) in which he has science confront new ideas. This kit includes "independent confirmation" of the "facts"; the idea that "arguments from authority carry little weight"; the possibility of falsification; and the use of Occam's Razor. Virtually everybody reading this review knows what Sagan means by these terms. The astonishing fact, and one of the key points of his book, is that the overwhelming majority of people in this country and throughout the world do not. The even more astonishing fact is that even some people with college educations are not clear about the need for evidence and independent confirmation of evidence before one can say that something is true, and knowing even then that this truth is only a tentative conclusion, forever subject to being overthrown by new evidence, evidence that might arrive tomorrow. Many people are dissatisfied with this and want absolute certainty. But what Sagan is at pains to say is that such "certainty" is never forthcoming in this world. Such certainty is the province of religion. An integral part of the human condition is to realize and accept the fact that we cannot have absolute certainty, that the best we can have is a candle in the dark, and that candle is science. Without it we have an arbitrary truth, a truth of, by, and for authority. And that kind of "truth" can hurt you if you happen not to be on the side of authority, or happen to fall out of grace with the powers that be. The question arises, why is the method and the logic of science a mystery to so many people? Sagan's answer is, it isn't taught in school. This book is an attempt to right this wrong. He would like to see the scientific method as part of our grade school curriculum, and see it continued on into college. I would add that science is not intuitive. It is not politically correct. It is politically neutral and sometimes it is amazingly anti-intuitive. People who make their living primarily with their political and intuitive (i.e., social) skills tend to be the ones most threatened and most ignorant of science. Another question is, why do so many people still believe in demons and devils, aliens and astrology, Loch Ness monsters and dragons in the garage (a title of one of Sagan's chapters) when the overwhelming weight of evidence is against them? Simple: we humans have a need to believe. This need can either be satisfied with religion, or fairy tales from, e.g., the National Enquirer, or by the wonders of science. Sagan would like to see the wonders of science get more play both on the tube and in our classrooms. He, like the current Pope, believes that science and religion can co-exist. Of course this comes as no revelation to me, since I believe that properly understood, the stuff of religion must always be taken as symbolic and as a guide to how to live. The literal interpretation of religious ideas and the insistence on absolute truths always leads to trouble, contradictions and eventually to an untenable position which must be defended with brutal force. Sad to say. Sagan examines many of the delusions of our times, e.g., alien abductions, the face on Mars, UFOs, creationism, astrology, telepathy, channeling, psychic healing, New Age fuzziness, etc. In Chapter 9, entitled "Therapy," Sagan deals with satanic ritual abuse charges, "recovered" memories of sexual abuse, the remembrance of previous lives, even memories of future lives (!) thought to be "uncovered" by some therapists. This book is a celebration of science and an examination of the world of pseudoscience, why it exists and what can be done about lessening its negative effect on our lives. Sagan celebrates the wonders of science and the discoveries of science while warning us against the dangers inherent in pseudoscience. As a man who is as comfortable writing for Parade Magazine as he is addressing the National Academy of Sciences, you can be sure he is both easy to read and worth reading. Too bad he is no longer with us. His gentle and tolerant nature combined with his wisdom and his childlike excitement for life is already sorely missed.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book - a must read!
Review: An entertaining and intellectually stimulating book. Sagan mastered the art of being precise, concise, and rational. Has excellent material for the rationals and persuasive arguments for why one should be a rational. The survey of the background literature and prior work is splendid.
Rating: 
Summary: Sagan Was Just Another Sort of Believer
Review: As Raymond Moody once said, hard-line skeptics are just another form of believer and all believers lack open-mindedness. Science and critical thinking are very important, but they are tools at getting to indirect truths and should not be placed in the ultimate high esteem. Compassion is the ultimate virtue, not intelligence. Why don't humanists write books on that instead of trying to turn our current science paradigm into some kind of religious dogma? Besides, we all rely on perceptual relativism, because all we know for sure is that we ourselves perceived a thing, and even then, that is not evidence beyond the perception itself. There's no logical reason why a person should rely on others to corroborate their own experiences. If your house is on fire, do you wait for external confirmation before leaving? Absolutely not. Science and peer review are necessary for us to form reasonable, tentative assumptions about reality for the purpose of society's reasonable allocation of resources to advance its combined knowledge base and technological development. For each of us, though, being open-minded is suspending our assumptions one way or the other until we have a convincing reason to do otherwise. Just say you don't know, and deal with it in a dignified manner. I'm most awestruck at the huge following Sagan created for himself. For you see, he may have been quite the science popularizer, but he was one of the most mediocre "famous" scientists I've ever encountered. Sagan spent much of his career espousing his own opinions as something akin to "The Word", while declaring the worthwhile theories of science as something he himself had a part in. What did he ever discover? What truthful theory did he coin? Sagan's theories about the Venusian atmosphere and even his famed Nuclear Winter theory were both bogus. Nuclear Winter was disproved years ago, and would require far more devices than humankind could ever produce. Only a massive celestial impact (comet or asteroid) would create such a dramatic change in climate, but he was a poor scientist and an ardent anti-nuclear activist. Hence, he created flawed theories to support his ideologies. Every few months our local PBS station airs the Cosmos series and the fund raisers speak of him like he's the science equivolent of Jesus Christ! At best, Sagan was a notable science teacher to the masses and sci-fi novelist. At worst, he was a closed-minded, media-savy fame-whore. I'm a proponent of science and critical thinking, but an opponent of arrogance and self-promotion. Lastly, Bill Joy of Sun Microsystems (who helped develop the very technology you are using right now) has made an extremely convincing case that humanity is in danger of accidentally destroying itself in the next century with the likes of artificial intelligence, self-replicating nanotechnology, and biotechnology. If we aren't extremely careful, this "candle in the dark" Sagan speaks of could very well burn the house down. My recommendation: go read a book on Einstein.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining But Empty
Review: Carl Sagan is not known as the high priest of scientism for nothing, as this book aptly demonstrates. The Demon-Haunted World is an at times uneven but usually fascinating diatribe that sings the praises of science while simultaneously warning us of the dangers of superstition, religion, and ignorance. While I find Sagan's writing style both highly readable and engaging, I had difficulty following where he was going. A big part of the book, for instance, deals with alien abduction and the unreliability of hypnotically induced memories; another part talks at great length about UFOs and the SETI attempt to locate extraterrestrial life, while still another is an expose about witch burnings and the Inquisition. He talks disapprovingly about Edward Teller and the development of the H-Bomb, thrills at the wonder and excitement of scientific discovery he felt as a boy, spends an interminable chapter diagramming the mathematics behind James Maxwell's work on magnetism, and finally laments America's declining scholastic aptitude-and all this in one single book! It seems as if the good Doctor is taking a stroll down several paths all at once with no apparent final destination in mind, all under the guise of-I guess-demonstrating how a lack of critical thinking skills and healthy skepticism is leading us down the road to intellectual and, potentially, cultural ruin. I must admit to agreeing with much of what he said, and even found parts of the book-particularly the chapter where he discusses the doubtfulness of the survival of the soul and his own wish that it could be possible to contact his deceased parents-to be touching, but I finally came away from The Demon-Haunted World feeling depressed and devoid of hope. The book produces some thought-provoking ideas and forces the theists among us to carefully reconsider our beliefs, but in the end it leaves Sagan looking like a genuinely caring and compassionate man who lacks any capacity to perceive beyond the realm of his five physical senses. He is so enthralled with the wonders of the cosmos, which he looks upon with the same sense of joy and wonder as an evangelical Christian fresh from a revival meeting, that he remains incapable of understanding how anyone can fail to feel the same excitement over science that he feels. In him we find the heart and soul of skepticism, neatly packaged and enticingly presented, with just a splash of good-natured humor and somber self-reflection thrown in for seasoning. I like Carl. I wish he were still with us writing more thought-provoking books because I think he has some good and important things to say. This book, however, fails to be the bearer of light I believe he intended it to be, but it may be a good primer for his next book-which will, unfortunately, never be written. So sad. Oh well, good look Carl, wherever you ended up!
Rating:
Summary: Knowledge: A New Thesis on the Building of a Perfect World
Review: The common reader could conclude that in this book Carl Sagan just keeps annoying the person so that he/she admit that UFOs does not exist. But the essays presented here are much more than that. They are discussions of the importance of the scientific knowledge and method. Being simple and factual, Sagan can really take away from the reader any beliefs that are left until the reading of this book - unless you have ignored the fact that science brought to our world all this tech. stuff while the Bible just brought the Inquisition. After showing the power and the importance of the science knowledge, Sagan traces arguments for the theory that if everyone in the world knew at least the basic concepts of science and its method, the world would be "a better place". So this book is much more than a discussion on the value of science, but its also a sociological discussion of science. All the ideas presented in the essays of this book are quite in the centre of Sagan's "Contact". Actually we can think of "Contact" and this work as diferrent approaches for the same theme: one is a narrative while the other, a dissertation on the subject of science knowledge.
Rating:
Summary: Often Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel
Review: Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World (Science as a Candle in the Dark) is a wonderfully entertaining read that is both a plea for rational, critical thought and a debunking of pseudoscience. The debunking may seem to readers to focus on too easy of targets, from crop circles to alien abductions, but the book leads from that in a natural progression to a plea for science being taught and presented in a way that reaches all citizens. His enthusiasim for science is electric and contagious. The book is not about attacking (necessarily) other's beliefs but about enriching everyone's beliefs by adding a healthy dose of skepticism attached to a sense of wonder as only science can provide. A well done job from an author and thinker sorely missed.
Rating: 
Summary: Essential treatise on skepticism for everyone.
Review: When people are on a certain side of the fence, it is difficult to cross ranks. This may be the book that does it (if not, nothing will). Bringing together a collection of examples to illustrate a growing set of problems, Sagan shows a very impressive understanding in this book. Starting with a very informed review of the belief in flying saucers and aliens from other worlds, sounds at first rather prosaic. Certainly if you believe that beings from outer space have visited earth, you will dismiss his insistence upon evidence. However, Sagan of any scientist would believe in aliens if there was any compelling evidence to do so. His life has centered on an almost obsessive pursuit of life on other worlds, yet without proof then there is no justification. Then he begins a very frightening summary of the propensity for abuses when people have no skeptical restraint, as illustrated in the witch trials and communist hearings. How easily people can experience hallucinations, also how easily credulous people can be duped and are willing to allow themselves to be. Then includes what is probably the most important segment in the book, a "baloney detection kit", which is a list of rules to prevent acquiring false beliefs. He also describes how education in America is faltering and how Fredrick Douglass was able to rise beyond prejudice through reading and learning, thereby gaining freedom. He shows how science works and sometimes when it has failed, but in few other fields can a single unknown overthrow a well-established theories and be expected to, if they have the proof and are competent in attaining it. Certainly, he argues, we are free because of the awareness of human failures through protection of the Bill of Rights. And sometimes includes excerpts of letter sent to him by people commenting on his statements, which are rather quite illustrative. Of course, it was only until I was about half way through the book that I began to be skeptical of what Sagan was saying, yet having scientific training much of it was not difficult. Certainly refute if you can, but try using his baloney detection kit against him and it will be difficult. Although it seemed that it would have been sufficient simply to have gotten it at a library, since its not the sort of book I felt I would wish to read again.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid, refreshing book.
Review: First of all, I declare myself a Sagan's fan. His work (mainly the popular science part) had a strong influence in my life and contributed to my decision of becoming a physicist. This book is different in many ways, but it shares with some others (Cosmos in particular) the joy and skepticism that pervades all good science. Some might find the book too agressive, but looking at TV shows, bad popular seudoscience and how ignorant are most of our politicians I can only say that is a little drop of common sense in the middle of a sea of nonsense. We are living a specially important moment in science (unfortunately, Carl Sagan is not here anymore to share it with all of us) and it is important that science and skeptic thinking get to as much people as possible. This book is a good contribution and should be used in schools. Some critics might not like it (as expressed in some reviews here) but this is how science works: we don't take claims as true unless consistent empiric evidence gives support to them. This skeptic thinking gave us evolution, molecular biology, astrophysics and cosmology, computer sciences and a long list of ideas to think and dream. Pseudoscientists might believe that they are new "Galileos" but, when looking through their telescopes, we can only see darkness.
Rating:
Summary: Share this Book!
Review: This book is a must for any critical thinker! Why did we have to lose Sagan just when we need him the most? Just look around at "Crossing over", "X-Files", etc... The "Baloney Detection Kit" should be taught and reinforced throughout all levels of education. Buy several copies and donate them to your local school (particuarly those in the midwest and "Bible Belt.")
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