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Demon Haunted World Science as a Candle in the Dark

by Sagan, Carl and Druyan, Ann
Demon Haunted World Science as a Candle in the Dark

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780345409461
ISBN10: 0345409469
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

"A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought."

*Los Angeles Times

"POWERFUL . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing."

*The Washington Post Book World

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.

Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.

"COMPELLING."

*USA Today

"A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity."

*The Sciences

"PASSIONATE."

*San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

Review

"A glorious book....A spirited defense of science....From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought." Los Angeles Times

Review

"Powerful....A stirring defense of informed rationality....Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing." The Washington Post Book World

Review

"Compelling." USA Today

Review

"A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference....A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity." The Sciences

Review

"Passionate." San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

Review

"Eminent Cornell astronomer and bestselling author Sagan debunks the paranormal and the unexplained in a study that will reassure hardcore skeptics but may leave others unsatisfied." Publishers Weekly

Synopsis

A prescient warning of a future we now inhabit, where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy theories play to a disaffected American populace

"A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought."--Los Angeles Times

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.

Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.

Praise for The Demon-Haunted World

"Powerful . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing."--The Washington Post Book World

"Compelling."--USA Today

"A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity."--The Sciences

"Passionate."--San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

Synopsis

How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.

Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.

Synopsis

Disturbingly, in our so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning, with alien abduction, "channeling" past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. In this compellingly brilliant new book, Carl Sagan argues that this is not just a cultural wrong turn, but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.

Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks modern pseudoscience, as well as such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. By doing so, he demonstrates that true scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth, but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.

Synopsis

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Dragons of Eden and Cosmos shows how scientific thinking can cut through prejudice and hysteria and uncover the truth. Sagan also argues the necessity of safeguarding democratic institutions in a high-tech world.

Synopsis

Are we on the brink of a new Dark Age of irrationality and superstition? In this stirring, brilliantly argued book, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Dragons of Eden and Cosmos shows how scientific thinking can cut through prejudice and hysteria and uncover the truth, and how it is necessary to safeguard our democratic institutions and our technical civilization.

5 6

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 5 (6 comments)

`
Pattywinks , August 06, 2012
This book is great. Carl Sagan has this way of just getting right down to the heart of the matter while keeping an open mind. This book hits a little home for me since I am a teacher and Sagan talks about the need for science education (and education in general) to keep up from falling into the abyss. This book is his look at the dangers of discounting science and the scientific method, and the need to be skeptical in general. The man was amazing. He's a legend. A true hero for the modern age.

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Ernest Carneau , October 09, 2011
First of all, I have not read the book, just the write-ups by the publisher and the comments (4) by people who have read the book. If I recall correctly, Carl Sagan is an Atheist. And he argues against the existance of demons, as well as UFO's, and a number of other phenomenom today. But if I stand by Dr Sagan, I must throw out my Bible, where demons are mentioned as fact throughout, especially in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

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`
eglazier , October 09, 2011 (view all comments by eglazier)
i read this book when it was first published and have seen our country become more educated and less knowledgeable over the years. for most people science is a mystery, but for those who have gotten college degrees it is to them an open book, which unfortunately they do not know how to read. in the last decade we have witnessed more hysteria and less thought about the real problems that beset us. a case in point is the mass rejection of childhood disease vaccines that have resulted in the almost epidemic rise of some of them in clusters of the well-to-do and supposedly well-educated populations. the number of children's deaths are rising. it must be rather disheartening for parents to see their child die when they know they are responsible for this. we have a whole political party that rejects even the notion of science and they are campaigning on this idea. imagine in a world they inhabit where science is ever present and the fruits of science are keeping them alive, they reject it all.

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Ádám Bogár , October 03, 2011 (view all comments by Ádám Bogár)
An exceptional read in Sagan's easily accessible style, The Demon-Haunted World is the late planetologist's effort to fight superstitious and unscientific views cast on scientific topics, as well as a call for reform in education and thinking. An amazingly interesting advocacy of skepticism, practically unputdownable!

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skeptijim , September 20, 2011 (view all comments by skeptijim)
Should be part of every high school curriculum. Read it and you will become a clearer-thinking person, applying the same skepticism you use buying a used car to everything. And you will increase your wonder quotient as well. What more could a book offer?

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Mark Joseph , January 01, 2010 (view all comments by Mark Joseph)
As one who spent the decade escaping--successfully--from fundamentalism, the value of a book is not only in how absorbing of a read it was, but also how it encouraged the freedom to not believe. I read a number of excellent books along these lines during the last ten years, both positive, in their portrayal of the ability of science to understand what is true (this one, Park's "Voodoo Science," books of essays by Stephen Jay Gould, Coyne's "Why Evolution is True") and negative, in their criticism of religion's discredited truth claims and baleful social effects (the ones you all know by Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens, as well as Kaminer's "Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials" and Mills' "Atheist Universe"). A tough call, but I'd have to choose this book by Sagan for the very best of the group. To call it a book about the scientific method would make it sound dull--which it decidedly was not!--so let me rather characterize the book as providing the epistemological basis for a life of freedom. To catalogue the book's intellectual riches would be either to reproduce it word for word, or to be annoyingly pedantic, so one example alone will have to suffice. Sagan clarifies the two meanings the word "science" has, namely the method whereby we come to know things with some confidence, and the body of facts known thereby. This one idea distinguishes science from religion (religion has its store of dogma, but no method to determine whether or not any of it is true, relying on faith rather than any objective method), and illuminates the source of science's success in explaining the world (further experiments and theory can result in changes and revisions to what is considered to be true, and even overthrowing it; the final arbiter is nature, not any given human being's opinions). As Sagan himself states: "The method of science, as stodgy and grumpy as it may seem, is far more important than the findings of science"). The eclipse of science in America, due to funding issues, poorly-conceived educational practices (translation: science in elementary school is dull), and the efforts of the strange bedfellows of the religious right and the po-mo left, both eager to prevent any true scientific reasoning from overthrowing their subjective beliefs and political opinions, is leading to widespread religiously inspired ignorance, political extremism reactionary to the point of fascism (you think I'm exaggerating, but I hear it every day from my still-fundamentalist friends and family) and, more to the point and if the right can prevent any action from being taken on the climate crisis (the details of which we know by the hard work of those "stodgy and grumpy" scientists), the extinction of the human race within the next 100-150 years. It is silly to think that any one book, even one as wildly exciting as this one, can change this state of affairs--but one can always hope.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780345409461
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
02/25/1997
Publisher:
BALLANTINE BOOKS
Pages:
480
Height:
.86IN
Width:
5.47IN
Thickness:
1.00
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
1996
Series Volume:
143
UPC Code:
2800345409463
Author:
Carl Sagan
Author:
Ann Druyan
Author:
Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan
Author:
Carl Sagan
Subject:
Science and civilization -- Popular works.
Subject:
Science and civilization
Subject:
General science
Subject:
Science
Subject:
Science -- Study and teaching.
Subject:
Science Reference-Philosophy of Science
Subject:
Science -- Methodology.
Subject:
History

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