Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark

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Err
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Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark

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Carl Sagan: The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark

I remember sitting with my Dad as a young child and watching the first run of the series Cosmos. Later, in my sophomore year of High School, I read the accompanying book. Cosmos had a profound impact on my wanting to go into the sciences and I now hold a BS in Microbiology. I've always held Carl Sagan is the highest regard.

The Demon-Haunted World can be best described as a look into pseudo-science and what tools are needed to detect it. The book addresses alien abductions, crop circles, and psychics among other modern day beliefs. Sagan instructs the reader to view everything with skepticism. He goes on to lament the failings of the US education system in teaching students to be thinkers rather that regurgitating dates and facts and links it to the proliferation of the pseudo-science that plagues our society. He also regrets the failing of scientists to make science more accessible to those without a background in science. The book finishes by illustrating that asking questions should not be limited to science but should apply to everything; emphasizing politics.

I enjoyed this book and recommend that everyone read it. This was a great refresher even to someone in the sciences. Sagan's book was well thought out and the only problems I had were that he let his emotions speak a bit loudly in the closing chapters. However, as Sagan writes, we are all fallible beings.
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