carl sagan the demon haunted world sparknotes

Sagan was a celebrity in his lifetime, a “rock star” scientist. The tome is large enough to dissuade a full summary within the word-limits I set for myself on these daily posts, but I can say that this book is necessary now more than ever.

It’s almost preternatural in its accuracy. Indeed, the book shows Sagan clearly worried that an authoritarian, totalitarian government was on the rise. Published some two decades before the rise of Trump, the book is surprisingly prophetic when it points to the possibility of the rise of fascism in a nation that distrusts science. And that includes the universe of politics. Sagan admits that science can’t speak definitively on the supernatural-something that sets him apart from other science writers-but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t apply scientific thinking anywhere it’s appropriate. Back into the realm of observable facts and testable hypotheses, it was indeed like a candle in the dark. Reading this just after Gabriele Amorth’s An Exorcist Explains Demons, noteworthy for its credulousness, The Demon-Haunted World was like whiplash into reality. It was also Sagan’s final book published in his lifetime. Although that is indeed the case, the book is a collection of essays vindicating in various ways the practice and teaching of science.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect-I’ve been researching demons and I supposed they would be addressed in his book, since they feature in the title. The last time I was in Ithaca, therefore, I picked up a copy of his tour de force, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Dedicated to the scientific method, he nonetheless admits that there are some things scientists don’t know. Among scientists who write Carl Sagan has always struck me as one of the more open minded.

Carl sagan the demon haunted world sparknotes