The Demon-Haunted World

I'm still around, I haven't forgotten book blogging!  It's hard to keep up with those book-bloggers who post at least daily, and great posts, not just some quick drivel to keep their site "updated."  But I do what I can with my little blog, and I'm really having fun here, so don't hate.

It's taken me a little over a week to read Carl Sagan's A Demon-Haunted World.

 

Carl Sagan was an astronomer whose life's work included awakening a sense of wonder for science among science-buffs and non-buffs with books (and films) such as Cosmos and Pale Blue Dot, the first of which I know to be a "history of everything" type of book that covers topics in philosophy, religion, etc. as well as hard science.  So knowing this much, I was anxious to get started learning a bit about this thing that is science and why there is so much opposition to it - as much now as ever.

The book begins with Sagan's personal experiences with science, and how he first came to respect it for the infallible system of truth-finding that it is (my words).  Sagan denounces religious fanaticism and superstition, old and new (and growing, unfortunately) because of its fallibility and supposed doctrines which even when proven to be false are adhered to just as ferociously by their fanatics.  I couldn't agree more with Sagan's ideas in this book, and I think he presented them in a non-hating way - not only of religion (the non-fanatical kind) but of the human beings who practice religion and stick to traditions that are not based on scientific research and discovery.  Occasionally, he does call out the superstitious for their supposedly impractical and useless beliefs, and while I appreciate his intentions to expose frauds, I don't completely agree that anyone who sincerely believes the world was created 6,000 years ago to be a fraud by definition, or more broadly that a world without (granted, diverse factions of) religion would be a terrific place.  I think the same people who abuse religion toward their own amoral ends would also (and do) abuse science for just as sinister purposes.  This idea is of course downplayed as Sagan explains that many more people have been saved by "science" than have been victimized by it - and this is probably true (there are not many footnotes, but I can use my faculty of common sense), yet we can't assume that there is a hidden beneficial purpose of the hydrogen bomb.

Another theme in Sagan's book besides the de-bunking is the current path that various countries in the world are taking regarding science.  The United States is the focus of this book because Sagan is an American, and he takes issue with the dumbing down of the school system, the spread of fundamentalism among mostly Christians (the Creationists) in America, and most importantly the cause of these other problems, the fall of skepticism.  Sagan devotes various chapters to actual letters he's received from everyday Americans responding to an article with the same ideas presented in this book, firstly 10th graders and then parents of school-age children.  The letters from the high-school students are shameful, filled with misspellings and other grammatical errors that you have to wonder if Sagan chose the absolute worst-written letters to publish here, and where he could've found so many 10th-graders who could barely read or write at a 4th-grade level.  Interestingly, all of the parents' letters are grammatically sound, which begs the question of where those letters came from that all "grown-ups" in that town could be so darn smart in comparison to the next generation (aka their own children).  A little bias for the sake of making a point, it seems.

And the last theme I'll talk about here before giving my verdict is the future of science, as seen by Carl Sagan.  He asks:  "How could we put more science on television?" knowing that television, as in the 1990's at the time of this publication, is pretty much every American's golden calf.  What he comes up with are, on the whole, some either naive or terribly outdated ideas for educational programming a la the following.  I ask if you could possibly imagine a TV show called Solved Mysteries with its "rational resolutions" on television; or a show about "coordinated government lie[s]".

Sagan largely asks why can't things be more like they were?  And my answer to that lies in the above paragraph.  Is it legal to question?  Sure it is.  Will your life be made much more difficult for it?  Will you lose your standard of living, your job or your friends?  Maybe.  It may take much more than a few scientific TV programs to change the way America operates nowadays, but I, like Sagan, have no idea how to go about digging that deep.  In any case, I did enjoy reading this book for various reasons:  I love the way Sagan writes so clearly and, well, reasonably, that you can't help but agree with him and wonder what the heck we're doing with ourselves if not being just as reasonable.  Why don't we study more?  Why is science a bad word to so many of us?  It also gets you thinking further:  As one of the country's biggest opposing mates to science, how prevalent is real religious fundamentalism?  Is it all or mostly politically motivated, or have people really just had enough of reality?  Why are they disenchanted with reality, what can we do about it (hint: today's TV ain't gonna fix this one).  I also loved Sagan's chapter The Fine Art of Baloney Detection, where he cites the various fallacies scientists contend with and how to recognize them in the everyday.  Very helpful in debates, if that's your thing.  And I really love pop science books (or any subject) that makes you want to go out and become a scientist (or whatever).  For anyone interested in science, or just the real workings of the world, you can't find a better beginning than this, a great manual for skeptics and thinking folk of all shapes, sizes and even religious persuasions.