The Demon-Haunted World
From SkepticWiki
- Full title: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
- Author: Carl Sagan
- ISBN 0345409469
[edit] Review
A heart-felt plea for enlightenment, inquiry, and open-mindedness from one of the great scientific philosophers of our time. Dr. Carl Sagan was a champion of the skepticism movement because he always treated the subjects of his criticism with fairness, honesty, and compassion. He finished writing this book as he was suffering from the disease that took his life, and his peers have stated that he felt this book would be his last work. This added a new level of awareness, and gave strength to his convictions. Sagan attacked the ongoing (and increasing) plague of pseudo-science that always draws more attention than the actual research that furthers the cause of science.
In Demon-Haunted World, Sagan looks at UFOs, crop circles, "psychic" phenomena, conspiracy theories, legends of Atlantis, and all of the fringe elements that serve to keep a great number of people in the dark. Dr. Sagan was a crusader for the cause of true science, and his words live on in this outstanding book. (One of the points of the book is the basis of a long-standing rule used by skeptics: junk science books sell far better than true science.)
In this book, (as in real life) Sagan maintains respect, and even compassion for the deluded believer, which in no way prevents his speaking truth to various delusions. He tends to place the blame for credulity on social institutions; particularly educational and political systems, and the mass media. He does not hold scientific establishments blameless either; scientists have a duty, he argues, to make their work accessible and respectable.
[edit] The Dragon in My Garage
This is Sagan's analogy for beliefs in unprovable claims. He makes the claim that the dragon in his garage is invisible, leaves no footprints and breathes heatless fire. A summary of his argument is the question "Now, what's the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?"
[edit] links
A Dragon in My Garage A quote from Demon-Haunted World
