Skip to main content

Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World- A Review

 


THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD

Science as a Candle in the Dark

By  Carl Sagan

 

Reviewed by

  Geoffrey W. Sutton

Carl Sagan injects readers with two treatments followed by booster shots throughout the 25 chapters of The Demon-Haunted World. In the end, enlightened readers will see science, not as a mere candle, but as a brilliant search light in the murky world of opinions, conspiracies, and myths. The first repeated treatment is a healthy dose of skepticism aimed at beliefs that led so many of our ancestors astray or worse, led to horrendous unnecessary deaths. The second treatment is the inspiring and hope-filled vial of scientific discovery catalyzed by curiosity and wonderment and guided by the light of the scientific method.

For the most part, Sagan moves us quickly from one topic to another but there were times when I wished he’d cut some of the UFO stories. I get it. People are gullible and believe all sorts of things about aliens. Of course there’s more. People seek magical cures at great expense. Some still deny the scientific findings about the age and evolution of the universe and life on earth.

It's not just fanciful thinking and denial of evidence that’s been a problem for humankind. We can live with people doing their own thing. But the failure to think critically about beliefs can be incredibly painful and ultimately lethal when religious people seek to purge their territory of those alleged to be witches. Stories of excruciating torture abound. Lives were literally at stake. Fear covered the era in darkness.

Sadly, since the book was published in 1996, we still learn that many people deny the sage advice of scientists regarding the spread of disease and the value of experimentally validated vaccines and treatments. Some Christians still teach students that the universe is only a few thousand years old and deny the evidence supporting evolution. Some religious people continue to deny themselves and their children access to psychological assessments and interventions in favor of spiritual leaders who aim to relieve mental anguish by delivering troubled congregants from demons.

As scientists emerged in an atmosphere of freedom of speech and freedom from oppressive anti-science religions, astounding discoveries came in waves. I’m pretty sure even 62-year old Carl Sagan would be amazed at what we’ve learned since he left the planet the year my copy of the book was published. And we still need the skeptical tools found in his Baloney Detection kit.

 

References

Sagan, C. (1996). The demon-haunted world: Science as a candle in the dark. New York: Ballantine Books. Available on AMAZON

-cite this post-

Sutton, G. W. (2023, January 14). Sagan’s Demon-Haunted World- A Review. Interdisciplinary Journal of Book Reviews. Retrieved from https://suttonreviews.suttong.com/2023/01/sagans-demon-haunted-world-review.html



Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website is  www.suttong.com

 

See Geoffrey Sutton’s books on   AMAZON       or  GOOGLE STORE

Follow on    FACEBOOK   Geoff W. Sutton    

   TWITTER  @Geoff.W.Sutton    

You can read many published articles at no charge:

  Academia   Geoff W Sutton     ResearchGate   Geoffrey W Sutton 


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changing Our Mind by D. Gushee - Review

Changing Our Mind   by David P. Gushee    Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton Changing Our Mind by David P. Gushee is a transformative book that explores the author's evolving views on LGBTQ inclusion within Christianity. Gushee, a prominent Christian ethicist, shares his journey from holding traditional evangelical views to advocating for full acceptance of LGBTQ Christians in the church. He examines biblical texts and theological positions, encouraging readers to reconsider their beliefs in light of new understandings and the lived experiences of LGBTQ individuals. The book is a call for empathy, inclusivity, and a more loving faith community. ***** I read the Kindle version of the third edition of Changing Our Mind as part of my research into Christian worldviews focused on Christian moral perspectives toward people who identify as LGBTQ. I had previously addressed the topic from the perspective of moral psychology in A House Divided (2016) and in a few research studies co...
Post a Comment
Read more

JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE - A book review

  JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE How White Evangelicals        Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation By    Kristin Kobes Du Mez Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton   Kristin Kobes Du Mez begins and ends her assault on militaristic white American evangelical men with their contemporary sociopolitical leader, former president, Donald Trump. In the Introduction we learn the short doctrinal list of what it means to be a Bible-believing evangelical, but the author posits that American evangelicals are more than a set of theological statements. Instead, since the early 1900s they have embraced a John Wayne view of what it means to be a Christian man—a powerful warrior for country and God—a man who leads his troops into battle to uphold the values of God’s chosen people, the Americans. It was the title, Jesus and John Wayne , that was off-putting. I didn’t grow up with John Wayne films or a love of American westerns. I was after...
Post a Comment
Read more

Denial of Death and the Meaningful Life- Book Review

  The Denial of Death   by Ernest Becker A Review by Geoffrey W. Sutton The prospect of death, Dr. Johnson said, wonderfully concentrates the mind. The main thesis of this book is that it does much more than that: the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity—activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.  — Ernest Becker, xvii I completed a recent reading of this old classic yesterday (13 December, 2015) because I was interested in Becker’s contribution to Terror Management Theory, which I find so helpful in understanding the ways U.S. leaders are publicly responding to terrorist activities. Becker’s ideas are more than forty years old and many have not withstood the test of time. However, his basic premise that we deny the reality of death in many ways...
3 comments
Read more