The Demon Haunted World

Carl (Edward) Sagan (1934 – 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, astrophysicist and author [1].

He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in physics at the University of Chicago in 1956 [2] and his doctorate in astronomy and astropysics in 1960. Among other things he is known for the first messages send to space (the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record) [1].

Carl Sagan wrote several popular science books like The Dragons of Eden, Contact, Wonder And Skepticism, The demon haunted world and many more [3]

In the book The demon haunted world Sagan writes about the importance of the combination of wonder and skepticism in science. He wants to teach the differences between valid science and pseudoscience.

He complains about the problem that the society does not teach everybody how to distinguish real science from imitation and says that the ignorance of science and mathematics imposes a threat to society.

He writes that it is crucial to understand an issue to make intelligent decisions.

To prove his points he shows a lot of different examples in history. He talks about the science in antic Greek and how it was almost lost in the Middle Ages. He states that science and democracy are dependent on each other to survive.

To show how easy science is confused with pseudoscience Sagan talks about various examples like "The man in the moon", "The face on the Mars" or even "Aliens" and "Alien abductions" as more recent examples but also about witch hunts in the past.

In the chapter "The fine art of Baloney detection" Sagan shares two different scientific tool kits. On the one hand he presents "The scientific tool kit" to validate your own science and on the other hand "The baloney detection kit" to analyze the arguments made by others. I want to share both with you later in this post.

After his "baloney detection kit" he writes about miracle healer, the placebo effect and especially the "Carlos Entity hoax". I really recommend looking that up. I found this story quite interesting.

In Addition to that Sagan talks about science in different cultures at different times. He writes about the problem that "making the president nervous is the new crime" and the fear that more and more rights will be revoked. He talks about free speech and the different approaches to deal with whistleblowers in different countries. He quotes Thomas Jefferson: "A Society That Will Trade A Little Liberty For A Little Order Will Lose Both, And Deserve Neither."

I honestly enjoyed reading this book. It is well written and I think I learned quite a lot. Buying this book is money well spend.