The Demon-Haunted World; Science As A Candle In The Dark

Context on why I was sent this epub from my friend in the first place:

I was perplexed over people’s obsession with the most bizarre nonsense. Astrology, crystal healing, modern witchcraft, and many more things I see all too often. My friend suggested this book and sent me over an epub as they felt it’d give nice context around the phenomenon.

Well, I have a much deeper understanding of the issue after reading this book. Sagan deeply loves science and has made me view science in a completely new light, it’s truly inspirational. I’m doing so, he covers pseudoscience and the many wonders of why we believe in things we believe in. Little did I know my questions of why people believe crystals cure cancer has a lot to do with our belief in witches (leading to thousands of burned women at the stake just a few centuries ago) and even things like modern aliens abductions (which have almost no strong evidence to back them up)

Sagan deep-dives into science, morality, how to develop a BS detector, how to think critically, the state of the world and where it may lead, and much more.

As someone who loves science and applies many of its philosophies across my life, it was a wonderful read that opened my eyes to the devolution of our ability to appreciate the beauty of science and critical thinking - instead favoring our crystals and astrology symbols.

Amazing book, that has made me all the more critical of where the world is headed.

As I began reading this book, I realized that a lot of the issues in this book are similar to the issues the current group of presidential hopefuls are debating. Unfortunately, everything that Sagan says is wrong with politicians happens to be occurring.

This was a great book, and makes me want to continue to hone my skeptical skills as those will always be something required. Way too often we are told to believe, but then are not given the substance of those beliefs. I'm not a person to continue to blindly believe anyone, or anything now, without critically looking at what I'm being asked to believe. I can belatedly thank Carl Sagan for this, and I do thank his wife Ann Druyan.

This was just an awesome book, and should be required reading for anyone entering High School. Unfortunately, most politicians would find that abhorrent, as they require blind faith in the ideas that they are putting forth.