Title:
The Demon-Haunted World
Author:
Carl Sagan
Publisher:
Random House, 1995
ISBN
0-394-53512-X

I've been familiar with Carl Sagan from way back. I remember him smiling out from the flickering glare of the family television, introducing me to the wonders of the Universe. He was always a friendly man, visibly excited about what he was showing us. It seemed almost unfair to make fun of the way he pronounced the word "billions."

But in The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan is an angry man. No, he doesn't throw open his window, and scream, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" In true Carl Sagan fashion, he presents his readers with the frustrations he feels with the seemingly inexorable and world wide trend towards foolishness.

Now, Sagan is often misunderstood, and maybe my interpretation of his motivations are an example of that. But in the book's preface, he introduces us to the power he felt when he finally bloodied the nose of the local bully. I felt that he clearly was out to bloody the nose of another bully.

The book is divided into twenty-five somewhat rambling chapters. There are references for most of his substantive statements, although they aren't footnoted. There is an index, which appears to be well constructed, although the book itself is probably not going to be used as a reference work.

The thread that runs through all twenty-five chapters is that a democracy depends on the public's ability to make informed decisions. Yet, he maintains, the ability of a citizen of the USA - and just about anywhere else - to make these decisions is almost fatally hampered by the prevalence of superstition, uncritically consumed by us every minute of every day.

Sagan pulls few punches. He takes on religions and religious leaders who encourage their followers to believe in miracles. He takes aim at work-a-day frauds and the popular media that expose them to the sparkle of a circus instead of the glare of skeptical examination. He castigates the unwillingness to sufficiently fund education, and he blasts the educators who take a child who loves to learn and turn her into a teenager who is afraid to learn.

To those of us who are scientists, by profession or by avocation, Sagan is often preaching to the choir. But his reasoning is persuasive. I think many who read this book will be encouraged to reawaken their skepticism, to reexamine ideas that before they held unquestioned. Sagan admits that this facet of science is what makes it unpopular: it asks us to abandon dearly held beliefs when the facts cannot support them. But Sagan argues, and I think readers will agree, that when science has given us the power to destroy ourselves we can no longer afford superstitions; we must no longer pander to sensation.