“Some portion of the decision making that influences the fate of our civilization is plainly in the hands of charlatans.” –Carl Sagan
Our world is rife with superstition, pseudo-science, theological fraud, sound bites and a decay of substantive content in the media, a celebration of ignorance and anti-intellectualism, and a disdain of true science (the latter three are especially true in the United States). In The Demon-Haunted World, Doctor Carl Sagan addresses these topics and much more, showing us the value of skepticism and scrutiny over mindless gullibility and immediate acceptance of statements from authority.
In each chapter, Sagan cites numerous incidents throughout history of when large swaths of society and entire nations were deceived by unquestioned superstition and false beliefs, dangerous political and social propaganda, the suppression of ideas and opposing views, and yes, even unethical scientists who apply their knowledge toward the detriment of humanity rather than its benefit.
Sagan also delves into cases of alien abductions, faith healing, telepathy, channeling spirits of the dead, and other “spurious” claims, even going so far as to include in the book correspondence from people throughout the country insisting on the existence of aliens, their visitations to Earth, their experimentations on, and in some cases impregnation of, unwitting victims, and their overall plans for humanity.
He does all of this without hubris or vanity, merely stating that science—when applied properly—allows us to maintain a skeptical mind toward outlandish assertions, to question the validity of dogmatic teachings, to interrogate the natural world for answers, and to perform experiments in search of facts rather believing whatever the authority du jour dictates as “fact.”
Sagan firmly believed that science and spirituality are not mutually exclusive and in fact, describes how and why each requires the other.]
Ultimately, as Sagan declared in his Cosmos television series and elsewhere, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” The Demon-Haunted World drives this point home eloquently and with great detail.
Arguably the most popular science communicator since Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, in collaboration with fellow astrophysicist Donald Goldsmith, delivers an engaging and sometimes humorous account of the origins of the universe, our solar system, our planet, and life on Earth. I read Origins shortly after watching Tyson’s Inexplicable Universe series and reading A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss. As such, some of the material covered in the book (as well as a few of Tyson’s jokes) was review, such as the types and nature of quarks, the expansion of the universe as demonstrated by the Doppler effect (something I learned while watching the original Cosmos as the age of nine), the formation (and naming) of the planets, moons, and asteroids in our solar system (learned in middle school and high school), and a tour of periodic table (it’s been a while!).
Counted among the best of contemporary science popularizers, Dr. Lawrence Krauss presents an edifying and eminently readable guide through the scientific theories of cosmogony, as well as the history of scientific research and discovery on the topic, all to answer the question, “Is there truly such a thing as nothing?”
