 | Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com | Carl Sagan muses on the current state of scientific thought, which offers him marvelous opportunities to entertain us with his own childhood experiences, the newspaper morgues, UFO stories, and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of pseudoscience. Along the way he debunks alien abduction, faith-healing, and channeling; refutes the arguments that science destroys spirituality, and provides a "baloney detection kit" for thinking through political, social, religious, and other issues. |
Average Customer Rating:   Be a Candle, Cast out Demons With over 400 reviews already written for this book, I could not think of any new or clever commentary to add. So, I'll provide a small tidbit from the book to illustrate the research, content, and tone that Sagan offers the reader in abundance.
"The chronicle of those who were consumed by fire [burned alive for witchcraft] in the single German city of Wurzburg in the single year 1598 penetrates the statistics and lets us confront a little of the human reality: ...old Mrs. Kanzler; the tailor's fat wife; the woman cook of Mr. Mengerdorf; a stranger; a strange woman; Baunach, a senator, the fattest citizen in Wurtzburg; the old smith of the court; an old woman; a little girl, nine or ten years old; a younger girl, her little sister; the mother of the two little aforementioned girls; Liebler's daughter; Goebel's child, the most beautiful girl in Wurtzburg; a student who knew many languages; two boys from the Minster, each twelve year old; Stepper's little daughter; the woman who kept the bridge gate; an old woman; the little son of the town council bailiff; the wife of Knertz; the butcher; the infant daughter of Dr. Schultz; a blind girl..." (pages 121 and 122)
Looking at Sagan's list of references for this particular chapter, I'd say he probably pulled this from "Europe's Inner Demons" by Norman Cohn. In any case, the vendettas, perversions, sadism, and suffering associated with those tortuous trials and painful executions is almost beyond comprehension. Wikipedia tells me that the Jews of Wurzburg were massacred in 1147 and again in 1298. During Nazi rule, nearly all of the Jews and Gypsies in Wurzburg were killed. British bombers subsequently destroyed 90% of the city in March of 1945. Wurzburg was rebuilt and, judging by photos on the web, looks beautiful today. I digress, but that's one fringe benefit of a good book... it sets you off on interesting and educational tangents.
The world is still an demon-haunted place for many people. I see little hope of that changing anytime soon. But please be a candle whenever you can. Be careful with anything that even vaguely resembles blind faith, includes a pinch of hocus pocus, or smells funny. Squash malicious gossip, exclusionary tactics, inflammatory rhetoric, and irrational nonsense. Alleviate pain and suffering. Encourage cooperation, engage in spirited but civil debate, and teach your children well. A peaceful prosperous world with enlightened civilizations and liberal democratic governments is our goal here. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Sagan is one of them. Reality vs. superstition Sagan points out that the real and science-based world is much more awe-inspiring than the world according to a) holy books written by ignorant people who thought the Earth was flat and b) modern-day advocates of the paranormal and pseudo-science. There's no reason to be afraid of reality. There is something on every page that expands your horizons. Gene's Review A good book to debunk superstition and blind faith without evidence, with typical Sagan wit and humor thrown in. Agreement I completely agree with "MyUncleStu". And, although I'm now a lawyer, I was a Philosophy major as an undergrad. We're not all as dense as he alludes in passing. I chose that discipline because I wanted to "know", not just believe. Carl Sagan has always helped me to do that. He is special among those few we might read to sharpen our perspectives on faux science/religion/superstition. Do yourself a huge favor: read him! Sagan's Last Stand Sagan's book is one of the classic entries in science and skeptical writing.
I was surprised to find there was such an enormous focus in this book on UFOs and the pseudoscience of alien visitation and abduction. There were more pseudoscientific topics covered, but I would say at least half of the book is devoted to this one topic, though there are technically several aspects to the delusions involved. Even the part about witches and the persecution of supposed witches in the Middle Ages is detailed in order to delineate the correlation between the thought processes of both phenomena.
He spends several chapters talking about scientific methodology, and as one would expect from Sagan, the wonder experienced by taking the scientific view of the universe.
In the last couple of chapters he discusses some things that have disgusted me for a very long time, and I was happy to see someone else with such a reputation delve into them. These are issues dealing with the educational system in the U.S. lagging behind other systems in developed countries, as well as the dumbing-down of culture in general. People not only don't care about intellectual things, but actually consider such things to be undesirable and discourage each other from taking an interest in knowledge and critical thinking. This is a depressing trend that may cause the downfall of our nation if not reversed.
Reading this book is a must for those that hold a scientific, skeptical worldview. |  |
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