The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ann Druyan, Carl SaganEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-02-25
ISBN: 0345409469
Number of pages: 480
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780345409461
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Book Review: Sagan, a man with an inherent, but unutterable faith.
Summary: 5 Stars
The following is an email summary/critique that I put together for a friend regarding Carl Sagan and and my experience of faith as it relates to Sagan. I found his book quite challenging and enjoyed his full-court press to be sure we think. (Another book of interest that another friend of mine is reading is "Can a Smart Person Believe in God?" by Michael Guillen. He has some comments on Sagan and his belief system also.)
"I am writing now that I have finished The Demon Haunted World. Well, I have about thirty or fewer pages left. I wish I could speak directly to you. I usually do better in person than writing.
First, I want to say that I really enjoyed the experience of reading this piece. Thanks for recommending it. I never would have chosen to read it given the many other books on my shelf. It forced me to look through critical eyes at all the parts of my everyday life. For example, to imagine how I could stand outside at night and look at Orion and not assume that God had 'hung' those stars there was foreign to me. I grew up seeing stars and talking to God about my experience of them. To think about myself in the context of this existence without the awareness of myself in the context of my relationally-perceived world left me in touch with an abject aloneness. In fact, to assume that there is nothing else beyond what I can see reminds me of an experience I'd like to relate to you.
When our sons were nine and twelve, they were old enough to leave at home after school for an hour and a half till Jane got there so I could return to work for an hour or two. I met them at home at three on Tuesdays and Thursdays then went back to the office for an appointment at five. We had a family dog that was always there with them. She was suddenly killed by a car around that time. I never knew how much a comfort Sasha was until then.
When I left them at home alone that first day--alone without the dog--I felt horrible, that I was abandoning our sons. There was a 'presence' of some sort that was missing, even though she was only a pet. She was truly a being, and she filled the space of our home with some nondescript presence--really. This was suddenly missing. I could not now easily leave our two sons without the comfort of our former pet.
This simplistically is how I experience life with and without an ongoing relationship with God. With God, I can reflect and interact on a relational plane. Suddenly choosing to assume there is no God for the purpose of understanding Sagan, I become left without the Presence of another. It would be analogous to losing my ability as a human being to have the ability to observe myself and to interact with myself from both within and as if I am outside of myself. I truly have a relationship with myself since I can talk to myself, answer myself and make decisions based on my interaction with myself. I think there is an extrapolation that can be made based on my interaction with myself to my interaction with my perception of a living God who interacts with me.
I am fully aware that Carl Sagan could never, at least before his death a few years ago, go beyond what was provable by science at that particular time. It is my opinion that Carl Sagan is presently with his Maker. I believe he now has met the Author of the world he so diligently, methodically and faithfully studied. There are now new extrapolations for him to make--just an eternity of doing more of what he did his whole life here. Who can know if he is right now studying the physics and astronomy of all that which is beyond the farthest reaches of our present imaginations, not just what is beyond what is presently provable in this world, especially since he is in the next.
Okay, that's my introduction and overview, longer than I intended. Here are some other reflections: Carl Sagan interacted with nature around him out of a position of faith. By that I mean that he came from the point of view that there is an ontological belief that once the topic of his study is fully understood, there will be a comprehensible, communicable explanation of the world around him. He truly believed that whatever he studied would on one day or on one millennium finally make sense. It may not make sense now. It can't be explained now. He also would have said that it should never be assumed, however, that the explanation can simply be that there is a Being that created the world to take care of the complexities.
But what he did do was treat the world out of a position of belief. He believed that science is a tool that can be trusted to find the truth. It may only be "a candle," to use his subtitle, but it is a trusted friend. In fact, he tested science over his lifetime to the point that I believe that we might say that he developed faith in it as a tool. I could go on about this, but think the point is well-enough made.
The part that I find most amazing is that, in my view, Carl Sagan interacted with "Nature" as a respected, valued, trustworthy friend. He capitalized the word Nature. He treated it with what Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, called an "I, Thou" relationship. Buber's concept (which Buber used to develop relational ethics) helps us see that there is a difference if we treat the 'other' not as an it, but as a "Thou." Carl interacted with the universe as he saw it out of a set of beliefs that assumed that life can be explained from a rational point of view, that it is not an It, but a Thou. He held that which he studied in high esteem. I believe he treated it as God would really have wanted him to treat it (better sadly than almost all of those who call themselves believers).
At this moment, I am looking up as I type and see two beautiful, very large birds of prey flying overhead. It looks as if one is not moving through the air, as if it is standing still; yet I know that he has met a balance in wind resistance with respect to his direction with the wind. The birds are now so far away that they are nearly just spots. A brief while ago they were maybe fifty yards away. Such beauty must be studied to find out what they are. They are large enough to be a golden eagle. Whew, for me this is truly an I-Thou relationship. I have been birdwatching since the summer of 1985, the year my father died. I began it because he always taught me about birds, and since then, I have grown a deep love for them. How could such an affinity be there without some other mystical, relational quality? Yes, I know that it is all a function of the food I've eat en this morning giving me the energy in a body that has converted the food into enzymes and a plethora of other chemicals, along with a lifetime of the programming of my eyes and ears to feed data to my brain and in some way create an intelligible understanding of that material. Yes, all of it can possibly some day be explained in scientific terms, but that doesn't threaten my faith. However, it all came from somewhere. I simply think that Carl was unable for his own reasons not to be able to give credit to Something that doesn't fall under the light of the candle.
Carl was a brilliant man of his era. But he was still a man of his era only. I think he could not return to the concept of mystery, of the unexplainable being at the core of life. He was a modern man who grew up in a modern world, one that is describable in scientific terms. He apparently never was able to take the step beyond, the one that quantum physics and other present studies appear to be making. He needed, I think, to be able to leave the world with the gift of a tool called science so he could relax before leaving the earth.
In the future, I look forward to further understanding of the theories of relativity, quantum physics, et.al., so I can comprehend both the mystery and the presently rationally understandable aspects of life. Carl did not seem to be able to step into the post-modern world where we now live. He did, however, speak throughout the book of the "wonder" or the "beauty" on Nature. That to me shows that though he did not ever write that he professed faith, he lived a life based on faith."
Summary of The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
"A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought."*Los Angeles Times
"POWERFUL . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing."
*The Washington Post Book World
How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.
Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.
"COMPELLING."
*USA Today
"A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity."
*The Sciences
"PASSIONATE."
*San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle
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.
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