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# 2016-11-14 - The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan | |
Book cover image | |
Non-fiction book review written on December 30th, 2011. | |
I read this book for the baloney detection toolkit. The book | |
contains many ideas. Some seem obvious and simple, but they required | |
active thought and enthusiasm to formulate. One of the most | |
interesting was the idea that to further science, it is important to | |
combine credulity with skepticism. "The judicious mix of these two | |
modes of thought is central to the success of science. ... But | |
neither is easy." | |
By volume, most of the book is spent discussing UFO's and religion. | |
Much of this is old hat, but I enjoyed the sections about religious | |
doctrines that are falsifiable. For example, on the efficacy of | |
prayer versus the longevity of monarchs. Despite the heartfelt | |
mantra of "God save the Queen" or King, monarchs do not, | |
statistically, live longer than others in their social class. One | |
can draw data from millennia of history, all the way back to ancient | |
Egyptians, may the gods grant the Pharaoh live forever. | |
"... but if we must make errors, given the stakes, they should be on | |
the side of safety. ... Today our poison arrows can destroy the | |
global civilization and just possibly annihilate our species. The | |
price of moral ambiguity is now too high." -- Carl Sagan | |
"So far from being an isolated phenomenon the late war is only an | |
example of the disruptive result that we may constantly expect from | |
the progress of science. ... We have improved our armaments, and | |
patriotism, which was once a flame upon the altar, has become a | |
world-devouring conflagration." -- J.B.S. Haldane [2] | |
The Demon Haunted World references a couple of relevant public domain | |
books: | |
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds | |
by Charles Mackay, 1841 [3] | |
Mysticism and Logic by Bertrand Russel, 1929 [4] | |
[2] | |
Cautionary quote about science and war | |
[3] | |
Extraodinary Popular Delusions by Charles, Mackay, 1841 | |
[4] | |
Mysticism and Logic by Bertrand Russel, 1929 | |
author: Sagan, Carl, 1934-1996 | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/The_Demon-Haunted_World | |
LOC: Q175 .S215 | |
tags: book,non-fiction,science | |
title: The Demon Haunted World | |
# Tags | |
book | |
non-fiction | |
science |