If this book makes you angry, you need to read it.December 27, 1996 2 out of 5 found this review helpful
Carl Sagan shows us that the rise of pseudoscience is not trivial, but a major threat to the survival of democracy. With humor as well as dead serious facts, he invites us to see science as a process leading toward truth; even when it hurts. Chock full of well told accounts of the struggle between our hunger for truths and our wish for the truth to be what we hope it to be
The scientific rebuttal to New Age hooey.December 17, 1996 2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am an X-Files fan. I shamelessly pay lip service to all manner of extra-terrestrial, supernatural, and otherwise "out there" theories about the universe and our role in it. I have to admit, some of them seemed appealing. But there was something missing - we never heard from the other side. This only provided more ammunition for the paranoid, "They don't answer because they know they're wrong!" Here is Carl's answer.
* I never knew who made electricity (John Maxwell), and that the electromagnetic spectrum was created to counter Anton Mesmer's (the hypnotist, who created the word mesmerism) theory of animal attraction (that's where that saying came from!). * I had no idea just how much hypnosis can influence others - read about the hypnotists who unintentionally plant suggestions into their young patients minds, and the accusations of devil-worshipping and satanic sacrifice that come about as a result. * Carl slams the alien face on Mars with some hard evidence (there is an error in photography that is one of the nostrils of the figure on Mars). * Crop circles are FAKE! The guys who invented them came out and admitted it...so why is everyone still talking about them anyway?
Before you make any decisions about the New Age, aliens, or any other popular quasi-theories that exist today, READ THIS BOOK.
A must-read for the human race as we enter the 21rst centuryDecember 5, 1996 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The scientific method itself is more important than any one of its resulting hypotheses. Humankind should take special care of recognizing questionable claims, since there will be many unscientific and questionable claims being made during the next several years (around the beginning of the 21rst century).This book is a good reminder to think twice before believing anything
Brilliant commentaries on delusional and muddy thinkingOctober 7, 1996 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Carl Sagan is a national treasure! In this easy to read,no-nonsense book, he provides the lay reader with the toolsof clear thinking, while also giving many examples of poor thinking. Never one to bemoan the darkness rather than light a candle, another take on the title of his book, Sagan helps the reader think through some of the more popular myths (UFOs, alien abductions, recovered memory syndrome, religion), and leaves the reader with a "baloney detection kit" to help think through the myths yet in the making. One of the main ideas I came away with from reading this book is that we need more Carl Sagans.
Outstanding intuition of all things science.October 7, 1996 1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Dr. Sagan is one of the best, if not the best, at making extremely complicated scientific subjects accessible for the lay person. This book, once again, sheds lighton issues that we as general public should know. In other words, is it fact or fiction? I have to admit that I am biased. I grew up with 'Comos' the series and subsequently read almost every book written by Dr. Sagan. This and 'Broca's Brain' are now my two favorite books on science. Thanks, Scott Harris
