The case for a sensible worldviewSeptember 17, 2007 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As the 20th century's greatest voice for the popularization of science and rationality, Carl Sagan performed a noble public service. In this age of nearly instant communication and information overload, we each need to develop a quick and reliable method for sorting good information from interesting but bogus anecdotes. Sagan's "baloney detection kit" offers us that very tool for avoiding credulity.
As our society becomes ever more dependent on complex technology, it seems that an ever shrinking proportion of the population has a grasp on how that technology functions or what consequences its failure might give rise to. There seems to be a widespread desire by many individuals to divorce themselves from understanding in favor of immersing themselves in comfortable fantasy. Sagan argues that such a turning away from rationality and reason could usher in a new dark age.
For those who have an interest in seeing our society continue to progress, this book is somewhat of an eye-opener. The current increase in interest in the supernatural is precisely what Sagan was warning about. His writing style is personal and narrative, with many examples from his own life. The book is an easy and engaging read that holds your interest.
Highly recommended.
Excellent book....September 5, 2007 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a fabulous book. Sagan does a wonderful job of promoting the field of science to non-scientists. I wonder how many young - or open minded - people have been pulled into science fields after reading it?
A book that could save the world (if enough people would read it)September 5, 2007 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is the antidote to so much nonsense that fills the heads of well-meaning people everywhere. If only the world would read this book. Imagine what we might achieve.
Sagan makes a convincing case for reason and skepticism. He describes how thinking goes off track and he warns how dangerous it is for our species to continue its rapid pace of technological progress while still clinging to beliefs and attitudes that were more appropriate for the last Ice Age.
If you remember just one thing, make it this: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
--Guy P. Harrison, author of 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God
I also recommend these books:
The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions
Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time
The skeptical super-scientist asks us all to look at the evidenceAugust 9, 2007 6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Sagan sees Science as a candle in the dark. He sees it as the method by which through use of test and evidence we discover the nature of reality. He is troubled by the fact that the great mass of mankind is ignorant scientifically at a time of science's growing power to shape our lives. He examines in this book various forms of superstition and demolishes them one by one. Sagan believes it rational to believe not what we come to through faith but through careful testing of the evidence. His opposition to astrology and New Age mumbo - jumbo is on this basis. Sagan believes Science yields us truth and knowledge which may not be in accord with our wishes and desires. He believes that Religion's weakness is that it makes the effort to provide truths about the real world that it does not have the means to. Religion can be poetry, literature, ethics, can teach values but Sagan argues it is only for Science to provide us insight into Nature in a true way. It is possible to disagree with him on his understanding of religion and faith, while at the same time recognizing that his defense of the scientific method and his discrediting of pseudo- scientific nonsense is justified. However he also might well have pointed out that there is within scientific work itself great differences between those areas in which there is real testability and verifability and those in which various degrees of speculation prevail. I am not sure for instance he would be too thrilled with the plethora of untestable'theories' now coming out of 'evolutionary psychology'.
two small quibbles...July 23, 2007 8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Page 275--Sagan misunderstands what the Catholic Church teaches about the Eucharist. True, the Church teaches that the Eucharist is the Real Body and Blood of Christ, not "just productive metaphor." But the Church does not teach that the wafer and wine in any way change chemically or materially at the moment of Consecration. The change is in the essence of the wafer and wine, a spiritual change, for want of a better expression.
Pages 141-147--Regarding religious visions and apparations. I'm an avid collector of news items about the odd places where Mary/Jesus are appearing now--in the burn marks on tortillas, in oil slicks at Jiffy Lube, etc. (My personal favorite is a story about Our Lady of Guadalupe appearing in a salt stain in the water runoff under the JFK expressway in Chicago. Photos reveal an image that bears an uncanny resemblance to both OLG and a giant female sex organ.) Do I know if God is really behind these rather banal "apparitions" with seemingly ordinary, coincidental causes? No. But as long as the people who find them aren't using them for their own personal gain, I don't see the problem with giving such apparitions the benefit of the doubt.
Besides, if someone sees Jesus' face in a tortilla and because of that gives up drinking and starts treating his wife better (as Maria Rubio's husband supposedly did), I'm not prepared to argue that the Lord doesn't work in mysterious ways.
Other than that, an excellent book. I'd say it should be required reading in high school, but that would guarantee kids wouldn't read it.
