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What do you think about The Demon-Haunted World?

T

Tammuz

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The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a book that is often praised by skeptics and atheists. Have you read that book? If so, what did you think about it?
 
Liked it a lot as a basic statement of the humanist/rationalist outlook. Read it maybe 5 years ago, and it doesn't stand out in my memory as much as some secular/atheistic stuff I've read since. I would sum it up as a good statement of the freethought position.
 
I liked it very much. I read it 10 or 15 years ago. Perhaps I would be more critical now, but I remember really enjoying the insights very much.
 
Based on the title alone I decided not to read it as I figured it wouldn't be ground-breaking for me, but it sounds like something that'd be enjoyable for entry level atheists, or people interested in atheism.
 
Been awhile since I read it, but I wouldn't call it an entry-level introduction to atheism at all. The full title is "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark."

I'm a fan of Sagan, to put it mildly. I've got a passel of his books (Cosmic Connection, Dragons of Eden, The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, this one and others) as well as the remastered Cosmos DVD set.

In the intro for the first episode of Cosmos, he said that to explore the universe we need skepticism and wonder both. DHW is all about skepticism. It covers UFOs, government secrecy, and contains his "baloney detection kit."

In the realm of making science accessible and understandable, nobody comes close to Sagan IMO, and this is one of his best popular books.
 
I thought you were literally asking me what I thought about our demon haunted world, but you're just asking what I think about a book promoting one of the biggest demons in it.
 
Ford said:
Been awhile since I read it, but I wouldn't call it an entry-level introduction to atheism at all. The full title is "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark."

I'm a fan of Sagan, to put it mildly. I've got a passel of his books (Cosmic Connection, Dragons of Eden, The Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, this one and others) as well as the remastered Cosmos DVD set.

In the intro for the first episode of Cosmos, he said that to explore the universe we need skepticism and wonder both. DHW is all about skepticism. It covers UFOs, government secrecy, and contains his "baloney detection kit."

In the realm of making science accessible and understandable, nobody comes close to Sagan IMO, and this is one of his best popular books.
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I didn't mean an 'introduction to atheism', just a good book for people where materialism is a relatively new, or at least still mysterious or interesting idea. Not about atheism, but material that would be interesting to fervent atheists who don't know a lot about the subject matter.

That's just coming from me. I find I'm not the target audience for a lot of the 'popular' skeptic books, most of it's usually pretty intuitive already. I do like picking up Dawkins occasionally, just to see how he presents his ideas.
 
I read it about 20 years ago, so I'm a little vague on it, but I do recall liking it. Especially his explanations regarding ghosts and alien abduction experiences, which always had me previously scratching my head.
 
rousseau said:
I didn't mean an 'introduction to atheism', just a good book for people where materialism is a relatively new, or at least still mysterious or interesting idea. Not about atheism, but material that would be interesting to fervent atheists who don't know a lot about the subject matter.

That's just coming from me. I find I'm not the target audience for a lot of the 'popular' skeptic books, most of it's usually pretty intuitive already. I do like picking up Dawkins occasionally, just to see how he presents his ideas.
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From what I recall - and it's been a while, it was not just how to be skeptic but a large part why some people have a hard time with it. And understanding of those who are not skeptics and what keeps them from it.

When I read it I was not new to the ideas of being openly skeptic (at all), but I remember enjoying it very much for those insights of things like what about human development may cause skepticism to be hard to take, some of the history of skepticism and how science interacted with that.
 
Rhea said:
rousseau said:
I didn't mean an 'introduction to atheism', just a good book for people where materialism is a relatively new, or at least still mysterious or interesting idea. Not about atheism, but material that would be interesting to fervent atheists who don't know a lot about the subject matter.

That's just coming from me. I find I'm not the target audience for a lot of the 'popular' skeptic books, most of it's usually pretty intuitive already. I do like picking up Dawkins occasionally, just to see how he presents his ideas.
Click to expand...

From what I recall - and it's been a while, it was not just how to be skeptic but a large part why some people have a hard time with it. And understanding of those who are not skeptics and what keeps them from it.

When I read it I was not new to the ideas of being openly skeptic (at all), but I remember enjoying it very much for those insights of things like what about human development may cause skepticism to be hard to take, some of the history of skepticism and how science interacted with that.
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I could see that. I've always found that when I consume stuff by the materialist leaders that I don't gain a lot of new understanding, although if I really look I tend to be surprised occasionally.

The one that really surprised me recently was The Selfish Gene by Dawkins. For years I figured I wouldn't get much out of it, but Dawkins has this peculiar way of putting evolution into new and novel terms that I hadn't considered. I haven't finished it yet, but it only took a few chapters before I made a number of fundamental realizations. After buying that and a few other books I've gained enough respect for his writing that I like picking his stuff up just to read him shoot the shit about various topics.

I also figure that in a couple centuries Dawkins is going to be considered one of the most important writers of our time.
 
I'm afraid that I read it so long ago, that I don't remember a thing about it. I do remember that I liked it. Oddly enough, my favorite atheist book is "Atheism for Dummies." I heard the author speak in Atlanta about five or more years ago and bought the book for my kindle. The author is Dale McGowan. All I remember is that the book was interesting and funny. It was primarily written for believers who might have questions about atheism. Maybe I need to read it again.
 
another1 said:
I thought you were literally asking me what I thought about our demon haunted world, but you're just asking what I think about a book promoting one of the biggest demons in it.
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I was the same way. All the demons which haunt our world aren't much of a concern to me because I have a magic sword which was blessed by an angel to deal with them.

Stupid demons think they're so damn clever disguising themselves as homeless people and hitchhikers, but I'm not fooled.
 
braces_for_impact said:
Always been a favorite of mine. It's available under Creative Commons license, by the way, so if anyone wishes to read it THIS links to the PDF.
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Creative Commons license? Where does it say that?

I posted elsewhere on Lewontin vs. Sagan -- Richard Lewontin, a colleague of the late Stephen Jay Gould, reviewed that book for the New York Review of Books: Billions and Billions of Demons. It strikes me as postmodern bullshit.
 
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