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The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark cover

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Carl Sagan

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The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

The Demon-Haunted World won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and was a New York Times bestseller. How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience, New Age thinking, and fundamentalist zealotry and the testable hypotheses of science? Casting a wide net through history and culture, 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. He examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies as witchcraft, faith healings, 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.

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Publisher
Ballantine Books
Year
2011
ISBN-13
9780307801043
Genre
Science & Technology
Topics
Scientific skepticismPseudoscience and critical thinkingRationality and society

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