The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Below are the top discussions from Reddit that mention this Amazon book.
Books Reference Encyclopedias & Subject Guides
A prescient warning of a future we now inhabit, where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy theories play to a disaffected American populace “ A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought.”— Los Angeles Times How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don’t understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer 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. Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, 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. Praise for The Demon-Haunted World “Powerful . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing.” — The Washington Post Book World “Compelling.” — USA Today “A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity.” — The Sciences “Passionate.” — San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle
Reddazon may receive an affiliate commission if you make purchases on Amazon.com through this site. Thank you for using these links to support Reddazon.
Carl Sagan
Reddit Posts and Comments
0 posts • 41 mentions • top 32 shown below
24 points • gatewaynode
Read the book.
7 points • BracesForImpact
Agree about Carl Sagan. This book is especially designed to help people develop a healthy, knowledgeable skepticism. It's also everywhere in PDF form as well, I believe.
You may wish to consider some science podcasts too. Bill Nye has a podcast, as does Neil Degrasse Tyson. Those are good for people less knowledgeable about science. Plus you can listen on the go.
6 points • Rotanloukku
Cue people complaining that Amazon is trying to convert them to demon worship.
2 points • SignificanceDesigner
Like we have failed half the population, thanks to the rise of anti intellectualism on the right in the religious nationalism movement they are so dumb and delusional at this point they won't even be be getting vaccinated for Covid. Carl Sagan predicted this in his 1995 book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark"
​
“Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness."
2 points • NewbombTurk
First off, I’m so impressed by how well you are able to express yourself. Gives me hope for the future. You are already asking good questions, and at your age that’s very promising (regardless of what position you arrive at). Keep asking hard questions. Mostly to yourself.
To your point, I wouldn’t worry to much about the labels. You don‘t have to categorize yourself. Also, please be careful with your folks about you questioning your beliefs. You are going to rely on them for some years yet.
If you want a good book to read try The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. It’s right up your alley.
1 points • oneders
Anti-intellectualism and science denial is rampant in this country. These people need to be pushed to the fringes of society. They trust the science that allows them to watch youtube and post hateful comments on twitter. Why can't they trust the same methods that tell us that climate change is a global crisis?
For more on this by a smarter and more eloquent person, check out Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World": https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
1 points • Dvout_agnostic
You should read Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World.
1 points • tehdeej
Maybe read this: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark Carl Sagan has such a pleasent way of thinking about people with odd beliefs and how to treat them respectfully. He taught me to be compassionate with my father that had gone off the rails with conspiracies and new age stuff he was trying to push on others. Sagan's advice worked for a long time but I have to say that my patience with this stuff has grown thin recently.
1 points • throwmeaway5150
> Astrodientist
It's not real. they're scamming you. Don't pay them another cent. Buy this book instead. Seriously. I wish you the best.
1 points • martymcfliesonpoo
Here's the book: https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
1 points • Namz_J
I have yet to finish it, but The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is one. So far it has been an amazing read. I should've read this book sooner in life.
1 points • acolyte357
That's a excerpt from "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" By Carl Sagan.
1 points • Velodromed
The scientific method is by far the most successful tool we have for discovering the truth as a feature of empirical reality. That is, science can answer all sorts of questions about Nature--stars, cells, time, matter, etc.--but science can't really tell you if life is worth living.
The problem is that many of the religious insist that they have infallible monopolies on the truth, not just in matters of value judgements, but in claims about Nature as well, and they persist in these assertions long after science has explained them to the contrary or exposed them as false or baseless. So you have people who still believe that the orbiting planets foretell the future, that (their particular) god created humans with magic, or that you should toss animals (formerly small children) into volcanoes if you want to have a really big family, despite that the supernatural has never once turned out to be the explanation for anything.
So, do you really need to study every ancient book and tradition, and make line-item decisions about which claims are true and which are not? You could do that, yes, but you'd reach your ultimate destination a lot faster if you evaluated the claim on which all others are built: gods exist. (Likewise, in pursuit of the truth about satyrs, it might be a poor use of your valuable time to read every available text about satyr physiology, satyr fashion, satyr language, satyr politics, and satyr current events, while the booksellers, despite numerous requests from scientists and scholars all around the world, have yet to produce a single satyr.) This makes your job as an investigator much easier. No theistic claimant has ever shouldered his or her burden of proof, which means every investigation of this particular truth claim goes the same way:
Believer: Gods exist!
Investigator: Evidence?
Believer: There is none.
Investigator: I don't believe you.
Of course, the believer rarely concedes the lack of evidence, in favor of the usual endless parade of evasion, excuses, bogus evidence, intellectual dishonesty, and fallacious reasoning. It's the investigator's job to recognize the many forms this takes and to not be fooled or misled. If you want to delve more deeply into how to do that, I highly recommend that you start with Carl Sagan's excellent book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark which includes an introductory explanation of the scientific method as a means for evaluating truth claims.
1 points • oyman
The Demon-Haunted World is more relevant than ever before.
1 points • spaceghoti
I suggest you read Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. It does a fantastic job of explaining why the world is in such deep shit today. Critical thinking has been abandoned and people are assuming bad beliefs are trivial because they're not actively interfering in anything. Or so they want to believe.
1 points • obviousfakeperson
Sagan and Druyan's The Demon Haunted World is a fantastic book I can't recommend enough. If you're looking for some quarantine listening \ reading, it's a good one.
1 points • Entropy_5
Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World.
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=the+demon+haunted+world&qid=1581009128&sr=8-1
1 points • redditsuxcoxndix
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
1 points • ImTheGuyWithTheGun
There is a reason these types of things (and other events like alien visitations) often happen in bed - because you were dreaming.
Reading this will hopefully make you feel a little better...
2 points • JW_Skeptic
This thread has a list of Ex-JW books you can look into.
But for young teens, I would also recommend books on critical thinking and skepticism, such as Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World. That book will teach them how to think, not what to think, and is applicable and beneficial to many areas of life, not just JWs. The JW religion stifles critical thinking with fear and rhetoric. Logic, reason, and the proper due diligence of rational skepticism will help inoculate them from religions, especially as they manifest themselves as destructive cults like JWs.
1 points • ArsenalRecon
Recommendation for Rule 6:
Required reading, short term (before asking a technical question): How To Ask Questions The Smart Way by Eric S. Raymond and Rick Moen at http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html - keeping in mind some of the content may not be as relevant in 2020 as it once was, but most of it is.
Required reading, longer term (before getting in the habit of asking technical questions): The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan at https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
These might be "big asks" in a lot of Subreddits, but since this is computer forensics...
1 points • rozhbash
I know it's a long shot, but give her this book as a gift:
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
1 points • much_longer_username
>The Demon-Haunted World 1997
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
1 points • poisonandtheremedy
"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance"
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
This book should be required reading for all high school students.
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
YouTube Audio Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmaZ_sxRh0k
1 points • SuperRusso
Well, I was kind of trying to give you an opportunity to not look silly, but you have decided to stick with your guns.
That is the sound of someone laughing off camera. It sounds like a woman. It is definitely acoustic, i.e. it definitely happened in the environment being filmed, and one would have heard the human being making that sound had they been standing where the camera was. The reason it sounds echoy is because it has bounced off of one of the buildings or other surface before or around the same time as the direct sound has hit the diaphragm.
I worked on a TV show that was about the paranormal and this EVP nonsense for awhile. In the 8 or so times I went out with these people, not even once did anything even remotely suspicious happen. Not an unexplained sound, not a paranormal sighting. I was the mixer, but also being an electronic repair tech I certainly didn't mind helping hook up VCRs, Tape machines, and other pieces of analog equipment. These were "experts", mind you, multiple of them, and they could not accomplish capturing anything.
Oh, didn't you know? Most esteemed ghost hunters use analog equipment, according to the "experts" analog equipment is the medium ghosts use, not digital. So, even if you are willing to believe nonsense, this is unlikely to be a ghost. This isn't my deciding factor, mind you, but...whatever you need.
I highly recommend these as some resources in this audio project:
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Demon+haunted+world&qid=1595254066&s=books&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Unweaving-Rainbow-Science-Delusion-Appetite/dp/0618056734
Good luck!
1 points • jimillett
The Bible is bullshit. Don’t take my word for it. Read it. Let go of your religion and god belief. Stop trying to live your life by a Bronze Age war god book. Atheists are much more accepting of LGBTQ people because we don’t have to do mental gymnastics to get your sexuality to fit with in 2000+ year old understanding of sexuality and bigotry. Check out r/Atheism post this picture there and you’ll find you won’t get all the hate that you did from a Catholic sub.
You weren’t born Catholic, you were born not believing in a god. You were indoctrinated into being a catholic before you had the ability for independent rational thought.
You can be good with out god. Check out Humanism, it’s all the good stuff about humanity without all the religious garbage.
There is most likely no god and if there is one. It probably cares more about how you treat others than what you do with your genitals.
Other good books to read Carl Sagan - Demon Haunted World, Science as a candle in the dark
Christopher Hitchens - God is not great, how religion poisons everything
1 points • bayhesh
> Satanic
About a year ago, I compiled this list of important pre-LaVeyan books:
|author|title| |:-|:-| |Niccolò Machiavelli|Il Principe| |John Milton|Paradise Lost| |Emily Bronte|Wuthering Heights| |Фёдор Достоевский|Записки изъ подполья| |Friedrich Nietzsche|Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel einer Philosophie der Zukunft| |Friedrich Nietzsche|Die fröhliche Wissenschaft| |Friedrich Nietzsche|Zur Genealogie der Moral: Eine Streitschrift| |Friedrich Nietzsche|Götzen-Dämmerung, oder, Wie man mit dem Hammer philosophiert| |Friedrich Nietzsche|Der Antichrist| |Ragnar Redbeard|Might Is Right| |Friedrich Nietzsche|Der Wille zur Macht| |Aleister Crowley|Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law| |Sigmund Freud|Die Traumdeutung| |Anatole France|La Révolte des Anges| |Sigmund Freud|Abriß der Psychoanalyse| |Михаи́л Булга́ков|Мастер и Маргарита|
All works by H. P. Lovecraft. (I limited my list to specific named books, which is why H. P. Lovecraft failed to be included.)
The books by Anton LaVey, which you can find here.
> If I am missing any, do not hesitate to educate me.
Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
John Allen Paulos, Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences
1 points • ziddina
People on this sub-reddit have recommended Carl Sagan's book "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark", as a good read that explains much about how humanity came to believe in invisible agents of evil, in the first place.
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
A review of the book:
1 points • AlekMitch
Awww he's just now learning about conspiracy theories. I'll tell you what, the only way he will stop doing that is if he learns the skills of critical thinking:
https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/fallacies/
Also, try sharing this article on why population growth (NOT depopulation) is a problem:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781831/
There is also this:
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
" A prescient warning of a future we now inhabit, where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy theories play to a disaffected American populace "
1 points • Anonymous_Otters
https://www.amazon.com/Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle-Dark/dp/0345409469
Demon Haunted World is essentially a full guide on critical thinking from a scientific perspective written by the famous Carl Sagan. If I were you, I'd start by reading this book. It lays out a mental plan for what Sagan calls a "bologna detector" which you can develop to alert you to red flags about questionable claims.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfMypC8bc9I&ab_channel=TheGreatCoursesPlus
Quick two minute intro to Stephen Novella's Great Courses lecture on critical thinking, specifically on trusting sources. VERY highly recommended course.
https://www.criticalthinking.org/
A nice central resource with tons of lessons in critical thinking. Hours up hours of work to be done here.
https://www.edutopia.org/stw-kipp-critical-thinking-resources-downloads
A source for teachers putting together lessons about critical thinking
https://www.theskepticsguide.org/
Technically a podcast, but the podcast is pretty much the flagship for scientific skepticism and critical thinking. They have tons of links to resources and articles about critical thinking. The podcast is also enjoyable and informative.
https://thinktv.pbslearningmedia.org/subjects/professional-development/planning--preparation/the-brain--learning/critical-thinking-skills/
PBS lesson planner for classes on critical thinking
https://www.criticalthinking.org/files/SAM_Aspiring_Thinkers_GuideOPT.pdf
A guide to critical thinking
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Deceptive-Mind-Scientific-Critical/dp/B00DTNWF2Q
Book by Dr. Stephen Novella on critical thinking from a scientific perspective
In all honesty, it's a lot of hard work, and despite what anyone tells you, there is no such thing as common sense and no one can think critically without taking years of concerted effort to learn. Please, seriously, keep in touch if you genuinely want to learn more, but go through these resources. Ask questions if you want, but we can switch over to DMs.