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

Carl Sagan

4.29 AVERAGE

kokokiero's review against another edition

3.5

informative reflective medium-paced

I found the first half of this book was slow and dated, talking very, very thoroughly about alien abductions. After about the halfway point, the chapters started getting more varied and I found I was reading much faster and it was a more interesting, enjoyable read.

harrylyden27's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

kierkan's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 58%

The very first "DNF" of my 40 years of life...

Where to begin?

The performance is great. The writing is NOT. Many of the arguments presented as evidence against fallacy do NOT hold up over the years since it was first published either... right down to justifying now disproven concepts wrongfully associated with reporting of CSA and rape and several more outright "WTAF did you just imply?" moments.

Here, both are said in context as explanations as to all the ways that humans hallucinate, which he was stating is the argument for why there's so many UFO sightings, etc.. As presented by his statements in this book, whatever data he had access to in 1996 led him to conclude and brazenly declare repeatedly that the "overwhelming majority" of CSA and rape reports are hallucinations of an over-active mind, that disproportionally ruin the lives of MEN.

Having read most of of his earlier works, to say I'm taken aback would be a dramatic understatement. This is just... idk, bordering on non-sequitur argument after non-sequitur argument even as he's explaining what a non-sequitur IS, and beating the dead horse he road in on with the sheer level of repetition - similar to someone who knows they're lying but are trying desperately to convince others of their "truth."

Knowing this was one of his later works, after he was known to have taken a hard turn on his views publicly... Makes you wonder why he'd make such obviously hyperbolic and wholly uncharacteristic statements if not to discredit himself enough to disarm whomever may have been pressuring him behind the curtain late in life... an intentional pratfall to discredit some of his personal revelations about the world he presented that challenged the US Gov't and more's narrative prior to this publication.

TLDR; If you're looking to be inspired by Sagan's mind, look elsewhere in his works - You won't find the objective reason he espoused within other works as well represented here.

Content Warnings