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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
This book should be compulsory reading for anyone intending to become a teacher, politician, parent, or fully functioning human being.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Well written and easy to understand. Sagan deals with superstition, pseudoscience, hoaxes, conspiracy thinking, new age, and fundamentalist zealots. He refers to history a lot and I found myself frequently Googling names and events he mentioned to get more information. This book is truly a fascinating book to read. I highly recommend it.
Excellent book. I suggest it to science lovers as well those who fail to see the practicality and importance of science in the world.
A great book which eloquently shows importance of skeptical thinking in all areas of everyday life. It also shows dangers of ignoring skeptical approach. My only complaint is that sometimes the book feels a bit too heavy on examples .
DNF at 20%.
I had high hopes for this book, but it’s just not doing it for me. While I appreciate the effort and objective of Sagan in writing this defense of science against a whole lot of pseudosciences (UFOs, aliens making pyramids in Mars, Atlantis, circles in plantations, the like), it’s not catching my interest so far. I’m very conflicted about abandoning it, but… better to leave it than slog through something I’m not interested in.
I had high hopes for this book, but it’s just not doing it for me. While I appreciate the effort and objective of Sagan in writing this defense of science against a whole lot of pseudosciences (UFOs, aliens making pyramids in Mars, Atlantis, circles in plantations, the like), it’s not catching my interest so far. I’m very conflicted about abandoning it, but… better to leave it than slog through something I’m not interested in.
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
Written in 1995, Carl Sagan saw our present moment clearly. He warned us about the rise of pseudo- and anti-science; the embrace of conspiracy theories, hoaxes, myths; the inability of most Americans to discern fact from fiction. He worried that democracy couldn't survive in the presence of such ignorance. He appears to have been right.
informative
slow-paced
The world would be a better place if everyone read this book.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This book, as other reviewers have noted, may be a little dated, though I would argue only in some of the topics. The main argument of the book, that scientific thought processes are important for our future are very modern. Skepticism and education are stressed as a survival skill.
This was a book I will recommend to many friends and family. I can see it causing some negative response because it does not spare religion from scrutiny. If you listen close though, much like Hawking did in his books, the idea of a supreme being is never denied, just challenged based on scientific evidence. I will let you judge for yourself if the arguments are valid.
I wouldn't call this life-changing, but it certainly was a great opportunity for self-improvement.
This was a book I will recommend to many friends and family. I can see it causing some negative response because it does not spare religion from scrutiny. If you listen close though, much like Hawking did in his books, the idea of a supreme being is never denied, just challenged based on scientific evidence. I will let you judge for yourself if the arguments are valid.
I wouldn't call this life-changing, but it certainly was a great opportunity for self-improvement.