Product Description

Carl Sagan demonstrates how scientific thinking is necessary to safeguard our democratic institutions and our technical civilization. The book debunks the ideas of alien abduction, mediums and faith healers,and refutes the arguement that science destroys spirituality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #360148 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 436 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Carl Sagan muses on the current state of scientific thought, which offers him marvellous opportunities to entertain us with his own childhood experiences, the newspaper morgues, UFO stories and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of pseudoscience. Along the way he debunks alien abduction, faith-healing and channelling, refutes the arguments that science destroys spirituality, and provides a "baloney detection kit" for thinking through political, social, religious and other issues.

Review
Hats off to Sagan! He is one of many scientists to be concerned about the tidal wave of pseudoscience engulfing society, and one of the few to stand foursquare against the trend, debunking stories of alien abduction, fraudulent faith healers, and plain old superstition. Absurdly, in an attempt to have their cake and eat it the publishers describe the book as 'controversial'. There is nothing at all controversial here, only sound, solid science and good old common sense. (Kirkus UK)

Customer Reviews

The Gospel According to St Carl.
Carl Sagan, the great American space scientist and extraterrestrial investigator. An honest, down-to-earth chap who believed in the classic guiding principles of science - fairness, inclusion of all data no matter where it might lead you and open-mindedness.

All good, lofty scientific ideals. And on reading the first few chapters, Sagan carefully constructs the image of scientist as impartial truth seeker and destroyer of charlatans. However, Sagan rapidly falls prey to the very traits he claims to abhor. UFOs and crop circles can all be neatly explained away as hoaxes or grand hallucinations, `alien abduction's' are all the result of some vaguely-explained form of sleep paralysis or some kind of contemporary religious mania.

Unfortunately for the many people who are not widely read in any of these exotic subjects, one could come away the impression that Sagan had solved it all. Even though he would like to have the reader believe that "he could be wrong", time and time again, well-known debunkers are used as rock solid evidence to prop his spurious conclusions and relevant researchers and substantial evidence that contradicts Sagan's beliefs is just ignored completely. Whatever happened to following the data no matter where it might lead?

Frequently, Sagan offers no evidence to support his claims. Indeed one could be forgiven that he tried to argue his case by simply thinking we would credulously accept his opinions on the basis that they were written by Carl Sagan. He never really shows any evidence or appeared to have done any research into these controversial subjects.

For those who would like to have an object lesson in evidential sleights of hand and wholesale misrepresentation of events, please buy this book.

PS: I see in the gushingly sycophantic reviews that Sagan is now attributed with having disproved the existence of UFOs! Well I never thought proving a negative was considered rational...at least not since the witchhunts.

Sharpen your critical reasoning skills
It's hard enough to understand how Sagan could know as much about astronomy as he did, let alone the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. But that his range of knowledge was also as wide as this book demonstrates on pseudo-science and supernaturalisms is stunning, even more that he could write so well on all these topics.

I wasn't aware just how evil the treatment of witches was: I'm glad Sagan spared at least some of the details. That chapter alone was worth the book for me. Nor was I aware to what extent people actually did believe that demons were real. The attitudes and behavior about witchcraft and demons truly makes me feel I do not understand at all the mindset at the time of Rome or even during the Middle Ages. The chapter on James Randi's Carlos hoax I'll treasure: next time someone tries to sell me on telepathy or reincarnation, I hope I think of this immediately. Good information and examples here as well about hypnoisis, UFO's, hallucinations and a good deal more. This book amounts to an implicit course in choosing a scientific outlook and becoming, as Sagan would have said, a "baloney detector".

It is appalling how small a percentage of people in the U.S. accept evolution and natural selection. Have we really needed brilliant scientists like Sagan and Dawkins to have wasted time trying to convince people of just how well-founded evolution is? And yet reading in this book about how many people believe in UFOs, telepathy, ghosts, astrology, it puts the unwillingness to acknowledge evolution into perspective. Scary? Or do you doubt that it is? In either case, this easy to read book is packed with reasons to prefer a scientific approach to life. Sagan's lectures in
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
provide good reasons not to feel threatened by science but rather feel welcome its help in enhancing our sense of wonder about our lives ... and turning to knowledge instead of being distracted by foolish beliefs.

It changed how I think!
This book was given to me when I was 15 and it literally changed how I think!

The book covers things like pseudoscience and how we should all consider things rather than accepting what we see/hear/read. It talks about modern situations where hundreds and thousands of people are drawn into a pseudoscience situation and how they simply accept what they are told. This book teaches you to look at a situation in a different way so that you can not fall into the same trap as others.

I give this book 5/5 as it simply is an amazing read. I have currently just bought myself a copy to give to a friend and I would encourage others to read it.