The Demon-Haunted World

In The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan preaches to the choir about the decline of science in mid-1990s America.

Among many targets, Sagan rightly questions the utter lack of attention science is given in mass media, offering a host of story ideas that would never be seen in today’s mainstream media — like “Solved Mysteries,” exposes of mind readers and hourlong, evidence-based debates on life after death, abortion or animal rights.

Some quotes that seem especially prescient, some 11 years after the book was penned:

Americans tend to shake their heads in astonishment at the Soviet experience. The idea that some state-endorsed ideology or popular prejudice would hog-tie scientific progress seems unthinkable. For 200 years, Americans have prided themselves on being a practical, pragmatic, nonideological people. And yet anthropological and psychological pseudoscience has flourished in the United States — on race, for example. Under the guise of “creationism,” a serious effort continues to be made to prevent evolutionary theory — the most powerful integrating idea in all of biology, and essential for other sciences ranging from astronomy to anthropology — from being taught in the schools.

After reading this passage, creationtours.com came to mind as one quick example of the uncritical thought that passes for sanity in today’s America.

Two quotes set off his argument for public-supported basic research:

Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?
Ronald Reagan, campaign speech 1980

There is nothing which can better deserve our patrongage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.
George Washington, address to Congress, January 8, 1790

One reason I like this book — it makes me want to read more from and about Thomas Paine, Morris Cohen, Enlil, Moses Maimonides and James “The Amazing” Randi.

On balance, a good read that won’t be touched by anyone going on a creation tour.