AES252 The Demon Haunted World

“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.” -Carl Sagan, 1995

It’s amazing how this little excerpt from The Demon Haunted World bears so much relevance in today’s world. It truly is a prophetic, and sadly true analysis of what would happen in the world. If you look around, things are falling apart at a rapid rate. It’s hard to separate truth from fiction, right from wrong. It’s easy to feel despair and hopelessness, but we have to keep moving forward no matter what.

I consider The Demon Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark as one of my most favorite books of all time, and Carl Sagan, one of the wisest and incredible people who’s ever existed. This book in particular is incredible in illustrating the need for critical thinking skills in a world that’s so full of misinformation and malice. We need to fight the growing waves of superstition, pseudoscience, fraud and hateful ignorance. And the only way to do that is through better education for our children and developing critical, scientific thinking together as a society.