lucasw's Journal: The Demon Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark

Contact aside, The Demon Haunted World is probably the best Carl Sagan book I've yet read. Of course, I've only read Contact. And something from way back called The Dragon of Eden.

At first, the focus on alien abduction and related phenomena was annoying- stuff for crazies and children. But the more Sagan delves, in, the more fascinating it becomes for all the connections he draws to the equivalent of alien abductions from other eras or belief systems.

There's a disturbing discussion of succubi/incubi where a the results of an investigation of a series of incidents at a church (several hundred years ago) is related: The demon who came during the night to violate numerous nuns was also particularly devious in that it chose to disguise itself as the head priest.

The bottom line explanation for pretty much everything inexplicable? People see, hear, and experience all kinds of wierd stuff that never really happened. Memories corrupt easily. Coincidences are over-emphasized, and so on.

President Ronald Reagan, who spent World War II in Hollywood, vividly described his own role in liberating Nazi concentration camp victims. Living in the film world, he apparently confuse a movie he had seen with a reality he had not. On many occasions in his Presidential campaings, Mr. Reagan told an epic story of World War II courage and scrifice, an inspiration for all of us. Only it never happened; it was the plot of the movie A Wing and a Prayer.

(page 314)

Science Fiction

Some interesting science fiction plot generators are thrown out (though probably used many times since alien-abduction type aliens have been well covered in popular media). Sagan asks, what kind of proof would it take for the abduction and related stories to actually be convincing? What kind of proof would we have acquired by now if any of the stories were true? As already established, the impassioned belief of any number of people is not sufficient for the first (and wouldn't make for a very interesting story).

Non-technological Science

The book does not bog itself down with the one set of human deficiencies for too long- there's a particulary interesting passage on the science of primitive cultures. Here, Sagan goes to lengths to show that for practical matters humans have been capable of gleaning truth about the world for a very long time, if only recently methods and technologies were around to vastly accelerate the process.

The !Kung San people from Africa and their almost superhuman tracking capabilities are described: one could recognize another from the same village by their footprints in the sand. If a society places a high value on a certain capability for a very long time, it's members start to become extremely proficient if by nothing else than trial-and-error and of course the passage of all successful techniques to their off-spring.

Witchcraft & The Inquisition

There's a lot of treatment of the Inquisition, and it seems like a fascinating piece of history to read further up on. It seems like an enormous oversight on my part to not know more about it...

The extraorinarily poor methods of that made up the inquisitorial justice system are examined closely, and connections to McCarthy/HCUA hearings pointed out (as they were implicity in 'The Crucible', written during the same era). The exact same damned-if-do-damned-if-you-don't illogic prevails in both places, though it should be noted that by the 1950's grisly repeated torture was not an approved method of interrogation.

Probably if I had stayed in the 'advance' track in high-school I would have been introduced to some of this by now and not think it interesting, as the public school systems has a way of pretty much anything it touches boring and mundane...