Never pass up a chance to sit down or relieve yourself. -old Apache saying

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Demon-Haunted World

Just finished a wonderful book by Carl Sagan called, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark." It was published in 1995, the year before Carl passed away from pneumonia at the "young" age of 62.

If you are a fan of science, I highly recommend this book. If you are deep under the religious spell, it would probably do you no good, and you would probably not want to read it anyway.

Books like this, to me, are a total delight to read. He covers all sorts of demons and paranormal events, from witches to crop circles to UFO's while highlighting scientific heroes throughout history, some well-known and some not-so-well known, from Einstein to Benjamin Franklin to James Clerk Maxwell to Edward Teller to Linus Pauling and beyond.

I quote from the final pages of the book:

Education on the value of free speech and the other freedoms reserved by the Bill of Rights, about what happens when you don't have them, and about how to exercise and protect them, should be an essential prerequisite for being an American citizen - or indeed a citizen of any nation, the more so to the degree that such rights remain unprotected. If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hand of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness.


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