In a recent collection of modern science writing, Richard Dawkins included an excerpt from Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World. In the book Sagan attempts to debunk superstitious thinking and encourage scientific, empirically-based, reasoning. Dawkins notes in his introduction to the excerpt that while “debunking is often thought to be a killjoy activity,” Sagan has the intellectual wit to make it a lively endeavor. Sagan’s writing style is enjoyable, but read critically. While Sagan helpfully outlines the purpose of science, he also hints at its boundaries (and maybe even crosses them himself).
- Carl Sagan, excerpt from The Demon-Haunted World
(Note: myACU login required to access reading)
Carl Sagan, from The Demon Haunted World. Collected in Richard Dawkins, ed. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 239-243.
Discussion Questions:
- Sagan bemoans the “dumbing down of America.” Is his diagnosis correct?
- How does Sagan define science and pseudoscience (or superstition)?
- According to Sagan, what type of historical contexts breed pseudoscience and superstition? Do we live in such a time?
- Do you agree with Sagan’s claim that “absolute certainty will always elude us” (242)? If that’s true for the natural sciences, is it true of other kinds of knowledge? Will certainty always elude us, for example, in theology?
Join the Conversation
We welcome comments on this or other related topics on the main Spotlight page
Return to Rusty Towell’s Spotlight page