{"id":2480,"date":"2013-07-31T21:35:49","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T02:35:49","guid":{"rendered":"In a recent collection of modern science writing, Richard Dawkins included an excerpt from Carl Sagan's\u00a0<em>The Demon-Haunted World<\/em>. \u00a0In the book Sagan attempts to debunk superstitious thinking and encourage scientific, empirically-based, reasoning. "},"modified":"2013-08-19T01:30:43","modified_gmt":"2013-08-19T06:30:43","slug":"the-demon-haunted-world","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/spotlight-schedule\/perspectives-from-science\/the-demon-haunted-world\/","title":{"rendered":"The Demon-Haunted World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent collection of modern science writing, Richard Dawkins included an excerpt from Carl Sagan&#8217;s\u00a0<em>The Demon-Haunted World<\/em>. \u00a0In the book Sagan attempts to debunk superstitious thinking and encourage scientific, empirically-based, reasoning. \u00a0Dawkins notes in his introduction to the excerpt that while &#8220;debunking is often thought to be a killjoy activity,&#8221; Sagan has the intellectual wit to make it a lively endeavor. \u00a0Sagan&#8217;s writing style is enjoyable, but read critically. \u00a0While Sagan helpfully outlines the purpose of science, he also hints at its boundaries (and maybe even crosses them himself).<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/files\/2013\/07\/Sagan-with-planets.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-2485\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/files\/2013\/07\/Sagan-with-planets-300x164.jpg\" alt=\"Sagan with planets\" width=\"300\" height=\"164\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/files\/2013\/07\/Sagan-with-planets-300x164.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/files\/2013\/07\/Sagan-with-planets-490x267.jpg 490w, https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/files\/2013\/07\/Sagan-with-planets.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/webfiles.acu.edu\/users\/dicksonk\/web\/Cornerstone\/Sagan-Purpose_of_Science.pdf\">Carl Sagan, excerpt from\u00a0<em>The Demon-Haunted World<\/em><\/a><br \/>\n(<em>Note: myACU login required to access reading)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Carl Sagan, from\u00a0<em>The Demon Haunted World<\/em>.\u00a0 Collected in Richard Dawkins, ed.\u00a0<em>The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing<\/em>\u00a0(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 239-243.<\/p>\n<h3>Discussion Questions:<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Sagan bemoans the &#8220;dumbing down of America.&#8221; \u00a0Is his diagnosis correct?<\/li>\n<li>How does Sagan define science and pseudoscience (or superstition)?<\/li>\n<li>According to Sagan, what type of historical contexts breed pseudoscience and superstition? \u00a0Do we live in such a time?<\/li>\n<li>Do you agree with Sagan&#8217;s claim that &#8220;absolute certainty will always elude us&#8221; (242)? \u00a0If that&#8217;s true for the natural sciences, is it true of other kinds of knowledge? \u00a0Will certainty always elude us, for example, in theology?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3><\/h3>\n<h3><em>Join the Conversation<\/em><\/h3>\n<p>We welcome comments on this or other related topics on the main Spotlight page<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Return to <a title=\"Exploring the Natural Sciences\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/spotlight-schedule\/perspectives-from-science\/\">Rusty Towell&#8217;s Spotlight page<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a recent collection of modern science writing, Richard Dawkins included an excerpt from Carl Sagan&#8217;s\u00a0The Demon-Haunted World. \u00a0In the book Sagan attempts to debunk superstitious thinking and encourage scientific, empirically-based, reasoning. \u00a0Dawkins notes in his introduction to the excerpt that while &#8220;debunking is often thought to be a killjoy activity,&#8221; Sagan has the intellectual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8023,"featured_media":0,"parent":1456,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2480","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P3T2tB-E0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8023"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2880,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2480\/revisions\/2880"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.acu.edu\/cornerstonef13\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}