Carl Sagan, A Demon Haunted World (Random House, New York, 1996). 457pp. $25.95. ISBN 0-394-53512-X.
Carl Sagan, whose early and lamented death from an unusual bone marrow disease occurred recently, was a world class scientist of recognized merit. As a scientist, a physicist, an astronomer, Sagan had tremendous recognition and could well have been content to rest on his laurels for his contributions to science.
Instead, he was driven by not one, not two, but three overwhelming passions which earned him ever-greater attention from the public and which have earned him a place of honor not only among scientists, but also among informed citizens everywhere.
The first of these is known to all our readers. A charismatic and effective popularizer of science, he was determined to share the achievements and advances of science with as wide a public as possible. Scientific literacy with a will! He not only wrote and lectured extensively, he also originated and directed the enormously popular Nova programs which brought the latest advances in science to an enormous worldwide television audience.
His second passion, connected to achievements as an astronomer, was the absolute conviction that we are not alone in the universe, that somewhere there is another planet that is inhabited by sentient beings -- if not in our galaxy, in a distant one. He was therefore a fervent protagonist and backer of attempts to discover signs of this civilization -- attempts such as those of Frank Drake, one of the pioneers in the search (Drake's book is reviewed in our Winter 1993 issue). This Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) thoroughly engaged Sagan's efforts for a large part of his life.
Less well-known, perhaps, but equally impassioned, was his struggle against what has come to be known as "junk science," the belief in UFOs, abduction of humans by space beings, channeling, belief in demons, witches, and vampires, belief in astrology, the bending of spoons, and all the other claptrap of the unscientific and ignorant.
This fight is embodied in what is probably Sagan's last book, reviewed here. A Demon Haunted World is a dispassionate yet frightening analysis not only of the effects of these erroneous beliefs in our present-day world but the horrendous devastation they gave rise to in ages past. Need one mention the witches of Salem?
This is not a catalogued, orderly account of superstition and folly. It is a rather rambling book, at times amusing, at times horrifying, but always even-handed and fair. Sagan warns that the consequences of scientific illiteracy are far more dangerous in our time than in any that came before.
There are long discussions in the book, in various chapters, about UFOs, alien abductions, and other phenomena of like kind. For some unexplained reason, the vast majority of alien abduction stories emanate from North America. And no wonder! As revealed by repeated polls over the years, most Americans believe that we are visited by extraterrestrial beings in UFOs. They do not let facts interfere with beliefs. A 1994 report on the Roswell debris identified it as "remnants of a long-range, highly secret, balloon-borne, low frequency acoustic detection system called "Project Mogul" -- an attempt to sense Soviet nuclear weapons explosions at tropopause altitudes. As reported in this issue's "Observations" column, the military have just released the reports of data obtained by some of these acoustic detection devices. There are no cases, Sagan says, despite well over a million UFO reports since 1947, in which something so strange that it could only be an extraterrestrial spacecraft is reported so reliably that a hoax or hallucination can be reliably excluded.
The chapter devoted to "Aliens" ends with the hilarious tale of the crop circles, which intrigued Europe from the middle 70s to 1991. These flattened circles in cereal fields were the work of (choose one: UFOs, the Devil, flying saucers, satanists, others). The phenomenon spread to the United States, Canada, Bulgaria, and other countries. I remember arguing with friends at the time because I refused to believe in supernatural explanations. Then in 1991 two British farmers announced that they had been making the figures for fifteen years. They were getting into their sixties and the night work was getting to be bad for their health. Besides, the wife of one of them had gotten so suspicious of their nocturnal excursions that they had had to take her with them once and show what they were up to!
I told you this book was rambling -- perforce the review must be too! Sagan doubles back on his topics -- aliens, witchcraft, demons, appear repeatedly. There is a most enjoyable chapter on the Man on the Moon, the Great Stone Face on Mars, and similar observations. Of course, believers insist that NASA is censoring accounts of the discovery of alien ruins on the Moon.
Perhaps the most upsetting chapter in the book is the one, "The Demon Haunted World," which examines the prevalence of demons and witches, first in folk beliefs and then in official pronouncements. Sagan states, "The external reality of demons was almost entirely unquestioned from antiquity through late medieval times." In 1484 Pope Innocent VIII commissioned the study of witches which resulted in what Sagan rightly characterizes as one of the most terrifying documents of human history, the Malleus Maleficarum or the Hammer of Witches. The book gave complete instructions for torturing and then burning women -- young and old alike, accused of consorting with the Devil. In the trials no mitigating evidence or defense witnesses were admissible. No one knows how many were killed, perhaps hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, during the centuries that this madness lasted. Yet the horror lingers on -- more than half of Americans believe in the Devil and 10% have communicated with him. Sagan wisely compares the accounts of the sexually obsessed nonhumans of the medieval accounts with the modern abductions carried out by aliens. Only we make celebrities of these abductees instead of burning them at the stake!
Sagan devotes a great deal of space to John Mack, the Harvard Professor who is a firm believer in alien abductions and who has written a (very popular) book on the subject. It would be amusing if it were not so upsetting because of his acceptance by the credulous. As Sagan tells it, Mack wants it both ways -- the language and credibility of science without being bound by its methods and rules.
An amusing chapter is "The fine Art of Baloney Detection," giving full instructions as to what to do -- and what not to do when combatting hoaxes. On pages 221 and 222 Sagan lists 42 typical offerings of pseudoscience and superstition, starting with astrology and the Bermuda Triangle and ending with accounts of a small brontosaurus seen crashing through the rain forests of the Congo. I particularly liked a Russian elephant who speaks fluently. Russian, I imagine. Also given in detail is the marvelous hoax of Carlo, the channeler who had all of Australia bamboozled. Complicated, deliberate, and hilariously funny.
His criticisms of astrology are well grounded and include especially the fact that its list of supposedly celestial objects is limited to those observable in Ptolemy's time. He also questions the differences in horoscopes cast by different astrologers. The reverse is also true, he recounts the story of a scientist placing an ad in a Paris paper offering a free horoscope. He received 150 replies and sent each respondent an identical horoscope, along with a questionnaire asking them how accurate it had been. Ninety-four percent of the respondents felt they were at least recognizable in "their" horoscope -- which was in reality that of a serial killer! It is upsetting to learn that at least a quarter of Americans believe in astrology and think it is scientific [I think the number is probably higher]. There are ten times more astrologers than astronomers in the United States.
Perhaps my favorite chapter in the book is Chapter 19, which could be labeled "The Need for Scientific Literacy" and which instead Sagan calls "There is no Such Thing As a Dumb Question." The argument is continued in Chapters 20 and 21 and I would urge all readers to peruse these closely. He again and again insists on the need for a scientifically literate public and details the consequences of failing to achieve this happy state. He feels strongly that our very survival depends on becoming science literate. This is the main goal (to my mind) of the National Science Education Standards and the strong recommendations and pithy comments displayed in the box accompanying this review are elaborated upon in these chapters. Read them!
Perhaps my second favorite chapter is the one in which Sagan rails against abandoning basic research for applied research. These are also displayed in the box. As Sagan asks, "Industrial applications are fine but applications of what?" Sagan's last chapter, "Real Patriots Ask Questions," extols the virtues of our Bill of Rights and gives it pride of place in any educational system.
In all the book the most telling example of how our standards have deteriorated since the early days of the Republic is contained not in what Sagan says but in what he quotes before Chapter 23:
"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."
- George Washington
"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?" - Ronald Reagan
The book is enriched by numerous references for each chapter and a complete index.
- Irma S. Jarcho
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