Review: The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan is best known for the television series, Cosmos, first shown in 1980. It was a triumph of popular science, making astronomy accessible to ordinary people. Sagan was not only a scientist but also an advocate of science.
Does science really need advocates in the contemporary world? Aren’t we surrounded by science and scientific stuff?
Sagan says that the prevalence of science is an illusion. We may be surrounded by the fruits of science and lots of people may know a bit about science, but very few people are employing scientific rigour in their thinking. Because of that, most of us live and think as we always have. We are irrational, superstitious, easily-led, gullible and arrogant. These are not the characteristics of especially flawed people, this is all of us. The normal state of being human is to be haunted by demons.
As told by Sagan, demons are not supernatural creatures that swarm around us like insects. Rather they are the inherent weaknesses of the human condition. They are the unfixed bugs in our human operating system, moral and intellectual flaws that can at any time pull our behaviour and our thought processes out of shape. Surprisingly, Sagan’s atheist conception of demons runs very close to that of early religious thinkers. Classifications of demons such as The Lanterne of Light from 1410 link certain demons with the deadly sins. Satan with wrath, Asmodeus with lust, Mammon with greed, etc. Whilst the deadly sins are a religious construct, it’s not difficult to see how factors like greed and envy can lead to destructive behaviours. Gluttony leads to obesity, poor health and early death. Greed can lead to a person becoming an untrustworthy, vain parody of themselves.
Our demons manifest themselves in individual choices and also in the communities in which we live. The witch trials of the 17th century, Nazism, cults, slavery and the bloody reign of the Khmer Rouge are all examples of humans collectively losing any sense of what is right or wrong and embarking on incredibly destructive courses of action.
So if demons are part of being human, do we just resign ourselves to making poor judgements, believing in nonsense and generally not fulfilling our potential? Sagan offers “science as a candle in the dark”, the subtitle of the book. It’s important to be clear that Sagan is not referring to knowing about science. We learn about science at school. Boyle’s Law, Newton, electricity and covalent bonds all appear in the public exams but knowing about these things doesn’t help us engage with the world. Rather Sagan is referring to the scientific method. A scientist is intrigued by something in the world. They observe and work up theories as to how this thing works. They critique their own explanations and discard the poor ones. They develop experiments to test their theories. They use the results to improve or abandon the theory. Finally they will write up all the work they have done and present it to fellow scientists to be checked and the results of the experiments reproduced. Only when a theory produces reproducible test results and has been critically confirmed as intellectually cogent, does it find its way out into the world as a new piece of knowledge.
The point of this process is that it is rigorous. There is no room for sloppy thinking. Unsupported assumptions and rational faults will be exposed. This process is our best tool for discovering genuine knowledge about the world.
Sagan brings this rigour to a consideration of extraterrestrials and UFOs. Many people believe in these things because they have seen things they cannot account for, or have heard and read such accounts from other people. Sagan is quite clear. You may have seen something that you cannot identify. Someone else may know what it is. Unless someone can corroborate you seeing it, your statement is weak. There is no evidence to scientific standards that aliens exist. There is no rational path from you seeing, or thinking you see, something, to concluding that it came from another planet. It is not a rational connection, it is cultural. Our culture contains The X Files, War of the Worlds and many, many science fiction films. Our culturally programmed mind assumes that the unexplained comes from outer space. If we were living in the 17th century, our culturally programmed mind would assume that the phenomenon was caused by witches.
Our cultural programming leads to making decisions based on our culture, and culture changes over time and space. For example, attitudes to homosexuality have shifted enormously towards greater acceptance in the UK and USA over the last 40 years. In some African countries, attitudes have become more intolerant over the same period. Culture is not objective, whereas science seeks to tell a story about the object of study which is universally true.
If we know that something is true, or near as dammit true, this gives us a firm foundation for action in the world. Once scientists had discovered that some illnesses were caused by bacteria, the way was open to develop antibiotics to destroy those bacteria. Antibiotics have saved enormous numbers of lives and allowed many, many people to live and fulfil their potential. This is an enormous benefit. This is the candle in the dark.
But most people who read this book will not be seeking to advance medical science, they will be seeking to understand personal demons. Sagan has some words of advice. Adopt the scientific stance of being open to wonder but sceptical in analysis. Be open to new ideas (be willing to step out of your comfort zone) but be ruthless in your scrutiny of ideas. Does this make sense? What do trustworthy sources say about it? Would this be really useful to me? Am I just following the crowd? Some good quality, critical thinking can save a lot of time and heartache in the long term. By being discerning about what we accept into our lives, we can live more harmonious and meaningful lives. We can shine some light on the demons and push them out of the way.
The Demon Haunted World allows you to see a great intellect at work. Sagan was a significant figure in the scientific establishment and notable for trying to open up science to a wider audience. His broad, open and impeccably rational thinking is very apparent in this book. He roams over many subjects but his central premise is always clear. Science shines a light of understanding into the world. That clarity helps us to subdue and organise our often unruly thinking. Science doesn’t have all the answers, but where it has examined the world, it makes the world a brighter and more welcoming place.
