THE BOOK FAIR

Review:

Carl Sagan shed his bright light of reason on pseudoscience and superstition.  The practice and belief in such categories are sweeping and well known including channeling, transcendental meditation, astrology, and geomancy as well as Witchcraft, ghosts, the supernatural and aliens.  So accepted are these beliefs that governments, officials, and CEO’s, worldwide participate in their promotion yet none of these belief systems are proven.  Sagan points to the fact that pseudoscience is based on wishful thinking.

 

Sagan easily explained away fallacies and opened science for laymen reminding always that skepticism and rationale are paramount in judgment.  One can look to a shaman, or one can look to science.  He offered the following examples:  only science predicts the exact time of a solar eclipse, partial, total or annual.  If one wants to know the sex of an unborn child, one can guess using various methods, or one can have a sonogram.  It is science that predicts earthquakes and it is science that developed antibiotics.

 

Sagan spoke of religion stating in basic terms, that no religion is proven; religion is based in belief.   He addressed superstition with the example of Jesus appearing on a tortilla and the sensation following.  In practical terms, out of billions of tortillas, it is not unlikely that some would resemble a human face; and with certainty there is no picture of Jesus for the measure of likeness.

 

Sagan delved into the world of aliens, a much beloved and fascinating subject.  Sagan stated that UFO’s are unconventional aircraft, and sometimes, small comets that streak the sky.  Sagan stated precise explanations for an alien hoax giving an example of the crop circles that began in England and spread worldwide.  In 1991, two Englishman admitted their fifteen-year long prank.  Sagan further pointed out the impossibility of secreting the identity of aliens by the government.

 

Saga dispelled age old as well as modern superstitions and myths.  Sagan provided examples such as “the dragon in my basement” theory meaning that the inability to disprove does not spell proof.  This theory ranges from religion to aliens.  Sagan challenged the belief in life after death and channeling with the simple explanation that we have not one question answered from the dead.

 

Sagan addressed the issue of faith healing and the superstition of consuming particular products for cures, and that the ill are the most vulnerable.   He offered his baloney detection kit which encourages one to use independent confirmation, check different points of view, to propose different explanations for an explanation and not to attach to a comfortable belief.

 

Linking this same theory for religion, Sagan offered that when religion cannot be explained, the explanation is that “God moves in mysterious ways.”  However, Sagan also states that “absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”  Sagan clearly stated that there is no necessary conflict between religion and science and further more than religion is uplifted by the findings in science; only the fundamentalists oppose science.  Sagan gives the example that only in 1992 did the Catholic Church acknowledge that Galileo was correct that earth revolves around the sun.

 

To add to the plethora of pseudoscience are ESP, auras, Big Foot, the Bermuda Triangle, telepathy, Loch Ness , the evil eye , unlucky numbers, Ouija boards and more.  None of the above are substantiated with proof of any kind, and yet are believed by rational, sane people.  Sagan warned of the power of a charlatan.  He explained for instance that a séance is always held in a dimly lit room, making the possibility of a visitor to the believer, more realistic.

 

Sagan argued that though scientists make mistakes, that the scientific work is corrected with analysis, research and data, unlike pseudoscience.  He also argued against the censorship of Darwin’s evolutionary biology.  Sagan’s concern lay in the rise of radical information if scientific knowledge is suppressed and cites Nazi and Communist Nobel Prize winners who imposed such views.

 

Carl Sagan’s genuine concern for science was the moral character of scientists with the onset of nuclear weapons, the different forms of those weapons and the commercialization of DNA, and stem cell research.

 

For the future of the United States, Sagan lamented the fact that statistically, U.S. students spend less time on math and science than other industrialized countries.  The solution he believed, is to excite and interest the students promoting field trips and active participation in the classroom with innovative teachers.

Sagan also related his views on therapists, and the need for the counselor to take care not to supplant information or embolden false beliefs in patients.

 

The book is written in the same deliberate and rational manner Sagan represented in his television programs, with a hint of humor.  Carl Sagan, a thought provoking, critical thinker and cerebral man of genius.