The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“When you are in love, you want to tell the world. This book is a personal statement, reflecting my lifelong love affair with science.”

This deeply personal admission underscores the importance of this work in Sagan oeuvre. As one of the last books he wrote, it can be viewed as a culmination of his career as a science communicator and a statement of both his passion for the scientific method and his belief in the fundamental importance of critical thinking.

“The lure of the marvelous blunts our critical faculties.”

An indication of Sagan’s humanistic approach to skepticism. He does not disparage others of their beliefs in marvelous happenings or beings, but simply suggests that goggling at such marvels prevents skeptical practice. Throughout the work, this empathetic view recurs often, with Sagan gently reminding us that it is entirely reasonable that humans take refuge in wonder, and also understandable that they may not want to practice critical thinking to combat their self-delusion.

“It slowly dawned on me that, human fallibility being what it is, there might be other explanations for flying saucers.”

Sagan’s enacts here his later suggestion that narratives about science should document the floundering path toward the truth in scientist’s lives. Showing his own coming to terms with the nonexistence of extraterrestrial UFOs prevents Sagan from sounding imperious and condescending, humanizing his process and his argument as something reasoned over time.