
By: Sheppard Gordon
Re: Sagan-Fresno Bee

 Confronting `demons' with science
 04/07/96
 The Fresno Bee

   Forget fundamentalist religion, New Age mysticism, astrology and
benevolent aliens. Science is our savior, according to Carl Sagan in his
new book, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark."

   Without science, we wouldn't have electricity, computers, DNA
testing, vaccines against once-dreaded diseases and other assorted
wonders. Sagan is the kind of professor who would inspire students to
become scientists. His enthusiasm for the subject comes through, whether
he's speaking or writing.

   The youngster amazed by the displays at the 1939 World's Fair is
still inside the Pulitzer Prize-winning professor.

   "I don't think science is hard to teach because humans aren't ready
for it, or because it arose only through a fluke, or because, by and
large, we don't have the brainpower to grapple with it," he writes. "A
proclivity for science is embedded in all of us."

   So why does he rail against the trends of pseudoscience? For a lot of
people, astrology, psychics, television programs about the lost
continent of Atlantis and UFO sightings are fun and intriguing. Sagan's
point: Too many people accept these things without skepticism. Science
is less accepted, because it's more difficult to understand and claims
to set limits on what we can do.

   It's easier to believe that beings from other worlds land here to
have sex with humans or that you shouldn't take a trip on a particular
day because your horoscope says travel isn't favored. It's also more fun
than delving into scientific principles.

   Whether the reader agrees with Sagan's arguments, he certainly offers
thought-provoking material. On the subject of religion vs. science, he
writes:

   "Many religions -- devoted to reverence, awe, ethics, ritual,
community, family, charity and political and economic justice -- are in
no way challenged, but rather uplifted, by the findings of science.
There is no necessary conflict between science and religion. On one
level, they share similar and consonant roles, and each needs the
other."

   All those demons lurking out there, he says, have been with us for
ages. In a less enlightened time, women and children were burned for
being witches. Today those who are considered "different" are often
ostracized.

   Sagan's main point seems to be that humans need to be less accepting
and more skeptical.

   "Skepticism challenges established institutions," he writes. "If we
teach everybody, including, say high school students, habits of
skeptical thought, they will probably not restrict their skepticism to
UFOs, aspirin commercials and 35,000-year-old channelees. Maybe they'll
start asking awkward questions about economic, or social, or political,
or religious institutions. Then where would we be?"

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