Book report

            I read Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. I chose to read this book because of the vast amount of topics discussed by the author. He discusses topics such as witches, UFOs, religion, demons and many more. Sagan does a great job of showing the different views people have and explaining both sides of the story. He makes a great effort to show the difference between proven scientific phenomena and the pseudoscience that plagues the field. He presents a logical argument and scientific reasoning to debunk common myths found throughout science. In doing so, Sagan encourages you to think rationally and to not fall victim to mass hysteria or believing everything you see and read.

            My favorite part of the book is the chapter called The Dragon in My Garage. In this chapter he tells someone he has a dragon in his garage. He takes them to see it but you can’t, he says it is because it is invisible. The person says to put powder on the ground to see the footsteps, but Sagan’s says you cannot do that either because the dragon floats. They tell him to use infrared goggles but Sagan tells them that won’t work because the fire breathing dragon it heatless. He does this just to counter every possible physical test of the dragon’s existence. The point of the chapter is that just because you cannot prove that the dragon doesn’t exist does not mean the dragon is real. This is the same as with other myths in the world. The inability to prove something a myth does not make it a reality.