Book Report; The Demon-Haunted World Science as a Candle in the Dark

        The Demon- Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark is a book by Carl Sagan that explores why things are the way that they are and questions whether or not we should take science at face value; “I know that science and technology are not just cornucopias pouring gifts out into the world" (Sagan, 47). Instead he believes that there is much more to understand about the universe. Mr. Sagan looks at science with just as much curiosity as he does intellect and even provides the reader with an inside look at how the mind of a true fair-minded critical thinker operates. he provides the reader with the perfect amount of intelligence, but leaves them with an urge to do more research on a certain subject independently. What makes this text so interesting is some of his insights are able to foreshadow the future of America and suggests that it would eventually "dumb down" which many could make the case has already started to happen. 
        This book is filled with many wonderful pieces of information and insight, however, in my personal opinion, the best part would have to be chapter four . In chapter four Carl Sagan provides a very disturbing and quite surreal depiction of what it would be like to be abducted by aliens.“Your body is probed with instruments and machines, especially your sexual parts. If you’re a man, they may take sperm samples; if you’re a woman, they may remove ova or fetuses, or implant semen. They may force you to have sex. Afterwards you may be ushered into a different room where hybrid babies or fetuses, partly human and partly like these creatures, stare back at you" (Sagan, 167). The subject of aliens closely resembles the lecture we have been going over on the Jersey Devil. Many people have stories regarding these creatures, however they both are not absolutely proven to exist. Most of what we know about these different kinds of creatures are solely based on what other people claim to have seen or experienced.
        Mr. Sagan goes on to talk about not just the distinct possibility, but the absolute certainty that aliens do exist. In fact, after doing a little more research I was able to find out that Mr. Sagan was part of a Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project which was created to find the out whether or not extraterrestrial life does in fact exist or if it only existed solely in other peoples stories, as mentioned earlier. As I read through this chapter my skepticism took over. For example; a question asking if humans evolved from aliens or if aliens evolved from humans seemed too crazy to even think about, however, Carl Sagan is able to write with such conviction that once I finished the chapter the aforementioned question did not seem crazy at all. In fact, it made me do a little extra research on the subject.
        I began to scour the internet for more information and stories people have of extraterrestrial experiences. I found a video on Joe Rogan's podcast in which the lead singer of the Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Corgan talks about watching someone shape shift before his very eyes. He does not provide many details of the event, but it lead me to think about the possibility that maybe extraterrestrial beings have already been living on earth all along, but are actually just in human form. Could there be a potential chance that they are already living among us? Below I have attached a link to the video. I also attached a video that talks and shows photos of a potential shape shifter who appears to be part of the CIA. In the photos it appears that he may have been caught on video morphing into a different form. I'm not sure how much of this I truly believe, however, it is is still tremendously interesting nonetheless. Also, just for fun, I have attached a photo of myself while I was playing around on photo booth with the "alien filter" In case anybody was wondering what I would look like as an alien.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvrNTt5Fz2g&t=144s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHGFB-HwFwg&t=1497s

        In conclusion, The Demon- Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, is filled with really interesting information. So often, I read a book that has a lot of interesting information, but it does not leave me thinking much about its details after. This book however, did just that. In fact, not only did I do more research on the subject of aliens, but I also did more research on Carl Sagan in general because he seems like such a brilliant man. While researching more about Mr. Sagan I found out that he actually has a show on Netflix that I have now been watching a lot lately called "The Cosmos". The show follows Mr. Sagan as he narrates the connections everything has to the universe. Much like the book, It is really cool and very picturesque. I highly recommend anybody interested watch the show and I also highly recommend reading this awesome book as well.

                                                                   References

Sagan, C. (2013). The demon-haunted world: Science as a candle in the dark. Paw Prints.

Carl Sagan on Alien Abduction. (1996, February 27). Retrieved from       http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/sagan-alien-abduction.html