Saturday, April 18, 2020

Book Report for Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan was born in 1934 in Brooklyn, New York. At a very young age, it became apparent to Sagan's parents that he had a love for astronomy. When Sagan graduated high school he continued his education at the University of Chicago where in 1955 he graduated with a bachelor in physics, and continued to get his master's. When Sagan finished college he moved to California, where he helped infrared radiometer for NASA's Mariner 2 robotic probe. In the 1960's Sagan was working with Harvard University and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory where he worked on studying the planets, Venus and Jupiter. In 1996 Sagan published The Demon Haunted World, Sagan covered many topics on pseudoscience and paranormal topics.
Throughout the book Sagan mainly focuses on the topic of aliens and UFO's. In chapters four and five, Sagan mentions that many Americans believe that aliens visit Earth. That according to science there is no explaination to exactly how "extraterritorial" creatures could come to Earth. What is so interesting to me is that, many people in the world and The United States do belive in Alien's and UFO's; and some people believe they have even been abducted by alien's. Even though throughout media and the internet there are so any different stories and interactons people have shared, but in science there is not an explaination if aliens exist or how they exactly get to earth.
In Chapter 22, Sagan mentions that to teach science to many people that we should use sports as a way to teach physics. Its funny that Sagan realizes the way to draw student's attentions, today; many teacher's use sports as a way to teach physics, math, as well as other subjects to student's. Today, it is very hard for anyone especially students to stay focus with all the different distractions. Learning through sports and games physics, math and many other topics is how many people learn now.
Sagan mentions in chapter 7 that people tend to seem happier when they believe in demons and alien's. Reading this was very interesting to me, because I feel like when people belive in demons or aliens they would be happier when they see something that feels like a confirmation to them. An exmaple, would be ike if someone is driving and they see a huge circular object in the sky; they are now happier because they think they witness an UFO, which confirms they do now believe in extraterritorial life.
In my opinion, I think there is many dfferent topics in science and it is hard for people to know what to believe is real or false. Throughout the book I think Sagan provided great evidence and topics to make people question what they believe or to look at things with a new persepective. Overall, I feel like the book was good. There was some parts of the book that were not as great as other parts. I feel like this book would be suited for someone who is really into paranormal topics as well as learning from someone who cared deeply to teach this topics. HORN! REVIEWS: The Demon-Haunted World - The Rumpus.net
https://therumpus.net/2018/11/horn-reviews-the-demon-haunted-world/
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/review-of-the-demon-haunted-world-einstein-history-and-other-passions-the-end-of-science-136518521/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carl-Sagan

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