The Demon Haunted World - Science As A Candle In The Dark - By C

******************************************************************************* The Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark By: Carl Sagan ******************************************************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- General Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Type.................: AudioBook Platform.............: Any MP3 Player More Info............: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469 Title................: The Demon Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark Artist...............: Carl Sagan Year.................: 1995 Genre................: Speech Comment..............: Complete and Unabridged AudioBook Duration.............: 14 Hours 20 Minutes Number of Songs......: 1 Single MP3 File Genre................: Non-Fiction / Philosophy of Science Audio Format.........: MP3 Bitrate..............: 96 Kbps CBR Source...............: Tape (With Audio Quality Edits and Silence Removal) Recording............: Audio Cassettes Recorded Using Audio Record Wizard 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Release Notes ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amazon.com Carl Sagan muses on the current state of scientific thought, which offers him marvelous opportunities to entertain us with his own childhood experiences, the newspaper morgues, UFO stories, and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of pseudoscience. Along the way he debunks alien abduction, faith-healing, and channeling; refutes the arguments that science destroys spirituality, and provides a "baloney detection kit" for thinking through political, social, religious, and other issues. From Publishers Weekly Eminent Cornell astronomer and bestselling author Sagan debunks the paranormal and the unexplained in a study that will reassure hardcore skeptics but may leave others unsatisfied. To him, purported UFO encounters and alien abductions are products of gullibility, hallucination, misidentification, hoax and therapists' pressure; some alleged encounters, he suggests, may screen memories of sexual abuse. He labels as hoaxes the crop circles, complex pictograms that appear in southern England's wheat and barley fields, and he dismisses as a natural formation the Sphinx-like humanoid face incised on a mesa on Mars, first photographed by a Viking orbiter spacecraft in 1976 and considered by some scientists to be the engineered artifact of an alien civilization. In a passionate plea for scientific literacy, Sagan deftly debunks the myth of Atlantis, Filipino psychic surgeons and mediums such as J.Z. Knight, who claims to be in touch with a 35,000-year-old entity called Ramtha. He also brands as superstition ghosts, angels, fairies, demons, astrology, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and religious apparitions. From Library Journal In a chapter entitled "Science and Hope," Sagan (Pale Blue Dot, Random, 1994) writes: "This book is a personal statement, reflecting my lifelong love affair with science." Accordingly, he deplores pseudoscientific thinking and the credulous beliefs that emerge from it. Today, when science is critical for solving the world's problems, many people, instead, trust astrology and New Age spiritualism. Likewise, surveys reveal that a majority of Americans believe that Earth is regularly visited by space aliens. Using basic tools of science?empiricism, rationalism, and experimentation?Sagan debunks these and other common fallacies of pseudoscience. In doing so, he speculates as to how such beliefs arise. Some of his explanations are not entirely convincing (are alien-abduction tales really modern versions of medieval myths?), but he handles them with empathy so as to not demean the intelligence of true believers. The best chapters examine the state of science education and technical literacy in America and suggest an agenda for improving both. Still, Sagan's theme is important, and his popularity might lure some readers from the UFO and occult books cluttering so many library and bookstore shelves. For public and undergraduate libraries. The New York Times Book Review, James Gorman While he touches on various sorts of pseudoscience and antiscience, including repressed memories of all sorts, creationism, belief in miracles and, to his credit, the claims of tobacco companies that cigarettes have not been shown to be harmful, Mr. Sagan's primary target is the widespread belief in alien abductions . . . he is seldom wrong . . . [and] he always writes clearly. From Booklist Sagan has devoted himself to the noble mission of rousing us from our stuporous neglect of science. His accessible and passionate books about the cosmos, our origins, and space exploration (Pale Blue Dot ) open doors of perception into exciting realms many nonscientists simply avoid. In his newest book, Sagan conducts a vigorous inquiry into why science is so "hard to learn and hard to teach" and asks why so many people embrace the sort of "pseudoscience" associated with New Age beliefs or served up in the pages of tabloids. Widespread scientific illiteracy and a dearth of critical thinking are "perilous and foolhardy," Sagan tells us, and that's obviously true. To show us just how deluded we can be, Sagan tackles the popular belief in extraterrestrials and alien abduction stories, debunking a number of half-baked but commonly held assumptions simply by asking commonsensical questions. He moves on to the whole "recovered memory" debacle, then segues into a very convincing discussion of hallucinations. Ultimately, he links today's aliens with yesterday's demons in this lithe, well-supported, sometimes quite wry, and altogether refreshing performance. Stick to the facts, Sagan tells us, "There are wonders enough out there without our inventing any." There are wonders within, too, all we need to do is learn to use them.

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piratloller (2008-05-16)

is a much smaller filesize version of the same thing.

ordago (2009-02-02)

The one you are pointing at is only two and half hours, this one is fourteen hours.

Evg222 (2009-07-10)

piratloller, your link is for an abridged edition which lasts only 2.5 hours.

greenfrog (2010-02-04)

The isnt read by CARL SAGAN. Its read by some guy with a British Accent. NFG!

Peterc340 (2010-03-01)

This is a GREAT listen! Yes, it's a Brit reading it, not Sagan, but it's Sagan's unabridged book contents. WELL WORTH THE TIME! The recording is a bit bass. Turn up the treble a lot and it's a better listen.
There are aspects of his investigation and explanations of ghosts, UFOs crop circles, etc., that provide solid debunking methodology to attack other silliness, including crystal energy, talking to dead people, etc. This book is rich with common sense and statistics, as well as well-delivered arguments and fascinating stories about paranormal chicanery.
Loved the entire 'book', and what seems at first like a daunting 14 hour slog ends up going by way too fast.
Another fantastic 'read' is The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (back-to-back antibiotics against the dreaded 'stupidity' germ infecting most of humanity).

Kekkonen5 (2011-02-28)

I couldn't listen to it because it came from only one channel. Great if your other ear is def and you are used to hear like that.

TomBk (2014-10-13)

Good torrent.
Thanks.
1 large file. Not divided by chapters or any other way.