Toward An Understanding of the Roles of Scientific, Traditional, and Spiritual Knowledge in Our “Demon-Haunted World”
Abstract
One afternoon while perusing the monthly book club catalog, I ran across the latest and unfortunately last work published by Carl Sagan during his lifetime, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Intrigued by the title (and the author), I ordered a copy. Carl Sagan was definitely the most outspoken public champion of science and the objective study of nature in recent years, and this book explicitly addresses what Sagan perceives to be a great increasing threat to rational thought in American culture today. After reading the book cover to cover and recommending it to many of my academic colleagues, a friend of mine who studies Native American history and oral tradition encountered a review of the work in this journal by Steve Pavlik, which she thought I might enjoy reading. As it turns out, I do like and appreciate Pavlik’s review, but at the same time I find there to be a few points made in the paper which reflect perhaps a misunderstanding of the scientific process, scientific knowledge, scientific goals, and the personal attitudes and beliefs of scientists in general. It is these misunderstandings that I would like to discuss in this essay, both in the context of Sagan’s book and with an eye to the attitudes of many of today’s practicing scientists.