How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand
the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning
author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit
of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.
Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies
of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information
age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations
commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason
is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.