Exorcising the "Demon-Haunted World"

I recently read the jewel of a book that is Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. It is one of those books that I think should be widely read in popular culture, not just by those apt to agree with it's premise. Sadly, the ones who would most benefit from reading it are the least likely to do so. There are many brilliant reviews of this book on the internet that do it better justice than I ever could, so that's not what this post is going to be.

The title of this great book stirred up some thoughts and images in my mind that the book itself only addressed tangentially. These images which were inspired by Sagan's book, though not it's subject, is what I'd like to talk about. Despite my expectations prior to having read it, Demon Haunted World focused very little on the history of science and it's accomplishments. I don't want to give the impression that I fault the book for not living up to my expectations, because it did. It exceeded them. It just didn't delve into some of the territory I thought it was going to. That makes it no less of a masterpiece. I didn't expect it to be a description of specific advancements through time, necessarily, and it wasn't this. (Other works have already done this extremely well). I (somewhat) mistakenly thought it would be a more general reflection on how science has gradually illuminated the shadows of superstition, revealing them as only the flickering shapes our minds construct from the incomplete bits of reality we can see peeking out from the darkness that hides the deeper but entirely natural truths of the universe. This darkness exists because we have not yet been able to figure a way to bring our candle to that shrouded corner, but this does not mean we never can or that we never will. Indeed, the history of science is the story of our holding that candle up to the dark places where the shadows of ignorance lurk, lighting realities that could not have even been guessed at or dreamed of had it never been lit.

Think of prehistoric times, when humanity undoubtedly believed the world to be haunted by demons and spirits as prolifically as it was by humans and animals. Over time, with a slow growing understanding of nature, with the embracing of logic and rationality to show us reality from mythological explanations invented to avail our fears, those endless demons were exorcised from the collective minds of humanity. They were unmasked as natural phenomena, as the understandable effects of discoverable causes. But the human world, despite all its advances in thought and technology, to this day is still unfortunately far from having completely exorcised it's superstitious false beliefs. The most tenacious and arguably the most dangerous one still remains. The supreme supernatural being. The supposed omniscient demon that still powerfully haunts so many otherwise rational minds: God. It seems clear to me that if we are successful in truly exorcising this last irrationality, it will help to usher in a time of unhindered discovery and possibly of greater peace. For peace is rational. If we fail to do such a thing, even as our technology and our capacity for self harm increases, we will be doomed not just to stifled progress, but perhaps eventually to a return to the demon-haunted world of old. Our logical and technological progress having been only a transient aspect of our species. So many people cling to this last vestige of supernatural wishful thinking in an attempt to appeal to the part of themselves that longs for "something more." But something more than what? More than the mind-boggling majesty that nature is still unveiling to us as reality? The vast majority of those who would use such an impotent argument to hold onto their superstitious hope of an all-powerful and watchful father-figure have no idea of the profound grandeur that only rational and skeptical inquiry has been able to reveal. Yes, there is "more out there." Much more. So let's keep looking instead of giving up and erroneously, childishly giving all mystery the name of just another demon/deity in the shadows.