Chapter 14 Summary and Analysis

Sagan characterizes as antiscience the trendy, New Age mindset that reality is whatever you think it is, that one system of belief is as valid as another, that science is merely one kind of belief system. The astronomer argues that science is different than shamanistic or traditional religion in its requirements for proof through scientific experiment and observation of its findings. It may well be that faith-based healing is effective in treating certain conditions. However, just how effective can only be determined by a scientific process of culling out those seeming cures that result from suggestion.

In part, science itself is responsible for public distrust and misunderstanding. As the pace of change (which is the same as the rate of new discovery and new knowledge) is so fast in science—and in particular medicine which affects everyone—people have...