Chapter 17 Summary and Analysis

If skepticism is the realm of the scientist and wonder the province of the poet, Sagan contends that a balance of the two is required for survival in a world torn in a million directions by controversies, wars, assaults on reason and appeals to primal urges. He concedes that skepticism has the defect of sometimes seeming cold, condescending and belittling to others whose beliefs may be based more on intuition and feelings. Yet, he reminds us that people of both casts of mind are human beings with true feelings who are just trying to figure our the world and their place in it.

Who is to judge so-called primitive societies that use seashells or young women as money, as in the Ik tribe of Uganda who also ignore the blandishments of the Ten Commandments? Their belief system has worked for them...