TheDemon-HauntedWorld_ScienceasaCandlein.epub

The Demon-Haunted World Science as a Candle in the Dark Carl Sagan To Tonio, My grandson. I wish you a world Free of demons And full of light. We wait for light, but behold darkness. Isaiah 59:9 It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. Adage Preface My Teachers It was a blustery fall day in 1939. In the streets outside the apartment building, fallen leaves were swirling in little whirlwinds, each with a life of its own. It was good to be inside and warm and safe, with my mother preparing dinner in the next room. In our apartment there were no older kids who picked on you for no reason. Just the week before, I had been in a fight - I can’t remember, after all these years, who it was with; maybe it was Snoony Agata from the third floor - and, after a wild swing, I found I had put my fist through the plate glass window of Schechter’s drug store. Mr Schechter was solicitous: ‘It’s all right, I’m insured,’ he said as he put some unbelievably painful antiseptic on my wrist. My mother took me ......