I haven’t read Sagan’s work, but I’m interested in the title metaphor. It must be discussed in the book, but I’m wondering how helpful it is in showing the value of science to society. A single point light source might illuminate one side of something unknown, but it fails to reveal it in totality and casts long shadows on the other side - perhaps much like judging a metaphorical title without reading the book.
There is a chapter in the book called "The Demon-Haunted World". It is an allusion to the Dark Ages and earlier, where the light of reason was dim and there was widespread belief in the existence of demons. Sagan was very interested in the existence of extraterrestrials, and he links the modern grey aliens found in ufology with what was called demons in earlier ages. The Bible has a word called nephilim, which fits with the description of grey aliens that was popularized by Budd Hopkins in the 1980s with his book
Missing Time.
Sagan was naturally interested in theories about extraterrestrials that have already visited our planet, and he has a whole chapter in the book called "Aliens". But he essentially writes that there is insufficient evidence to conclude that extraterrestrials have already visited us. Neil deGrasse Tyson who is also very interested in outer space has concluded the same.
William Cooper was a conspiracy researcher popular among people who are interested in conspiracy theories, and he also popularized the idea that grey aliens have already infiltrated our solar system. But he basically solved this problem by using rationalism too, since he later just decided that the so-called aliens were a careful fabrication of the global elite for ushering in the New World Order conspiracy. He even made up the word ufoology, much like we use the word audiophoolery to describe the way we deal with spiritual darkness also called ignorance.
The book references the adage "It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness", where darkness is like an allusion to ignorance and the vastness of outer space we know so little about, or even Ephesians 6:12 that calls demons the powers of darkness. So there is a whole chapter called "The Fine Art of Baloney Detection", which gives a baloney detection kit based on the scientific method for using rationalism to deal with ignorance.
The book has a lot to do with the way this forum often works, so I can only recommend to read it for those who are interested in such topics.
