Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
The American psychologist Charles Tart, who believes the
evidence for extrasensory perception is convincing, writes:
An important factor in the current popularity of 'New Age'
ideas is a reaction against the dehumanizing, despiritualizing
effects of scientism, the philosophical belief (masquerading as
objective science and held with the emotional tenacity of
born-again fundamentalism) that we are nothing but material
beings. To unthinkingly embrace anything and everything
labeled 'spiritual' or 'psychic' or 'New Age' is, of course,
foolish, for many of these ideas are factually wrong, however
noble or inspiring they are. On the other hand, this New Age
interest is a legitimate recognition of some of the realities of
human nature: People have always had and continue to have
experiences that seem to be 'psychic' or 'spiritual'.
But why should 'psychic' experiences challenge the idea that we
are made of matter and nothing but? There is very little doubt
that, in the everyday world, matter (and energy) exist. The
evidence is all around us. In contrast, as I've mentioned earlier,
the evidence for something non-material called 'spirit' or 'soul' is
very much in doubt. Of course each of us has a rich internal life.
Considering the stupendous complexity of matter, though, how
could we possibly prove that our internal life is not wholly due to
matter? Granted, there is much about human consciousness that
we do not fully understand and cannot yet explain in terms of
neurobiology. Humans have limitations, and no one knows this
better than scientists. But a multitude of aspects of the natural
world that were considered miraculous only a few generations ago
are now thoroughly understood in terms of physics and chemistry.
At least some of the mysteries of today will be comprehensively
solved by our descendants. The fact that we cannot now produce a
detailed understanding of, say, altered states of consciousness in
terms of brain chemistry no more implies the existence of a 'spirit
world' than a sunflower following the Sun in its course across the
sky was evidence of a literal miracle before we knew about
phototropism and plant hormones.
And if the world does not in all respects correspond to our
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