The Demon-Haunted World - Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan (read in the spring 2011)

An eye-opening, clear introduction to the merits of a rationalist approach to the world. Why do we think “ghost” or “monster” when something in our closet creaks? Why is not just the wind? Or the house slightly shifting? Sagan explores our propensity/need/impulse to assign extraordinary explanations for phenomena more simply explained by the mundane. He takes us into the Inquisition, the burning of witches, reports of alien abduction, and many other fantastic beliefs which, he would argue and I would agree, impede our social evolution. His is a lucid and engaging writing style, a clear articulation of the struggle between the rationalist and those around us who see conspiracy in every government action, a space alien in every light in the sky.