The Demon-Haunted World
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Saganby Carl Sagan
Hacker ApprovedRanked 7 of 50 popular science books by recommenders
People recommend it for teaching scientific thinking, separating science from pseudoscience, and the Baloney Detection Kit, which many say changed how they judge evidence.
People recommend it for teaching scientific thinking, separating science from pseudoscience, and the Baloney Detection Kit, which many say changed how they judge evidence.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 91%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 10 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Practical tools for spotting bad reasoning
“These will help you distinguish between rational thinking and rationalizations.”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?” “I drill this into my children, they have it memorized.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit: Tools for Thinking Critically (2025)” “Especially the Baloney Detection Kit.”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Anthropic Education the AI Fluency Index” Influential and a longtime favorite
“DHW framed it spectacularly for me, and is one of the most influential books I have read.”
Comment from 12 Feb 2026 in “Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit: Tools for Thinking Critically (2025)” “I remember this being one of my favorite books back in college”
Comment from 11 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What are young technically minded people reading?” Feels relevant to today's world
“Go read Carl Sagan's 1996 demon haunted world and it's only gotten worse from there”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “U.S. Science Is in Chaos” “Literally everything he described in there is precisely the world we live in today”
Comment from 9 Apr 2026 in “Emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal now endangered” Explains rational thinking and pseudoscience
“Carl Sagan also has an excellent book on distinguishing science from pseudoscience”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 on Hacker News “These will help you distinguish between rational thinking and rationalizations.”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How are you all staying sane?”
Other popular science books people recommend
The four most recommended other popular science books, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gödel, Escher, Bachby Douglas R. Hofstadter | 47 | 10 | 82% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Thinking, Fast and Slowby Daniel Kahneman | 17 | 13 | 57% | 9 | — | — |
| Thinking in Systemsby Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright | 17 | 0 | 100% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Selfish Geneby Richard Dawkins | 14 | 5 | 74% | 8 | — | Approved |
| The Demon-Haunted Worldby Carl SaganThis page | 10 | 1 | 91% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
11 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Carl Sagan outsmarting Mike Judge with this passage from The Demon Haunted World (1995)”
“Go read Carl Sagan's 1996 demon haunted world and it's only gotten worse from there”
“Literally everything he described in there is precisely the world we live in today”
“These will help you distinguish between rational thinking and rationalizations.”
“Especially the Baloney Detection Kit.”
“almost every single thing he said about history was wrong”
“I drill this into my children, they have it memorized.”
“DHW framed it spectacularly for me, and is one of the most influential books I have read.”
“That book showed me so clearly how strange it is to believe in supernatural events.”
“Carl Sagan also has an excellent book on distinguishing science from pseudoscience”
“I remember this being one of my favorite books back in college”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.