Update on Sagan's book - The Demon-Haunted World

I am about two thirds through my reading of The Demon Haunted World. The book is written so that someone who is a novice to scientific inquiry, such as myself, can comprehend the concepts that Sagan espouses - but Sagan, on occasion, provides some insight as to how a scientific approach to obtaining facts is different from other methods. For example, the below passage should help shed some light on the complexities of learning about quantum mechanics - an essential scientific tool.

"Imagine you seriously want to understand what quantum mechanics is about. There is a mathematical underpinning that you must first acquire, mastery of each mathematical subdiscipline leading you to the threshold of the next. In turn you must learn arithmetic, Euclidean geometry, high school algebra, differential equations, vector calculus, certain special functions of mathematical physics, matrix algebra, and group theory. For most physics students, this might occupy them from, say, third grade to early graduate school - roughly 15 years. Such a course of study does not actually involve learning any quantum mechanics, but merely establishing the mathematical framework required to approach it deeply."

Passages like the one above are real eye openers as to just how much work an individual must undertake to have an academic background in science. By doing so, it is likely that the person would have a much better grasp of the topics Sagan addresses in this book. But because of the effort needed to acquire such knowledge, it is also not surprising as to why so many shortcuts to the "truth" have been devised by those who prefer to skip to the chase -and fore go the hard work needed to ferret out facts via scientific methods. This book makes a strong case for ignoring the soothsayers and anchoring one's beliefs to science - rather than astrology, religion or the revelations of the increasingly popular psychics.