David Berlinski, a secular Jew and self-described agnostic, in his book The Devil’s Delusion (written in response to Richard Dawkins book, The God Delusion, delivers a biting defense of religious thought. An acclaimed author who has spent his career writing about mathematics and the sciences, he turns the scientific community’s cherished skepticism back on itself, daring to ask and answer some rather embarrassing questions: • Has anyone provided a proof of God’s inexistence? Not even close. • Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here? Not even close. • Have the sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life? Not even close. • Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as it is not religious thought? Close enough. • Has rationalism in moral thought provided us with an understanding of what is good, what is right, and what is moral? Not close enough. • Has secularism in the terrible twentieth century been a force for good? Not even close to being close. • Is there a narrow and oppressive orthodoxy of thought and opinion within the sciences? Close enough. • Does anything in the sciences or in their philosophy justify the claim that religious belief is irrational? Not even ballpark. •Is scientific atheism a frivolous exercise in intellectual contempt? Dead on.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 01:26:06 +0000
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