Excellent companion to Michael Novak's "No One Sees God" | The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific...

The emperor has no clothes! | The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions | David Berlinski

books:


	• The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions David Berlinski Crown Forum, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 62 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Run, watch atheist run

Now that I've spent quite a bit of time around the "new atheists" or "militant atheists", I can say that they thoroughly annoy me and I find them to be dishonest. I've heard very many of their arguments against theism over the years, and I've honestly considered their arguements. But at this point I always warn them as their "logic & reason" (that they fully believe they've got such a strong grasp on) will be ripped to shreds within the first 10 pages of THIS book by Berlinski. Best part is the author is an agnostic scientist, he has an unbiased viewpoint and no axe to grind. Turns out it's the Truth, as opposed to the axe, that'll set a person free. Recommended if you've got some smarty-pants around you who assumes that you're delusional and brainwashed for considering that life might not possibly end at the grave. At the end of the day religious texts of the world hold the merit of having profound inner-meaning after all is said and done.

for more information click here

Excellent companion to Michael Novak's "No One Sees God"

Like so many, I have to take Berlinski's mathematical (and scientific) bona fides on faith. But presuming that he is more or less in the same league as those he 'roasts,' he has succeeded in 'debunking the debunkers.' The book is a riposte to the new wave of the seemingly obsessed 'professional' atheists such as Dawkins, Harris, Dennett and Hitchens from their professional colleague. His basic point is that if these gents and their sycophants were really 'scientists," (rather than engaging in 'scient-ism)they would be agnostic, because the scientific method can neither prove nor disprove the existence of God.

Berlinski traces the neo-atheism to the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01, which even the atheists, generally moral relativists, could call bad. They were evil because they were inspired by fundamentalist, jihadist Islam. But Dawkins et al could not just come out and denounce radical Islam, for that would appear intolerant, so they cast a pox on all religious houses. He also points to Hitchens as representative when he claims that religions are bad because they cause dangerous sexual repression, which really is dangerous to libertines.

I also think that there is a near universal hatred in liberal, materialistic/scientific covens, for the George W. Bush regime (sometimes called BDS, Bush Derangement Syndrome), which has been relentlessly open to religion, and so they have sought to destabilize that administration at its foundation. In doing so, they also try to destabilize the vast majority (over 80%) of the people of the United States, whom they are trying to elevate to their exalted, 'enlightened' level. Please, sirs, stop your unsought attempts at helping; with 'friends' like you, who needs enemies?

It always gives me a chuckle that leftists and scientists deplore religion because it is sometimes based on authority and hierarchy. But is not Dawkins the wannabe infallible pope of the movement, with Dennett, Harris and Hitchens his bishops? And are not Darwin, Einstein and Weinberg the authors of their 'sacred scriptures?' Of course, they cannot connect back with Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, for all three of these benighted ignorami were believers of some sort.

My favorite line in the book was on p. 52, where Berlinski referred to materialist/scientist academics "who are professionally occupied in sniffing the underwear of their colleagues for ideological deviance."

I suggest reading this book, from a scientific standpoint, along with Michael Novak's No One Sees God, from a more philosophical/theological perspective, an equally enjoyable read.

for more information click here

The emperor has no clothes!

At last a man who understands science and the rudimentary laws of logic has taken the scientific community to task. For too long we have been fed fallacious arguments dressed in the clothes of scientific fact. Dr. Berlinski has shown the wit, wisdom, and courage to declare that the emperor has no clothes! (See also, The Emperor's New Clothes) Hiding behind the modern belief that science is to go unquestioned in its assertions, many scientists have again and again demonstrated their futile thinking in assertions that violate the most basic laws of logic. They seem to assume that no one will question their logic for fear of appearing ignorant. In this handy little book we have the fallacies identified and explained by someone capable of understanding the science and able to apply the laws of logic to see the obvious flaws. Wit and scientific acumen combine in this work to give you the tools you need in order to identify the questionable logic that is so popular in modern understandings of science. Funny and enlightening - well worth the investment.

for more information click here

Excellent book. Creative. Thoughtful. Entertaining.

A superb polemic against both the "new" atheism and the myth of scientific neutrality. I read it through twice. Funny. Smart. Entertaining. Provocative. An unconventional defense of theism. Absolutely worth your time, whether or not you're a believer. It is a guarantee that the one-star ratings on this book are largely (if not entirely) from atheists and their ilk smarting under the punishingly hilarious blows of Berlinski's per-turned-rapier. Encore! Encore!

A Secular Jew with an overwhelming knowledge of science weighs in

This is a much needed book. It discusses the arrogance and self-righteousness of current scientists who think that science has disproven God. The author, who is a secular Jew, doesn't so much argue for the existence of God as much as he argues against the lame arguments of men like Dawkins and hitchens. Berlinski has a PhD and knows his science very, very well.

for more information click here

Militant atheism is on the rise. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have dominated bestseller lists with books denigrating religious belief as dangerous foolishness. And these authors are merely the leading edge of a far larger movement?one that now includes much of the scientific community.

?The attack on traditional religious thought,? writes David Berlinski in The Devil?s Delusion, ?marks the consolidation in our time of science as the single system of belief in which rational men and women might place their faith, and if not their faith, then certainly their devotion.?

A secular Jew, Berlinski nonetheless 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.

Berlinski does not dismiss the achievements of western science. The great physical theories, he observes, are among the treasures of the human race. But they do nothing to answer the questions that religion asks, and they fail to offer a coherent description of the cosmos or the methods by which it might be investigated.

This brilliant, incisive, and funny book explores the limits of science and the pretensions of those who insist it can be?indeed must be?the ultimate touchstone for understanding our world and ourselves.

for more information click here