Review of The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason by Victor J. Stenger
December 11, 2010 at 5:00 am
(This post was last modified: December 11, 2010 at 5:01 am by Justtristo.)
A few months ago I read God: The Failed Hypothesis by the same author and I thought it was really good, infact I believe it is better than the God Delusion. Stenger who is a well known physicist managed to argue quite successfully that the existence of sort of god proclaimed by Judaism, Christianity and Islam could be subjected to a scientific hypothesis and shown that such a god does not exist.
Well I have just finished reading Victor Stenger's latest effort, the purpose of Stenger's book is to respond to the critics of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett and he does so very well. Stenger in my opinion answers everyone of these rebuttals with logic and evidence.
In particular Stenger addresses (which no one "New Atheist" author has done) the arguements by apologists for fine-tuning when it comes to physics. Also Stenger poses a totally naturalistic cause for formation of the universe which is called quantum tunneling, which rebuts the cosomological argument for god.
Stenger devotes a chapter to the mind, where I agree with him that the last battleground will occur where theists will try and insert god. While admitting there is more scientific explanatory work to be done in this area. Stenger argues that an absence of evidence is indeed an evidence of absence, when it comes to
the presence of a dualistic mind. This is the same argument he made in the God: The Failed Hypothesis for the non-existence of at least of a diety like Yahweh or Allah.
The rest of Stenger's book has some interesting filler, such as debunking Mormonism, putting Judaism and Christianity's development into the context of the axial age. Also suprisingly agreeing with Sam Harris and myself that that Eastern philosophy (particularly practices such as mediation and eightfold path of buddhism as a moral code) stripped of it's supernatural element serves as a viable source of morality. Along with incorporating aspects of Hindu and Taoist thought about reducing the ego as a means of living a morally fulifilled life.
In conculsion, this book in my opinion is the best of the "New Atheists" I have read so far and money well spend. Like other "New Atheist" books this is a book which not convert the theist to atheism, however enlighten and help Atheists and other liked minded people.
My rating is 5 out of 5 stars
Well I have just finished reading Victor Stenger's latest effort, the purpose of Stenger's book is to respond to the critics of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett and he does so very well. Stenger in my opinion answers everyone of these rebuttals with logic and evidence.
In particular Stenger addresses (which no one "New Atheist" author has done) the arguements by apologists for fine-tuning when it comes to physics. Also Stenger poses a totally naturalistic cause for formation of the universe which is called quantum tunneling, which rebuts the cosomological argument for god.
Stenger devotes a chapter to the mind, where I agree with him that the last battleground will occur where theists will try and insert god. While admitting there is more scientific explanatory work to be done in this area. Stenger argues that an absence of evidence is indeed an evidence of absence, when it comes to
the presence of a dualistic mind. This is the same argument he made in the God: The Failed Hypothesis for the non-existence of at least of a diety like Yahweh or Allah.
The rest of Stenger's book has some interesting filler, such as debunking Mormonism, putting Judaism and Christianity's development into the context of the axial age. Also suprisingly agreeing with Sam Harris and myself that that Eastern philosophy (particularly practices such as mediation and eightfold path of buddhism as a moral code) stripped of it's supernatural element serves as a viable source of morality. Along with incorporating aspects of Hindu and Taoist thought about reducing the ego as a means of living a morally fulifilled life.
In conculsion, this book in my opinion is the best of the "New Atheists" I have read so far and money well spend. Like other "New Atheist" books this is a book which not convert the theist to atheism, however enlighten and help Atheists and other liked minded people.
My rating is 5 out of 5 stars
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