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Whistle Stopper - The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
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List Price: $23.95
Our Price: $13.44
Your Save: $ 10.51 ( 44% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Crown Forum
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 215
EAN: 9780307396266
ISBN: 0307396266
Label: Crown Forum
Manufacturer: Crown Forum
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
Publisher: Crown Forum
Release Date: 2008-04-01
Studio: Crown Forum
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Run, watch atheist run
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The emperor has no clothes!
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Secular Jew with an overwhelming knowledge of science weighs in
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Read for a few minutes at the bookstore--didn't buy
Comment: "Has anyone provided a proof of God's inexistence?
Not even close."
If this is the level of Berlinkski's philosophical depth, there's no need to regard this book as any kind of logical attack of atheism. Philosophy 101: you can't prove a negative. It's like saying, "Prove there is no such thing as a black swan" or "prove life doesn't exist outside of earth."
Reading through it, Berlinski is obviously enamored with his own erudition and baroque writing style. His arguments basically boil down to schoolyard taunts and "if that's the kind of person who's an atheist, I'm sure glad I'm not one."
The New Atheists don't have anything to worry about, intellectually, from critique at this level. I give it two stars in admiration of Berlinski's excellent prose.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good Book
Comment: Not a perfect book, but enjoyable. Offers plenty of arguments challenging the scientific atheists claim that God cannot exist. Don't listen to the bloated one star reviews that misrepresent him, he offers an intelligent discussion on the topic.
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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