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Whistle Stopper - God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist
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List Price: $17.95
Our Price: $11.35
Your Save: $ 6.60 ( 37% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 211
EAN: 9781591026525
ISBN: 1591026520
Label: Prometheus Books
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 310
Publication Date: 2008-04-08
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Studio: Prometheus Books
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The failed Stenger
Comment: Stenger is a retired physicist and should be a retired writer too.
The example of this is this book.
Chapter 4 is a game of hide and seek whith the readers. Why doesn't he say we don't have the least idea how matter appeared and the big bang happened? He just says that god left no imprint in the universe.
Why doesn't he talk about the origins of the first living cell? Of course he's a physicist, but those matters are commom knowlege of every atheist.
We just don't know.
Just two points: universe and life. I'll skip the part of chapter 6 the failure of revelation, where he writes based on the book Unearthed Bible.
I'm an atheist and don't need a god of gaps.
But this book is easy, too much easy. Does Stenger think that other atheist are stupid, or is he convinced that like this he will convert some catholic girls?
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Summary: Positivism in a Vacuum and for the Vacuous
Comment: It seems that this work is another take on the Popperian idea that falsification of theories is the axiomatic heart of scientific thought, and hence that anything that can be falsified can thus be eliminated from the social discourse. Yet does science itself work as Popper, and apparently Stenger, believe? There are numerous counterexamples from other sources, most notably that of Thomas Kuhn, who argue instead that science itself operates in paradigms, in that bodies of work are created in a certain paradigmatic structure which expounds on theories and then seeks their confirmation in the scientific discourse, and that these paradigms are continually being challenged and eventually replaced by new ones.
Kuhn's argument too is not without its faults. Do these paradigmatic revolutions really occur? It is difficult to say. Nevertheless, Kuhn seems to more accurately depict science as it really is -- not a positivist negation of theories based on "evidence" (which in and of itself is rarely so clear cut) but rather on theoretical positing which confirmation is then sought for in the scientific body.
Hence the idea that God can be falsified by looking at dubious evidence (defined mainly in the Western Enlightenment discourse) is a great marketing tool to both gain the following of those who agree and draw the ire of those who do not, thus gaining notoriety and popularity for both the book and the author (and also producing a nicely controversial title), but in the end the idea of falsification itself is rather outdated within science itself, and thus the book should be read skeptically.
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Summary: Nothing new here...atheism for dummies
Comment: As a seminarian, I encourage an honest debate with non-believers. However, this guy (along with Dawkins, Hitchens, et al) is a lightweight when compared to people like Bertrand Russel, Sartre, and Nietzsche. For example, his "shocking" revelations, such as the fact that Jesus wasn't the first to preach the Golden Rule, and the lack of archaeological evidence for the Exodus has been well known by theologians for decades. (BTW, that archaeological evidence came from Christian and Jewish scholars). And yes, the bible is full of inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Most progressive theologians know this. And yes, Intelligent Design is bad science, as well as bad theology. Most educated theologians also agree with this.
Like Hitchens, he takes information already provided by religious scholars, and uses them to make his case. The problem with these new anti-theist books is that they are targeted toward one particular audience: fundamental, literal, evangelical Christians and Muslims.
If you truly want to make a case against theism, build an ontological or existential argument in a philosophical tradition, like Sartre, and quit pointing out the simple-minded Christianity of Falwell, Robertson, Huckabee and their crowd.
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Summary: Where's the beef?
Comment: Let me save you the overpriced 20 dollars this book cost.
1) God doesn't exist because he doesn't match our expected observations about what we see around us. Therefore we can conclude that he doesn't exist.
2) I showed exactly where the explanation and reality diverged... in my other book. or perhaps this philosophical argument has already been shown unsound somewhere else
Example on page 57: "the structures of the eyes look as they might be expected to look if they developed from purely material and mindless processes"
Great opener to an argument. Its logical and makes sense. Now how about a side by side picture, or a detailed description of how the eye evolved incrementaly and how that left its imprint in the structure of modern eyes... no such luck. The author simply asserts that it is so, and moves on.
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Summary: Effective debunking of Intelligent Design
Comment: I think a number of reviewers have missed the point of this very well written book.
In this book, Victor Stenger has written a very effective debunking of the Intelligent Design hypothesis, which is being masqueraded as science by creationists these days.
If you've heard of the recent movie "Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed," which is a propogandistic inflammatory pseudo-documentary supporting the activities of the so-called Discovery Institute in promoting Intelligent Design as a scientific hypothesis and, among other things, blaming the holocaust on Darwin and anyone who believes in evolutionary biology (which, by the way, is an obscene accusation made in the film); then this book will take apart every argument presented in that ridiculous and highly biased movie.
The publication of this book preceded the release of the film by nearly a year and a half, and so does not directly reference the movie and there is no indication that it is associated with the movie in anyway. But the book does reference, and debunk the arguments of, specific individuals who appear in the film promoting the Intelligent Design hypothesis.
The book is not an afront to religion or religious belief, though some may take it as that. It is a scientific debunking of the politically-motivated pseudoscience that has come forth under the label of Intelligent Design in recent years.
Everyone should read Victor Stenger's book; particularly given the ridiculous propoganda being spread through the release of that absurd film.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This edition includes a new Foreword by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling GOD IS NOT GREAT.
In the paperback's afterword, Victor Stenger addresses criticisms of his New York Times bestselling first edition.
Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology. In the meantime, science has sat on the sidelines and quietly watched this game of words march up and down the field. Despite the fact that science has revolutionized every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality.
Physicist Victor J. Stenger contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, Stenger examines all of the claims made for God's existence.
He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God's influence in biology. He looks at human behavior for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God's special creation.
After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God.
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