The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason
Victor J. Stenger
Language: English
Pages: 282
ISBN: 1591027519
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In recent years a number of bestselling books have forcefully argued that belief in God can no longer be defended on rational or empirical grounds, and that the scientific worldview has rendered obsolete the traditional beliefs held by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The authors of these books—Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Victor J. Stenger—have come to be known as the "New Atheists." Predictably, their works have been controversial and attracted a good deal of critical reaction.
In this new book, Victor J. Stenger, whose God: The Failed Hypothesis was on the New York Times bestseller list in 2007, reviews and expands upon the principles of New Atheism and answers many of its critics. He demonstrates in detail that naturalism—the view that all of reality is reducible to matter and nothing else—is sufficient to explain everything we observe in the universe, from the most distant galaxies to the inner workings of the brain that result in the phenomenon of mind.
Stenger disputes the claim of many critics that the question of whether God exists is beyond the ken of science. On the contrary, he argues that absence of evidence for God is, indeed, evidence of absence when the evidence should be there and is not.
Turning from scientific to historical evidence, Stenger then points out the many examples of evil perpetrated in the name of religion. He also notes that the Bible, which is still taken to be divine revelation by millions, fails as a basis for morality and is unable to account for the problem of unnecessary suffering throughout the world.
Finally, he discusses the teachings of ancient nontheist sages such as Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Confucius, whose guidelines for coping with the problems of life and death did not depend upon a supernatural metaphysics. Stenger argues that this "way of nature" is far superior to the traditional supernatural monotheisms, which history shows can lead to a host of evils.
The New Atheism is a well-argued defense of the atheist position and a strong rebuttal of its critics.
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theory does a better job of agreeing with the data. Note that I did not say that special relativity proved Newtonian mechanics “wrong.” The observed differences between the Einsteinian and Newtonian predictions are mostly only evident at speeds near the speed of light. Physical theories are just models that we put to use in helping us classify and predict observations. Newtonian mechanics remains perfectly useful and “true” at low relative velocities. It’s what most students learn when they take
explanations, all causes are purely neutral and can be understood only by science. 5. All the various features of living beings, including human intelligence and behavior, can be explained ultimately in purely natural terms, and today this usually means in evolutionary, specifically Darwinian, terms. To these tenets of scientific naturalism, the new atheists would add the following:6. Faith in God is the cause of innumerable evils and should be rejected on moral grounds. 7. Morality does not
for an accelerating expansion of the universe. The average total energy density of the universe, including all the rest and kinetic energy of matter and all the potential energy that arises from the mutual gravity of matter, is precisely zero. Thus no energy from outside was required to make the universe. The law of conservation of energy was not violated. In fact, there is no need to invoke the violation of any physical law to account for the universe. THE BEGINNING OF TIME? Theists and
personal life, too, having been happily married to the same woman since 1962. Our two children are settled in happy marriages of their own and are both highly educated and successful. Our four grandchildren are beautiful and intelligent (pictures available on request). What else can a man want? I wouldn’t mind continuing it forever. But I can’t. Not having yet practiced any serious meditation, I cannot recommend any one method. I understand that Zen is extremely difficult. TM is easy, but stay
violent crime rates are the lowest in the world. Almost nobody goes to church or reads the Bible. Are they unhappy? In a survey of happiness in ninety-one nations, Denmark ranked number one.24 Zuckerman notes that while Denmark and Sweden are societies without God, they are not societies without religion. The majority still pay 1 percent of their annual incomes to support their national churches, get married in church, and baptize their children in church. Most still think of themselves as
