The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions | 
 enlarge | Author: David Berlinski
Publisher: Crown Forum
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
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Rating:  67 reviews
Sales Rank: 5001
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.1
ISBN: 0307396266
Dewey Decimal Number: 215
EAN: 9780307396266
ASIN: 0307396266
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
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Product Description
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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| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
 Delusion comes in many forms November 16, 2008
Heathan (Newcastle Aust)
1 out of 7 found this review helpful
Mr Berlinski is obviously passionate but his passion often gets in the way of what he is trying to say. For an ordinary reader he is difficult to follow, he is often unclear for example, mixing different levels of reality such as the material we live in with the particle reality of physics. He overdoes the simile and metaphor which are often unnecessary and occasionally border on crude.
His use of hyperbole is distracting and leads one to think that, although knowledgeable he is unable to make an unbiased assessment. When he discussed the scientific method (p55) he quotes one account he obtained from the internet. The first two steps briefly say; 1. Make some observations and 2. Form a hypothesis. But Mr Berlinski says that none of the "sentences makes the slightest sense" but later says they are applicable to any human undertaking. His use of 'sense' is obviously different to mine and I wonder if any of his of what he is saying means what I think he is saying.
On p53 he makes the comment "This is a matter of faith" if he had left it at that it may have been worth reading.
 Review of David Berlinski'sThe Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions November 13, 2008
Stewart Hough (Madera, CA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A most excellent indictment of the first church of Darwin and its self-appointed high priest Richard Dawkins. Reading with comprehension requires total focus, but the effort is well worth the reward. One passage on natural selection concisely induces Berlinski's verdict on the present pathetic state of scientific endeavor on the origins of life - The assertion that natural selection has been demonstrated "beyond all reasonable doubt" must be judged for what it is: It is the ecclesiastical bull of a most peculiar church.
More of this kind of literary and logical force will be needed to finally break the present stranglehold on the pursuit of truth.
A Knockout! November 9, 2008
Athanasius (NYC)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
One can only marvel at David Berlinski's erudition, flawless writing, and Tabasco-sharp wit.
It's not Berlinski's intention to prove the existence of God (let's leave that to Saint Thomas Aquinas), but to employ the aforementioned gifts to demonstrate that science in general and militant atheists in particular cannot prove, and have not proved, that God doesn't exist -- despite arrogant assertions to the contrary. In this, Berlinski has been brilliantly successful.
Berlinski, who argues the way Joe Louis boxed, lands perfectly executed jabs, hooks, and crosses (oops, did I use the word "cross"?) to the heads and bodies of hapless haters, such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris. Palookas, bums, their groundless elitism, small-boy viciousness, and intellectual flatulence are no match for The Great Berlinski.
As Western Civilization becomes increasinlgly, well, uncivilized, one can take great solace in reading Berlinski, George Rutler, Theodore Dalrymple, Mark Steyn, and all those who know how to fight the good fight.
In closing, I add my prayers to those of other Catholics that David Berlinski, a secular Jew, will one day become a member of the One True Church. We would be honored and delighted to welcome him. Indeed, he'd feel right at home.
Berlinski always challenges his readers November 8, 2008
Johannes Oppenheim (San Francisco)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
David Berlinski has written another profound and entertaining book that deserves attention from all persons attempting to understand the underlying nature of reality.
I walk the line November 3, 2008
none (Richmond, VA)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Its not that Berlinski is pro I.D. In The Devil's Delusion, Berlinski simply makes the point, over and over, that the extreme views of atheistic scientist are based in as much faith, if not more, than the theist they are critical of. He does not state that he is favor of ID. He states he is critical of Darwinian evolution. The evidence, to him, is lacking; therefore, the atheist is not afforded this extreme view that they are "without a doubt" correct and any believer in a God is stupid, insane or delusional.
Berlinski is a philospher, a mathmatician, and had a fellowship in molecular biology. He uses science and philosophy to examine the mistakes taken by many overstated scientific atheists. In this book Berlinski clears the noise coming out of the their camp. He follows the links in the chain of their arguments and shows how weak some of those links are. In one chapter he compares Thomas Aquinas's argument about a necessary being against the atheistic worlview that the universe came from nothing. In the atheistic view, quantum cosmology has created the possibility that infinite universes existing in a fictional place called the Landscape. The goal of such a creation is to remove two aspects of Big Bang cosmology. Singularity and the numerous constants of our universe that make our universe seem fine tuned. Like the Aquinas arguement, the Landscape arguement is soley speculative. It can not be observed by any means in science. It is a mathmatical possibility which removes the strong correlation of the Old Testament and Big Bang cosmology. Berlinski shows how the atheist's confidence in this point of persuasion lacks the simplicity of Aquinas's argument. Therefore, in no way does the ranting about infinite, unobservable universes seem any more plausible than a necessary God to create our universe.
The book is a quick read. Berlinski is very humorous. Being a secular Jew, it was interesting to see him reference religions outsided of Judism. He is respectful to them even if he is in disagreement.
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