Has ‘Science’ Proved Atheism? — David Berlinski
Jack Preston King has recently invited me to write about my ten favourite books. This follows an invitation he received from Eunice Newart and Dale E. Lehman to announce his five favourite books. He says, however, that he is a rebel and chose to name ten instead. I am therefore also going to be a rebel and decline his invitation — he does fortunately say that we can change the rules in any way we want.
I’m not sure that I could reduce a list of my favourite books to ten, so I don’t know what they would be. Some time ago I accepted his invitation to write about ten books which changed my life, so there would obviously be some overlap with my ten favourites, should anyone be interested to read that, although the list would not be the same.
Instead I’m going to write about what I’m currently reading. People following me on Medium will have noted that one of my favourite themes is the exposure of bad science, specifically the battle against atheistic scientific materialism. On that topic, I’m enjoying at the moment The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions¹ by David Berlinski, one of my favourite writers. So the purpose of this article will be to introduce him to anyone unfamiliar with his work.
He describes himself as a secular Jew with “a remarkable indifference to the religious life”, so he has no particular axe to grind. He first came to my attention when I read The Deniable Darwin², a detailed and lucid critique of Darwinian evolutionary theory. He is of the opinion that belief in ‘science’, especially Darwinism, has become tantamount to a religious orthodoxy in academic circles, enforced by an Inquisition (not Spanish, rather one conducted by the American Educational Establishment, and obviously elsewhere). Various articles of faith — dogma, creeds — have been established, and heresy is not allowed.
The purpose of science should be a gradual liberation from illusion on the journey towards truth. Careful scepticism is therefore, correctly, one of the cornerstones of the modern scientific attitude. However, he says that “the sense of scepticism engendered by the sciences would be far more appropriately directed toward the sciences than toward anything else. It is not a view that the scientific community has ever encouraged. The sciences require no criticism, many scientists say, because the sciences comprise a uniquely self-critical institution, with questionable theories and theoreticians passing constantly before stern appellate review. Judgment is unrelenting. And impartial. Individual scientists may make mistakes… (but) science is infallible because its judgments are collective. Critics are not only unwelcome, they are unneeded”. “The process of peer review by which grants are funded and papers assigned to scientific journals, is, by its very nature, an undertaking in which a court reviews its own decisions and generally finds them good… it cannot achieve the ends that criticism is intended to serve” (The Deniable Darwin, p13, p14). I love the sarcastic tone. It is presumably not necessary to add that this is a naïve, overly optimistic viewpoint. Does it sound anything like the Vatican down the years?
In the book I’m currently reading, Berlinski turns his attention to science in general, and the claim that the discoveries of modern science have proved that God does not exist. (I have previously written articles criticising some of the advocates of this viewpoint: Steven Pinker part 1 and part 2, David Christian, and Julian Huxley. Also noteworthy is a book by professor of physics Victor Stenger, the title of which, God the Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist³, could not spell out the message any more clearly.)
Berlinski takes on New Atheism, specifically its advocates known as the Four Horsemen (Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Sam Harris, whom he especially dislikes), exposing the flaws and fallacies in their arguments. He writes intelligently and persuasively, with wit and humour, so I recommend these two books to anyone interested or engaged in the ongoing battle against delusional atheism.
Other related good reads on this theme are:
- The Science Delusion by Rupert Sheldrake⁴, an exceptional scientist arguing against scientific materialism
- The Science Delusion: Why God is Real and ‘Science’ is Religious Myth, by the philosopher Peter Wilberg⁵. The notes on the back cover say: “In today’s world, blind and unthinking deference to ‘The Science’ has become as much a part of Western culture as unquestioned deference to ‘The Church’ used to be. The aim of The Science Delusion is not to defend any specific religious doctrines but to show how what we call ‘science’ is as much based on irrational and dogmatically unquestioned beliefs — accepted entirely on faith — as the most ‘fundamentalist’ of religions”. I assume that Berlinski would be happy to applaud this.
- The New Inquisition: Irrational Rationalism and the Citadel of Science by Robert Anton Wilson⁶, lighter and humorous, fascinating nevertheless.
- The Tyranny of Science by Paul Feyerabend⁷. He begins with a sarcastic account of orthodox Big Bang theory, which I have been criticising in recent articles.
So, these books would not necessarily be included in a list of my ten all-time favourites, but are definitely worth a few hours of your time.
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I hope you have enjoyed this article. I have written in the past about other topics, including spirituality, metaphysics, psychology, science, Christianity, politics, and astrology. All these articles are on Medium, but the simplest way to see a guide to them is to visit my website (click here and here).
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Footnotes:
1) Basic Books, 2009
2) Discovery Institute, 2009
3) Prometheus Books, 2008
4) Coronet, 2012
5) New Gnosis Publications, 2008
6) Falcon Press, 1986
7) Polity Press, 2011
