The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensionsby David Berlinski Crown Forum, 237 pages, $23.95 It is at once lamentable and understandable that academics, wishing applause from other academics, proffer far-fetched theses. After all, no one receives applause (or tenure) with commonsensical hypotheses. When supposedly divined from capital-S “Science,” however, such theses are taken all too seriously. David Berlinski’s The Read More ›
ABSTRACTAristotle, the inventor of biology, made final or teleological causation one of his four fundamental modes of explanation. Throughout the history of science, teleological modes of explanation have been employed quite commonly, most often in biology and in psychology and the other human sciences, but also in physics. In the modern period (by which I mean the sixteenth through the Read More ›
For more information about David Berlinski – his new books, video clips from interviews, and upcoming events – please visit his website at www.davidberlinski.org. The God Hypothesis Discovering Design in our “Just Right” Goldilocks Universe by Michael A. Corey Rowman & Littlefield, 256 pp., $27 GOD’S EXISTENCE is not required by the premises of quantum mechanics or general relativity, the great Read More ›
Memoirs A Twentieth Century Journey in Science and Politics by Edward Teller Perseus, 544 pp., $35 EDWARD TELLER has undertaken, at the age of ninety-three, to tell the story of his life. In conducting an exercise of this sort, most men find much to admire, but little to censure in themselves. An autobiography thus tends to be an exercise in Read More ›
In a memorable scene from the movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s parents throw him a party to celebrate his graduation from college. The parents’ friends are all there congratulating him and offering advice. What should Hoffman do with his life? One particularly solicitous guest is eager to set him straight. He takes Hoffman aside and utters a single word — Read More ›
I. Introduction The Evidence of Fine-tuning1 Suppose we went on a mission to Mars, and found a domed structure in which everything was set up just right for life to exist. The temperature, for example, was set around 70o F and the humidity was at 50%; moreover, there was an oxygen recycling system, an energy gathering system, and a whole Read More ›
1. Anthropic Coincidences In 1973, astronomer and cosmologist Brandon Carter (Carter 1974) delivered a lecture in which he announced an exciting new discovery: the fundamental constants of the physical world must have been very delicately fine-tuned in order to make life possible. Since that time, literally dozens of such remarkable coincidences have been discovered, the so-called “anthropic coincidences.” (‘Anthropic’ is Read More ›