It is fashionable to note that there is nothing new in the “New Atheism” of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, et. al. However, they offer at least one genuinely new challenge to theistic belief: a challenge from developmental and cognitive psychology. Evolutionary biologists typically explain an organism’s existing traits-such as man’s propensity for religious belief-by reference to natural selection; existing traits Read More ›
There is a sure-fire way to make the news these days: Just issue a press release beginning with the words, “New scientific study shows,” and have it assert a conclusion that the MSM fervently want to believe—especially if the resulting story would serve to debunk or refute a Bush administration policy. Slam-dunk! Your press release will become news! You are Read More ›
Baton Rouge — By a vote of 94-3, Louisiana’s House of Representatives today passed an academic freedom bill that would protect teachers and school districts who wish to promote critical thinking and objective discussion about evolution and other scientific topics. There was no vocal opposition, and the floor speech by Rep. Frank Hoffman made clear that the bill was about science, Read More ›
This article, published by The Globe and Mail, contains a review of Discovery Institute Center for Science & Culture Senior Fellow David Berlinski’s book The Devil’s Delusion: A critique of the contemporary assault on religion is therefore much needed, and in The Devil’s Delusion, David Berlinski gives us a polemic that is powerful, erudite and often savagely funny. The rest of Read More ›
This review appears in the May 2008 issue of The American Spectator. There Is a God: How the World’s Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind Antony Flew with Roy Abraham Varghese (HarperOne, 256 pages, $24.95) Antony Flew has long been my favorite atheist. That may be an odd thing for the son of a minister to say, but then again, Read More ›
Judging by the number of posts, my recent column “Darwin and Hitler … in their Own Words” set the fur a-flying. Many folks just don’t like it when you trace a revered scientific icon to an icon of evil. Small wonder. Too bad it’s true. Not to rub too much salt in the wound, but Darwinism is responsible for a Read More ›
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 ›
David Berlinski’s new book describes the remarkable extent to which the dominant religion of the intelligentsia is now “science.” This new religion — which is based on atheism and materialism — is actually better termed “scientism,” since its religious claims far overreach its scientific content. Scientism reflects the tendency of scientists to become what Ortega y Gasset called “barbarians of Read More ›
The Devils Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions By David Berlinski (Crown Forum Books April 2008 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 Read More ›
Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin,” writes Richard Dawkins, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” This little book shows more persuasively than ever before that Dawkins is wrong and that the origin of life continues to pose insurmountable difficulties to unguided material processes. The authors discuss why traditional origin-of-life research has failed and Read More ›