Table Of Content

001 Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication INGERSOLL’S VOW PREFACE Chapter 1. - ATHEISM ON THE OFFENSIVE THE GODS PEOPLE WORSHIP THE ATHEIST WORLDVIEW IS AMERICA A DEIST NATION? ATHEISM IN SOCIETY NEW ATHEISM STEPS IN THE END OF FAITH? BREAKING THE TABOO GOD: A FAILED HYPOTHESIS? IS GOD GREAT? NOTES Chapter 2. - THE FOLLY OF FAITH FAR FROM BENIGN DOING THE RIGHT THING THE NEOCONS THE THEOCONS TOWARD THE APOCALYPSE FAITH AND EVIDENCE NOTES Chapter 3. - THE SWORD OF SCIENCE CAN SCIENCE STUDY THE SUPERNATURAL? IS SCIENCE BASED ON FAITH? CAN WE TRUST OUR MINDS? DO SCIENCE AND RELIGION CONFLICT? CAN ONE BALANCE SCIENCE AND BELIEF? CAN SCIENCE DISPROVE GOD’S EXISTENCE? IS ANY GOD CONSISTENT WITH SCIENCE? NOTES Chapter 4. - THE DESIGN DELUSION DESIGNED FOR LIFE? A LOGICAL ARGUMENT SCIENTIFIC ARGUMENTS EARTHLY DESIGN INTELLIGENT DESIGN THE END IN COURT DAWKINS’S DISPROOF NOTES Chapter 5. - HOLY SMOKE THE DARK BIBLE WHAT DID JESUS DO? HISTORICAL HORRORS ATHEIST HORRORS? STALIN AND ATHEISM FOLLOWING ORDERS THE SAGA OF JOSEPH SMITH THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE THE FUNDAMENTALISTS RON’S REVELATION LESSONS FROM MORMONISM HOLY TERROR NOTES Chapter 6. - SUFFERING AND MORALITY A CRISIS IN FAITH THE PROPHETS’ ANSWER FREE WILL AND SUFFERING REDEMPTIVE SUFFERING THE BOOK OF JOB JESUS, THE APOCALYPTIC TEACHER A SCIENTIFIC TAKE ALL IS VANITY SUFFERING IN ISLAM SUFFERING IN HINDUISM SUFFERING IN BUDDHISM SUFFERING IN TAOISM RELIGION AND MORALITY UNIVERSAL MORALITY THE NATURAL ORIGIN OF MORALITY NOTES Chapter 7. - THE NATURE OF NATURE SCIENTIFIC NATURALISM MATTER WHAT ABOUT SPIRIT? THE UNIVERSE OF MATTER THE MASS OF THE UNIVERSE THE BEGINNING OF TIME? A NATURAL SCENARIO FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE WHAT ABOUT THE LAWS OF PHYSICS? INVARIANCE NOTES Chapter 8. - THE NATURE OF MIND THE IMMATERIAL SOUL EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE TESTING THE HYPOTHESIS PSYCHIC PSEUDOSCIENCE THOUGHTS AND MATTER PHILOSOPHICAL MUSINGS ON MIND LOOKING AT THE DATA NEUROTHEOLOGY NEURAL NETWORKS IS THE BRAIN A COMPUTER? SO, WHAT ABOUT THE SOUL? NOTES Chapter 9. - THE WAY OF NATURE THE AXIAL SAGES THE INNER FIRE OF ATMAN AXIAL JUDAISM AXIAL GREECE SAMKHYA BUDDHA CONFUCIUS LAO TZU THE RETURN OF THE SELF QUANTUM SPIRITUALITY MAKING YOUR OWN REALITY EVERYTHING WE OBSERVE IS PARTICLES SAM HARRIS AND SPIRITUALITY THE WAY OF NATURE NOTES Chapter 10. - THE FUTURE OF ATHEISM THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION A GOD GENE? THE GODS ARE NOT WINNING UNDERSTANDING THE DATA GODLESS SOCIETY LIVING WITHOUT RELIGION THE NEW ATHEISM SUMMARIZED NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY Acknowledgements ABOUT THE AUTHOR Published 2009 by Prometheus Books The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason. Copyright © 2009 by Victor J. Stenger. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a Web site without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Inquiries should be addressed to Prometheus Books 59 John Glenn Drive Amherst, New York 14228-2119 VOICE: 716-691-0133, ext. 210 FAX: 716-691-0137 WWW.PROMETHEUSBOOKS.COM 13 12 11 10 09 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Stenger, Victor J., 1935- The new atheism : taking a stand for science and reason / Victor J. Stenger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-59102-751-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) eISBN : 97-8-161-59234-4 1. Atheism. 2. Religion. 3. Christianity and atheism. 4. Religion and science. I. Title. BL2747.3.S737 2009 211’.8—dc22 2009019129 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. Dedicated to Paul Kurtz , who has contributed more to the advance of science and reason than any other of his generation. INGERSOLL’S VOW Robert G. Ingersoll was a Peoria, Illinois, lawyer who became a famous orator in the period after the Civil War when oratory was a form of popular entertainment. Although he spoke on many subjects, he is remembered for his eloquent advocacy of free thought, humanism, and agnosticism. When I became convinced that the Universe is natural—that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world—not even in infinite space. I was free—free to think, to express my thoughts— free to live to my own ideal—free to live for myself and those I loved—free to use all my faculties, all my senses—free to spread imagination’s wings— free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope—free to judge and determine for myself—free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the “inspired” books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past—free from popes and priests—free from all the “called” and “set apart”—free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies— free from the fear of eternal pain—free from the winged monsters of the night—free from devils, ghosts, and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought—no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings—no chains for my limbs—no lashes for my back—no fires for my flesh—no master’s frown or threat—no following another’s steps—no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds. And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain—for the freedom of labor and thought—to those who fell in the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains —to those who proudly mounted scaffold’s stairs—to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn—to those by fire consumed—to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose

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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--Ri