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Anyone who would like to
know why he can not believe in god or is an agnostic ought to read
this book. The author examines the "god exists" question
from all sides. Science in this context means not only physics and
biology, but includes the social sciences, historical scholarship,
and any other modality by which humans have examined the god
question. Edis is a professor of physics at a mid-western
University, an unbeliever and skeptic. He grew up in Turkey, so that
he shares an intimate knowledge of Islam.
Edis quickly reviews the philosophical
proofs of god. These have been demolished since classical antiquity,
so he can make short shrift. There is no necessity for god, neither
in reason, nor in experience, nor in logic, but neither can
philosophy show us the absence of god, only the absence of
overambitious divinities who are all powerful, all good, and all
knowing. Lesser gods, as Epicurus allowed, may rule in the
interstices between good and evil.
Physics has shown us that no gods are
needed to crank the axle of the universe. Isaac Newton’s theory of
gravity found a cosmos in which mechanical laws alone moved the
stars and planets. Modern physics profoundly forged our view of the
cosmos, and at the same time shrank the places where god could
actively intervene. Eventually, in the words of the mathematician
Pierre-Simon Laplace the god hypothesis was no longer needed. Modern
physics has moved beyond rigid physical law to see an underlying
microscopic substratum where random events are dominant. The basic
randomness of quantum mechanics appears necessary to allow
unpredictable action, including the freedom of human choices.
Next Edis looks at related random acts of
trial and error which make biological evolution possible. The
evolutionary explanation of life makes rejection of the argument for
design possible. Edis explanations are simple and clear. "But
when God vanishes from physics, indeed, from all natural science, it
begins to look like there is no God after all." (p. 107)
What about history then, which plays such a
major role in the monotheistic religions? The holy books describe a
divine drama with a beginning, meaningful progress, and an end when
judgement will be passed on the good and the evil. Rational history
has found no place for god, his actions or his intervention. Like
biological evolution and atomic physics, human history appears
driven by random accidents. Neither religious transcendence nor
divine guidance seem built into the fabric of history. Critical
assessment in the writing of history is continuous with science in
that similar logic and reason are required. No Biblical pattern of
tribal loyalty and divine retribution has been discovered.
The historical events in first century
Palestine, which are of such immense importance to the Christian
religions, fell apart on first rational examination three centuries
ago. It is plausible that some events of execution and resurrection
underlie the fable of the risen Jesus. But if so, whatever happened
is lost to us. Modern Christians today no longer appear to believe
in the Bible, nor do they act eager to find their way into another
world or to god. If knowledge no longer comes from the Bible, where
do liberal Christians obtain their god information?
Edis looks into the question of miracles of
the soul. Is there a spiritual science, does parapsychology point to
the supernatural? Can statistical tests at least tease out a reality
of extra-sensory knowledge? Do near-death-experiences point a way?
Can we rely on the words of the great mystics or miracle workers?
The evidence is negative or absent all around. What then, and
finally, about ethics and action? Is there, or can there even be, a
morality beyond pragmatism and the needs a social animal? Is there
nothing but this accidental world, no justification beyond what
works in the market. In his conclusion Edis asks why we insist on
faith. He examines the god of song and story, the mythology of
divine falsehoods. Ultimately we like the consolation of a good
story, in which the just Hobbit wins out over the powers of darkness
and the good manage to banish evil at least for a short while.
Religion seems a necessary myth because it works for human society.
— Wolf Roder |
