God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science & Religion

7 posts / 0 new
Last post
Atheist Republic's picture
God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science & Religion
God and the Folly of Faith

God and the Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science & Religion

View on Amazon

It is a common view among historians, sociologists and some theistic scientists that science and religion have never been in serious conflict, with some also making bizarre claims such as Christianity is responsible for the development of science. In a sweeping historical survey however, Victor Stenger makes a convincing case in his book that not only proves this notion false but also proves that Christianity was in fact responsible for holding back the progress of science for more than a thousand years.

Stenger makes his case by guiding readers through ancient Greek science, leading them on with the Renaissance and Enlightenment and finally concluding with contemporary advances in cosmology and physics. He also notes that the scientific revolution witnessed during the 17th people revolted against longstanding ecclesiastic authorities, which eventually led to the Renaissance and Reformation that opened up avenues for newer thoughts and actions.

God and the Folly of Faith is a hard-hitting and thorough critique of religion that anyone interested in learning about the relationship between religion and science must read. In the book, Stenger goes on to explain how science and religion are principally incompatible in different areas – from the origin of complexity to the origin of the universe and its physical parameters, from reductionism to holism, from the source of morality to the nature of the mind and consciousness.

In the end, the author, who is excessively troubled by the negative influence that organized religion exerts on society and politics, points out several antiscientific attitudes engrained in popular religion that are misused to suppress accurate results of globally important issues like environmental degradation and overpopulation.

Subscription Note: 

Choosing to subscribe to this topic will automatically register you for email notifications for comments and updates on this thread.

Email notifications will be sent out daily by default unless specified otherwise on your account which you can edit by going to your userpage here and clicking on the subscriptions tab.

Lmale's picture
Man i wish i could read it.

Man i wish i could read it.

CyberLN's picture
No public libraries there?

No public libraries there?

Fizicks's picture
This book is absolutely

This book is absolutely phenomenal. Stenger, a retired experimental physicist, was overlooked to some degree (though his other book God: The Failed Hypothesis did OK, it was sub-par compared to this gem) by the emergence of Harris, Dawkins and such and this is unfortunate. This is an extremely comprehensive book detailing the trespassing of religious faith into scientific territory and exactly who, becomes the victor in those encounters. If you are on Atheist Republic to begin with, you owe it to yourself to read God and the Folly of Faith. His latest and last book God and the Multiverse is another masterpiece.

Jophar_Vorin's picture
I want to buy this when i get

I want to buy this when i get enough cash!
Sounds very interesting!

hopebyte's picture
Heard of the likes of

Heard of the likes of AbeBooks, if you are in the US?

You can buy books real cheap there with low shipping costs.

Skeptilius's picture
In his book "Why Darwin

In his book "Why Darwin Matters", Michael Shermer tries to make a case for some semblance of compatibility between science and religion. He claims that theists can be evolutionists as well without their being a contradiction. I disagree totally. Science and religion are not compatible - their goals are completely opposite. Science is all about discovery - religion isn't interested in discovering anything since it knows all it wants to know about the world and the "loving god" that supposedly rule it. Well, when this "loving god" manages to fix the problems of this world maybe I'll pay homage to him. Meanwhile, I'm not holding my breath.

Donating = Loving

Heart Icon

Bringing you atheist articles and building active godless communities takes hundreds of hours and resources each month. If you find any joy or stimulation at Atheist Republic, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.

Or make a one-time donation in any amount.