Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* In Aczel, Richard Dawkins and his fellow New Atheists face a formidable opponent. As a mathematician with a Berkeley-Harvard resume, Aczel wields impressive intellectual weapons in demolishing the New Atheists' claims that science has disproven the existence of God. With compelling reasoning, Aczel demonstrates that whenever Dawkins and his allies turn their attacks against anything but naively literal readings of the Bible, they distort or misrepresent the methods and findings of science. Darwinism has provided no godless explanation of how human consciousness emerged. The attempt to reduce the astounding fine-tuning of the big bang to quantum physics likewise leaves huge questions unanswered. Disproofs of God's existence based on probability theory similarly fail under scrutiny. When the New Atheists buttress their flawed science by appealing to the authority of Einstein, Aczel catches them cherry-picking quotations, so hiding complexities in the great physicist's metaphysical thinking. Those who truly grapple with modern science, Aczel finally avers, discover not a disproof of God but rather perplexing mysteries, such as the stunning vistas of infinity that the intensely religious theorist Georg Cantor glimpsed behind his revolutionary continuum hypothesis. Such mysteries may not signify the presence of the divine, but they will surely stir deep wonderings.--Christensen, Bryce Copyright 2014 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Aczel's (Fermat's Last Theorem) latest book challenges the notion recently articulated by New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion) that science has proved the nonexistence of God. The author's focus is on the science and what it might have to say about a creator, with a few detours such as a chapter on archaeology, which is more about the Bible's authenticity than theistic ontology, and a futile discussion on who owns "Einstein's God"-atheists or theists. Overall, the better chapters reflect Aczel's strengths in mathematics and physics; in those, he discusses subjects such as quantum theory, the multiverse, and mathematical probability. Aczel asks an important question about science, but with a primarily scientific explanation he doesn't tread new ground. His material will instead inflame more misunderstandings, essentially providing a "God of the gaps" dismissal for his critics. VERDICT The author's discussion of theoretical physics and mathematics demonstrates the philosophical nature of his question, which is hinged upon clear definitions of God and a deep, complicated philosophical history; strangely, however, all this is missing from the book. Dawkins, at least, whether you agree or not, defines the God he is disproving, whereas Aczel's remains a mystery.-Scott Vieira, Sam Houston State Univ. Lib., Huntsville, TX (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
