Science and Nonbelief

Subjects:

• Science » Science (General)
• Religious Studies » Comparative Religion
• Religious Studies » Religious Studies (General)

Reviews:

• This book, which defends nonbelief effectively from some attacks based on science (particularly those using intelligent design, anthropci principles or paranormal phenomena), could influence an inquirer to that that the claims of Christianity are false. Edis seeks to protect the scientific community's ability to benefit society, both against restrictions coming from religious conservatives, and against recognition of pseudoscientific ideas. The committed Christian reader could be helped to identify arguments to avoid in apologetics, and unresolved conflicts between science and faith.
  —Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith June 2007
• This clear, balanced survey of the interactions between science and religious doubt includes issues raised by physics, biology, neuroscience, pseudoscience, and philosophy. Designed for advanced students, it includes some primary sources.
  —VOYA October 2006
• [T]his is an intelligent and well-balanced book that carefully considers all the arguments offered on both sides of the issue of science and belief. The author refuses to take the easy way out of saying that science and religion are dealing with different realms: one being limited to facts, the other focusing on meaning....Overall, this is an excellent book for the layman and professional alike. Anyone interested in the subject would find this to be one of the few contemporary books that approaches these controversial issues with more light than heat.
  —Catholic Library World September 2006
• In the context not only of the intellectual debates between scientific and supernatural or transcendent realities, but also the political relationship between the social institutions of science and religion, Edis explores what he calls science-minded nonbelief, which takes the naturalism of current science as the leading reason to reject the existence of spiritual realities. He touches on social and well as natural science, discusses philosophical disputes and scientific ideas, and incorporates the complex historical interactions between science and nonbelief.
  —SciTech Book News March 2006

Table of Contents:

• Science, Philosophy and Religious Doubt
• Philosophers, Doubting and Devout
• The Old Science and the Old Faith
• The European Enlightenment
• Non-Belief Comes of Age
• Science and Non-Belief Today
• Scientific Naturalism
• An Accidential World
• Why Physics is Hard
• The Nature of Modern Physics
• The Burden of Proof
• God in the Cracks of Causality
• Quantum Mysticism
• Cosmic Harmonies
• Fine-Tuning the Universe
• A Moment of Creation?
• Physics and Naturalism
• Darwinian Creativity
• Achieving Complexity
• The Physics of Evolution
• Evolution and Religion
• Old Fashion Creationism
• Intelligent Design
• Creation Through Evolution
• Universal Darwinism
• Minds Without Souls
• Mind and Matter
• Cartesian Dualism
• Machines Who Think
• Genes and Memes
• The Conscious Brain
• Qualia and Subjectivity
• Mind Over Matter
• The God Module
• Parts and Wholes
• Non-Belief Adapts to Brain Science
• The Fringes of Science
• Ultimate Explanations
• Miracles and Rejected Knowledge
• Scripture as Miracle
• From Spiritualism to New Age
• Skiptics vs. Psychics
• Mircles in the Laboratory
• UFO's and Aliens
• Direct Experience of the Paranormal?
• Paranormal Skepticism and Non-Belief
• Explaining Religion
• Too Many Religions
• Religious Studies
• Rational Chioce Theory
• The Secularization Thesis
• Religion and Group Selection
• A Virus of the Mind
• The Religious Mind
• Explaining Theology and Non-Belief
• Morality and Politics
• More Than the Facts
• The State of Science
• The State of Non-Belief
• A Morality of Reason
• The Science of Morality
• Separate Spheres
• An Uneasy Alliance