[asa] Berlinski vs. the New Atheists

As there seems to be a fair bit of interest in refuting the "new atheists"
here, people might be interested to know that David Berlinski's book, The
Devil's Delusion, has finally been re-issued in paperback. (The hardcover
sold out in two months last year, and the original publisher inexplicably
refused to put out a second print run, or a paperback! So a new publisher
has put out the paperback.)

Berlinski has been in the States promoting the book. There is a substantial
new interview with him which is very good. He discusses the flaws in the
arguments of the new atheists, but also religion and science generally.
Information and links are here:

http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/david-berlinski-interviewed-by-greg-koukl/

As the interviewer points out, in no way can Berlinski's critique of certain
leading scientific personalities and theories (including neo-Darwinism) be
construed as based on fundamentalism or literalism of any kind, as he's not
even a Christian, but identifies himself as a secular Jew. And Berlinski is
just a joy to listen to, formidably learned and articulate, yet in a sense a
rebel against the elite scientific and cultured class that he belongs to.
He does not worship what they worship, and he does not flatter what they
flatter, and he does not cringe before their opinion. He's also
delightfully witty, and one thing that is very much missing in all the
Darwinism-ID-TE debates is a sense of humour.

I missed the book last year, and wasn't going to pay $200 for an e-bay copy,
so I haven't read it yet. But I imagine it is very good.

Cameron.

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Received on Tue Oct 20 11:07:44 2009