Prometheus Books New Releases – Spring-Summer 2013
Science
God and the Atom
Victor J. Stenger
In
this history of atomism, from Democritus to the recent discovery of the
Higgs boson, physicist Victor Stenger chronicles one of the most
successful scientific hypotheses ever devised. Originating separately
in both ancient Greece and India, the idea that reality is composed of
infinitesimal indivisible particles was an ingenious insight, which may
have been prompted by observing the random motion of dust motes in light
beams. For centuries, the concept of the atom persisted, despite often
running afoul of conventional thinking. Until the twentieth century, no direct evidence for atoms existed. Today it is possible to actually observe atoms using a Scanning Tunneling Microscope. In this book Stenger makes the case that in the final analysis atoms and the void are all that exists.
The book begins with the story of the earliest atomists—the ancient
Greek philosophers Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus and the Latin
poet Lucretius. As the author notes, the idea of elementary particles as
the foundation of reality had many opponents throughout history—from
Aristotle to Christian theologians and even some nineteenth-century
chemists and philosophers. While theists today accept that the evidence
for the atomic theory of matter is overwhelming, they reject the
atheistic implications of that theory.
In conclusion, Stenger underscores the main point made throughout this
work: the total absence of empirical facts and theoretical arguments to
support the existence of any component to reality other than atoms and
the void can be taken as proof beyond a reasonable doubt that such a
component is nowhere to be found. Science has drilled down to the very
bedrock of reality and found that neither God nor any other supernatural
explanation is necessary or warranted.
Victor J. Stenger (Lafayette,
CO) is adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado
and emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at the University of
Hawaii. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller God: The Failed Hypothesis, and many other books, including God and the Folly of Faith, The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning, The New Atheism, Quantum Gods, TheUnconscious Quantum, The Comprehensible Cosmos, Timeles s Reality, Physics and Psychics and Has Science Found God?
300 pages (illustrations) · ISBN 978-1-61614-753-2 · Hardcover: $25
No comments:
Post a Comment