Diabolical Science
The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
by David Berlinski
Basic Books, 2009
(237 pages, $15.95, paperback)
reviewed by Matthew Dowling
By now, the hoofbeats of the famed "four horsemen" of the New Atheism—Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens—are fading. Scholars of various stripes—theologians, philosophers, and other thinkers—have had the opportunity to answer their claims, and many have found them wanting. The discussion, however, continues, and perhaps one of the most lively and erudite responses to the New Atheism is by David Berlinski: The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions. The title plays on one of New Atheism's primary tomes, Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion.
Berlinski is a philosopher and a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture in Seattle, the institutional home and think tank for much of the scholarship foundational to intelligent design theory. Trained in mathematics, molecular biology, and philosophy, Berlinski is ideally suited to take up his book's line of inquiry: Has science been able to prove God's nonexistence, as it is commonly contended? The New Atheists say yes. Berlinski says no.
He is an interesting author for this project, and in some ways is set apart from others who have written book-length responses to the New Atheists (e.g., theologian Alister E. McGrath in The Dawkins Delusion). Berlinski is a secular Jewish scholar who readily admits that his "religious education did not take" (xiii). Ironically, given his non-religious leanings, his book tends to be as much a defense of religious thought as it is a skewering of the overwrought claims of contemporary science—and "skewering" is just what is happening here. His tone throughout the book is sharp, witty, and highly polemical, and he holds little of his vitriol in reserve.
Troubles with Scientism
What unfolds throughout much of the book is Berlinski's demonstration that, in the hands of the New Atheists, the authority of science has been pushed far beyond what science can credibly establish. Far from being a detractor of science, Berlinski is quick to compliment the scientific tradition and its accomplishments—but as a tool to be used in disproving God, he finds it useless. He notes what others have already observed but rarely concede—that scientism demands faith as much as any religion does. Its "faith" is in its methodological presupposition that the supernatural (i.e., God) is not to be considered a priori as a creative agent.
After a thorough exploration of the problems and claims of scientism in chapters 1–3, Berlinski turns in chapter 4 ("The Cause") to one of the great cracks in scientism's edifice: the fundamental question of what caused the universe. Twentieth-century physics, beginning with Einstein, demonstrated that the universe had a beginning—the famous result known as "big bang" cosmology. For many physicists, this result was troublingly supportive of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures:
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Berlinski closes his book with a metaphor. In the final chapter ("The Cardinal and His Cathedral") he notes that, like the medieval founders of Europe's great cathedrals, the Enlightenment project has brought us its greatest handiwork—science as a way of knowing. As many questions as science can answer, however, there is much that it, because of its constitutional limitations, cannot, and it is the metaphysical conjecturing of those that misuse it that puts science outside its field of competence and turns it into the dubious religion of scientism. Thus, Berlinski's metaphor: that science is a cathedral with its priests and cardinals all sitting in a decaying edifice. Science is not dead, and yet, when used as a method for disproving God, it fails. There are no surprises here for the Christian scholar. For those of the orthodox faith, there was never any real threat.
A Riposte Worth Reading
A Journal of Mere Christianity—Delivered to Your Door
- Essays on theology, culture, and the Church
- Contributors from across the Christian traditions
Six print issues (one year) of Touchstone, plus full online access and PDF downloads for only $39.95.
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95.
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on science from the online archives
28.2—March/April 2015
Why Scientism's Cherished Progress Narrative Fails by Jonathan Witt
29.4—July/August 2016
on Noticing That Modern Science Has Rendered Atheism Irrational by Harry Biltz
17.6—July/August 2004
Old Science Confronts a Formidable Challenge in the Scientific ID Movement by Jay W. Richards
more from the online archives
24.5—Sept/Oct 2011
A Critical Memoir of Thomas Merton at Gethsemani Abbey by Patrick Henry Reardon
37.5—Sept/Oct 2024
A Battle Plan for Peace While Growing Old by Anthony Esolen
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
