Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science

by Taner Edis

Is there a God, or a spiritual reality beyond nature? Physicist Taner Edis takes a fresh look at this age-old question, focusing on what we have learned about our world rather than on traditional metaphysical disputes. Emphasizing a search for explanation rather than listing flaws in theistic metaphysics, Edis uses the results of natural science to present a world where complexity, intelligence, and even the sublime heights of religious experience emerge from what is ultimately material and random. Sympathetically criticizing Muslim and New Age perspectives, as well as Jewish and Christian arguments, Edis argues that a thoroughgoing naturalism leads to a much better explanation of our world. While making it clear that spiritual views have a genuine intellectual appeal, Edis systematically critiques such arguments, contrasting them with stronger naturalistic explanations. Science is central to this naturalistic picture; modern physics, evolutionary biology, and critical history, as well as contemporary psychology and brain sciences, all cast doubt on any spiritual reality. Bringing together ideas from many disciplines in a style that remains accessible to nonspecialists, and also interesting to scientists and philosophers, Edis provides an informative, in-depth statement of the case for scientific naturalism as the most accurate and powerful description of our world today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Religion, Skepticism

330 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Lynne Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author clearly shows how we humans are evolved to be "pattern" finders in order to get along with each other, and to survive, and that stories, myths, supernatural miracles are all part of our evolved pattern-finding. (As the atheist author suggests, we all, atheist or theist, occasionally wish that we could mind-control, say a volcano or a hurricane.) And the beginning, middle, end storyline is extremely comforting to our accidental brain. At the same time, we humans live in an accidental universe with no patterns, no planned evolution, no story, just accidents.

So we worry about ethics and morals. Where are they to be found? And we should probably worry without buying into "non-overlapping magisteria," a wimpy giving up on our side. The best part of Edis's book for me was his pointing out, in case we hadn't thought of it, that there really aren't fixed Platonic ideals out there somewhere, already found and proclaimed for eternity by god and the bible, or waiting to be found by secular humanists once and for all. Edis talks about us as isolated in our human pattern-finding bubble and trying to bumble, stumble our way through to morals and ethics that work at a given time. Trying to find some eternal ideal "good" or "evil" is dangerously limiting to the bumbling and stumbling we have to do. Particularly limiting are the frozen "goods" of a biblical culture that may or may not be relevant to our particular time. To me this is very similar to what Austin Dacy was saying in Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life: let secular ideas for morality and ethics compete with religious ideas for morality and ethics, and let's see which one works better for our time, our circumstances. I think that is also what we saw in Lindsey's Future Bioethics -- what works best, a fixed, religious "good" or a secular "good for this particular time." After all, even the immutable "All men are created equal" has changed meaning with the particular time. Now we find it better in our particular time to propose that the word "men," which then really meant "rich, white men" should mean "humans."

[Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It is one of the best arguments for atheism that I've ever read. Edis is a physicist and philosopher. This alone doesn't set him apart from many of the other scientist authors who have made arguments for atheism. What does set him apart is that has a much deeper understanding of theism than most authors on either side of the god debate. It also doesn't hurt that he is an excellent writer.

The only part of the book that I didn't like was the chapter on ethics. Frankly, I found it totally confusing and I wasn't even sure what view Edis thought he was supporting. This was surprising considering that the rest of the book was so clearly composed. Regardless, the bulk of the book was so great that it's easy to forgive Edis for this one difficult-to-understand chapter.

Atheists will love this book. Open-minded theists might too. I especially recommend this book to theists who have read Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion and found it too harsh or disrespectful, or who thought Dawkins poorly informed about theists. Edis IS well informed about theists, and even though he is arguing against theistic beliefs, he is always very respectful toward those who do believe in god. Frankly, Edis makes Dawkins look like an amateur.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

concise

[Karl Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taner Edis attempts, in this book, to explore arguments for and against the existence of God. He explores this question from the perspective of a scientific naturalism, bringing in arguments and evidence from history, psychology, scientific inquiry, philosophy, and literature. He examines the claims of major world religions with a sympathetic style, giving due credit to claims of religious experience, and examining claims fairly and logically.

Edis explores God in terms of traditional notions of deity and explores the evolution of human concepts of deity from beginnings in myth and scripture to religious understanding of God in light of modern knowledge. He explores religious experience both as evidence for a spiritual facet to the world and as a product of human evolution. In the end he discusses the underpinnings of morality and explores attempts at forming (or discovering) an objective morality. Finally he explores the importance of moral systems and the possibility not only of coexistence of competing philosophies, but of forming common moral bonds in a pluralistic society.

Now a warning, this book is dense. It's not that it's overly verbose, or particularly hard to read, it's just dense with ideas to the point where I would find my mind pondering and exploring a particular point while my eyes read and re-read the same lines. It took me a long time to get through the whole thing, but in the end I'm glad I did.

I'd welcome discussion with anyone else who has read the book and found value in any of the author's arguments.

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

I HATED this book. The blurb that interested me in the book called it an "accessible defense of a naturalistic view of the world", but instead it is a criticism of not just religion, but spirituality and God. Edis writes, "...true faith demands we crucify our intellect and submit to God." I read this book wondering what happened to Edis in Turkey to make him so hostile to religion. Now THAT would be an interesting book. As a side note, it also pissed me off that Edis keeps citing his own articles in the endnotes. Pompous ass.