God: The Failed Hypothesis: How Science Shows That God Does Not Exist » (1st Edition)

Victor Stenger (Lafayette, CO) is adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado and professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii. He is the author of Has Science Found God?, The Comprehensible Cosmos, Timeless Reality, The Unconscious Quantum, Physics and Psychics, and Not by Design.

This edition includes a new Foreword by CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, author of the #1 New York Times bestselling GOD IS NOT GREAT.

In the paperback's afterword, Victor Stenger addresses criticisms of his New York Times bestselling first edition.

Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology. In the meantime, science has sat on the sidelines and quietly watched this game of words march up and down the field. Despite the fact that science has revolutionized every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality.

Physicist Victor J. Stenger contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, Stenger examines all of the claims made for God's existence.

He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God's influence in biology. He looks at human behavior for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God's special creation.

After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond areasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God.

Foreword   Christopher Hitchens     i
Acknowledgments     7
Preface     9
Models and Methods     21
The Illusion of Design     47
Searching for a World beyond Matter     77
Cosmic Evidence     113
The Uncongenial Universe     137
The Failures of Revelation     169
Do Our Values Come from God?     193
The Argument from Evil     215
Possible and Impossible Gods     227
Living in the Godless Universe     243
Postscript to the Paperback Edition     261
Bibliography     269
Index     291
About the Author     301