Diabolical Science by Matthew Dowling

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.

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