Hi,
I have almost finished a quick read of Vic Stenger' book "God, the
failed hypothesis" with the subtitle "How Science shows that God does
not exist".
I find the book interesting, and I even find the existence of such
book, even more interesting from an historical point of view. It also
gives me an opportunity to make my position clearer perhaps.
Note that I agree with (almost) all sentences written by Stenger. I
even find his account of mind and his account of the "origin of the
physical laws" clear and somehow locally plausible. Yet there is a
deep global flaw, and I do think that everyone having, even a
superficial understanding of the Universal Dovetailer Argument" (UDA)
should be able to see where the flaw resides rather easily. I think of
course that it consists in an omission flaw, given that I find Stenger
plausibly correct everywhere in his book.
Should I write a reply book, I could entitled it: "The Physical
Universe, the Failed Hypothesis" with the subtitle "How Science shows
the Physical Universe does not exist".
Of course Stenger's goal was not to present an argument in favor of
the existence of the Physical Universe. His goal was to present
evidence that IF such a universe exists THEN there is no evidence that
it has been created by a GOD, and I believe Stenger is mainly right on
this account.
Too bad I don't believe in "Stenger's God" (the physical universe). In
that sense I am much more "atheist" than him.
Worst, I do believe that the UDA (even without its arithmetization
part) shows once and for all that you cannot remain consistent and
believe both in the "digital mechanist" hypothesis in the cognitive
science *and* in a primary physical universe ( (admitting also some
weak typical use of Occam razor without which you can believe in ...
everything :)
But his book is perhaps useful in this time where fundamentalist
pseudo-religious thinking crop up in so many places. Yet it could
unnecessarily shock what I would like to call "non superstitious"
believer. Once you stop to believe in a physical universe you still
continue to bet on *some sort of reality* all right ...
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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Received on Tue Jun 17 2008 - 05:37:37 PDT