In recent years a number of bestselling books have forcefully argued that belief in God can no longer be defended on rational or empirical grounds, and that the scientific worldview has rendered obsolete the traditional beliefs held by Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The authors of these books—Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Victor J. Stenger—have come to be known as the "New Atheists." Predictably, their works have been controversial and attracted a good deal of critical reaction.In this new book, Victor J. Stenger, whose God: The Failed Hypothesis was on the New York Times bestseller list in 2007, reviews and expands upon the principles of New Atheism and answers many of its critics. He demonstrates in detail that naturalism—the view that all of reality is reducible to matter and nothing else—is sufficient to explain everything we observe in the universe, from the most distant galaxies to the inner workings of the brain that result in the phenomenon of mind. Stenger disputes the claim of many critics that the question of whether God exists is beyond the ken of science. On the contrary, he argues that absence of evidence for God is, indeed, evidence of absence when the evidence should be there and is not.Turning from scientific to historical evidence, Stenger then points out the many examples of evil perpetrated in the name of religion. He also notes that the Bible, which is still taken to be divine revelation by millions, fails as a basis for morality and is unable to account for the problem of unnecessary suffering throughout the world.Finally, he discusses the teachings of ancient nontheist sages such as Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Confucius, whose guidelines for coping with the problems of life and death did not depend upon a supernatural metaphysics. Stenger argues that this "way of nature" is far superior to the traditional supernatural monotheisms, which history shows can lead to a host of evils.The New Atheism is a well-argued defense of the atheist position and a strong rebuttal of its critics. Victor J. Stenger  (1935 - 2014) was an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado and emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii. He was the author of the  New York Times  bestseller  God: The Failed Hypothesis, God and the Atom, God and the Folly of Faith ,  The Comprehensible Cosmos , and many other books. The NEW Atheism Taking a Stand for Science and Reason By VICTOR J. STENGER Prometheus Books Copyright © 2009 Victor J. Stenger All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-59102-751-5 Contents Ingersoll's Vow.................................9Preface.........................................111. Atheism on the Offensive.....................192. The Folly of Faith...........................453. The Sword of Science.........................674. The Design Delusion..........................875. Holy Smoke...................................1076. Suffering and Morality.......................1357. The Nature of Nature.........................1598. The Nature of Mind...........................1779. The Way of Nature............................20110. The Future of Atheism.......................225Bibliography....................................249Acknowledgments.................................263Index...........................................265About the Author................................281 Chapter One ATHEISM ON THE OFFENSIVE Religion is a disease. Heraclitus (c. 535-475 BCE) THE GODS PEOPLEWORSHIP Many nonbelievers will tell you that they are not "atheists" but "agnostics." Although they see no evidence for God, they reason that we can never know whether or not God exists. After all, they say, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." How can we possibly know that a god does not exist who is hidden from us so that we have no proof or evidence either way? For example, an impersonal god may have created the universe and then left it alone to follow its own path, governed by the natural laws that it built into the universe, perhaps along with a large element of chance. This doctrine is called deism . As I discussed in my previous book, Quantum Gods , such a god who, in Einstein's famous words, "plays dice with the universe" might be impossible to detect. Einstein often used the word "god" in his philosophical statements, but made it clear that he did not believe in a personal god. When pressed he said he believed in the "god of Spinoza," who is basically a metaphor for the order and structure of the universe. This doctrine is called pantheism . A related doctrine is panentheism , in which god includes the physical universe and whatever else there is. Pantheism simply gives the name "god" to the sum of reality and is empty of any religious content that can be used to guide people's lives or ritual that can be used to provide inspiration. The god of the Jewish kabbalistic tradition is pane