Victor J. Stenger

Stenger describes how secularists have jumped on the anti-Islam hysteria generated after September 11 to take the offensive against religion generally, most often the Abrahamic monotheistic religions of the West.

"Many people believe that the laws of nature represent a deep, Platonic reality that goes beyond the material objects that are observed by eye and by advanced scientific instruments. Stenger maintains that reality may be simpler and less mysterious than most think. The quantum world only appears mysterious when forced to obey rules of everyday human experience. Stenger convincingly argues that, based on established principles of simplicity and symmetry, at its deepest level reality is literally timeless. Within this reality it is possible that many universes exist, each with structures and laws different from our own." "Using language that is easily understood by the nonspecialist, Stenger elucidates these complex subjects with astounding clarity. The many illustrations also help make the book come alive in a manner that is more accessible to the educated lay reader."--BOOK JACKET.

In this fascinating and accessible book, physicist Victor J. Stenger guides the lay reader through the key developments of quantum mechanics and the debate over its apparent paradoxes. In the process, he critically appraises recent metaphysical fads popularized by such authors as Deepak Chopra and Fritjof Capra. Dr. Stenger's knack for elucidating scientific ideas and controversies in language that the nonspecialist can comprehend opens up to the widest possible audience a wealth of information on the most important findings of contemporary physics. Stenger makes it clear that current scientific hypotheses about the material nature of reality are all we need to explain the available evidence and that mystical notions say more about the human need to believe than about the fundamental makeup of the universe.

"Cosmologists have reasons to believe that the vast universe in which we live is just one of an endless number of other universes within a multiverse--a mind-boggling array that may extend indefinitely in space and endlessly in both the past and the future. In this comprehensive history of multiverse theory, Victor Stenger reviews the key developments in the history of science that led to the current consensus view of astrophysicists, taking pains to explain essential concepts and discoveries in accessible language. He shows that science's emerging understanding of the multiverse--consisting of trillions upon trillions of galaxies--is fully explicable in naturalistic terms with no need for supernatural forces to explain its origin or ongoing existence. How can conceptions of God, traditional or otherwise, be squared with this new worldview? The author shows how, in the light of science, long-held beliefs will need to undergo major revision or otherwise face eventual extinction."--Publisher description.

Looking at both historical and contemporary contexts, the author argues that religion has played a major role in suppressing scientific pursuit.