Here are a few interesting quotes from The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions, by David Berlinski (2nd edition, 2009). Thanks to Katie for typing them out for me.
“Is there a God who has among other things created the universe? ‘It is not by conclusions, ‘ C.F. von Weizsacker has written in The Relevance of Science, ‘but by its methodological starting point that modern science excludes direct creation. Our methodology would not be honest if this fact were denied… such is faith in the science of our time, which we all share ‘ (italics added)” (61).
“Many physicists have found the idea that the universe had a beginning alarming. ‘So long as the universe had a beginning, ‘ Stephen Hawking has written, ‘we could suppose it had a creator. ‘ God forbid! Nonetheless, there is a very natural connection between the fact that the universe had a beginning and the hypothesis that it had a creator. It is a connection so plain that, glowing with its energy, it may be seen in the dark. Although questions may be raised about what it means, the connection itself cannot be ignored. ‘The best data we have concerning the big bang, ‘ the Nobel laureate Arno Penzias remarked, ‘are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole ‘” (70-71).
“‘Scientists, ‘ the physicist Paul Davies has observed, ‘are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth—the universe looks suspiciously like a fix. The issue concerns the very laws of nature themselves. For 40 years, physicists and cosmologists have been quietly collecting examples of all too convenient ‘coincidences ‘ and special features in the underlying laws of the universe that seem to be necessary in order for life, and hence conscious beings, to exist. Change any one of them and the consequences would be lethal ‘” (110-111).
“We do not have a serious scientific theory explaining the powers and properties of the human mind. The claim that the human mind is the product of evolution is not unassailable fact. It is barely coherent. The idea that man was created in the image of God remains what it has always been: And that is the instinctive default position of the human race” (179).
“Suspicions about Darwin’s theory arise for two reasons. The first: the theory makes little sense. The second: it is supported by little evidence” (187).
“Of those important issues, I would mention prominently the question whether natural selection exists at all. Computer simulations of Darwinian evolution fail when they are honest and succeed only when they are not” (190).
“The facts are what they have always been: They are unforthcoming. And the theory is what it always was: it is unpersuasive. Among evolutionary biologists, these matters are well known. In the privacy of the Susan B. Anthony faculty lounge, they often tell one another with relief that it is a very good thing the public has no idea what the research literature really suggests. ‘Darwin? ‘ a Nobel laureate in biology once remarked to me over his bifocals. ‘That’s just the party line ‘” (192).
“Whatever the degree to which Darwin may have ‘misled science into a dead end, ‘ the biologist Shi. V. Liu observed in commenting on Koonin’s paper, ‘we may still appreciate the role of Darwin in helping scientists [win an] upper hand in fighting against the creationists ‘” (197).
Berlinski is a secular Jew. I recommend the book.