No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe [Paperback]

Matt Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 10, 2001

Some of the Praise for No Sense of Obligation . . . fascinating analysis of religious belief --Steve Allen, author, composer, entertainer[A] tour de force of science and religion, reason and faith, denoting in clear and unmistakable language and rhetoric what science really reveals about the cosmos, the world, and ourselves.Michael Shermer, Publisher, Skeptic Magazine; Author, How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of ScienceAbout the BookRejecting belief without evidence, a scientist searches the scientific, theological, and philosophical literature for a sign from God--and finds him to be an allegory.This remarkable book, written in the layperson's language, leaves no room for unproven ideas and instead seeks hard evidence for the existence of God. The author, a sympathetic critic and observer of religion, finds instead a physical universe that exists reasonlessly. He attributes good and evil to biology, not to God. In place of theism, the author gives us the knowledge that the universe is intelligible and that we are grownups, responsible for ourselves. He finds salvation in the here and now, and no ultimate purpose in life, except as we define it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matt Young is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics and the Division of Engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado, and was formerly Physicist with the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. While with NIST, he earned the Department of Commerce Gold and Silver Medals for his work in optical fiber communications and was named Fellow of the Optical Society of America. His previous positions include Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Waterloo, Assistant Professor of Electrophysics and Electronic Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Associate Professor of Natural Science at Verrazzano College, and Visiting Scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Professor Young is a member of the Optical Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Federation of American Scientists, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, and the Rocky Mountain Skeptics. He is the author or co-author of roughly 100 publications and was twice Guest Editor of the prestigious Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements. He is the author of Optics and Lasers, including Fibers and Optical Waveguides (fifth edition, 2000) and The Technical Writer's Handbook: Writing with Style and Clarity (1989); both books have appeared in foreign translations and are still in print.Finally, Professor Young is a former Trustee of Congregation Har HaShem, a Reform synagogue in Boulder, Colorado, and of the Hillel Council of Colorado, a Jewish campus organization.The author's home page is www.mines.edu/~mmyoung.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (July 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759610894
• ISBN-13: 978-0759610897
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,312,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent, very readable book on science and religion, June 5, 2003

By 

Taner Edis (Kirksville, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe (Paperback)

An engaging, well written book on science, religion, and pseudoscience. Young, a physicist, explains why he thinks the universe is an impersonal place, not presided over by any God or other spiritual force, and puts all of this in the context of skepticism and the paranormal. There are similar books out there, but No Sense Of Obligation distinguishes itself in two ways particularly. One is that it is amazingly easy to read, given the complexity of some of the topics he addresses. Young is totally lacking in academic pomposity, and knows how use personal anecdotes as well as scientific references to keep his narrative flowing. Second, Young is careful to explain how even without theological beliefs, he considers himself Jewish and strongly religious in a profound sense. Overall, this is a thought-provoking book which will appeal to every skeptic.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Logical View of the World, April 19, 2003

By 

Thomas R. Scott (Lander, WY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe (Paperback)

In this book, Matt Young has done an excellent job analyzing the merits of religious faith and presenting a skeptics (I use the word "skeptic" in a positive sense) view of the world. Using logic and evidence, he examines the credibility of the Bible and religion in general showing their numerous weaknesses. The reader will find that his conclusions are all based on solid analyses backed by established data which is, of course, the way science should work. I found his book to be one of the most enjoyable that I've read in quite a while, even better than Michael Shermer's "Why People Believe Weird Things" and other articles in the Skeptical Inquirer. Due to lack of specific knowledge and interest, I didn't follow all the details regarding the Bible's history in the book but I truly enjoyed Matt's philosophical approach to life (at least as expressed in the book). Matt's style of writing make this book extremely easy & interesting to read and I felt that he clearly answered any questions that would arise in the reader's mind as the book is read.

In summary: great book!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Applying reason to everything -- even religion, April 6, 2005

By 

Duwayne Anderson (Saint Helens, Oregon) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: No Sense of Obligation: Science and Religion in an Impersonal Universe (Paperback)

There are lots of books in the world about science, and lots of books about religion. There are even lots of books about science and religion. But there are just a handful of books on science and religion that are written with intellectual honesty, knowledge, and style. Matt's book is in this elite group.

Many popular books on science and religion are written by theists convinced from the start that their god exists, and determined to find some trace of him/her/it in scientific knowledge. Typically the author is a mystic or theologian, but occasionally they might even be a converted physicist or astronomer. It's not uncommon for such authors to exhibit a poor sense of what science is, or how it works, and too often their books are filled with abysmal reasoning and grossly misrepresented scientific evidence.

Matt's book is refreshing precisely because he is the antithesis of the popular garbage. He is both a competent scientist as well as impeccably honest with the evidence and the conclusions they lead to.

This is a relatively long book (308 pages, if you include the appendix - which I recommend) but it's relatively easy to read, very enjoyable, and quite engaging. I finished reading it in a week (I read over half of it on the airplane, while traveling to/from Hawaii).

Matt's thesis is that the scientific evidence speaks to the unlikelihood of a purposeful, caring, and intelligent creator of the universe. He's an atheist, though he specifically disavows the term because he considers it too dogmatic and disrespectful of religion (page 253). Though atheistic in fact, I think Matt's obvious devotion to high ideals in secular Judaism will give him a sense of credibility with even the most devout theists. At the same time, however, his theistic accommodations are likely to aggravate atheists (such as myself) who feel theism deserves no more respect than any other idea, and wince at the right-wing caricature (false, by the way) that atheism is dogmatic.

This book covers a lot of ground. Matt begins by introducing the reader to the scientific method and the scientific concept of a verifiable reality. His method is to teach by giving examples, rather than rot lecture. Along the way he elucidates the errors in anecdotal evidence and illustrates the key character of scientific theories - they are testable, falsifiable in principle, but not falsified by the evidence.

Matt doesn't reserve his magnifying glass for the theologian alone. Also singed under the glare of his relentless logic are some of the intellectual elite. He has harsh words for superstition and sloppy thinking wherever it's found, from the irreproducible experiments of cold fusion to the crackpots at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center who teach the medical "treatment" called Therapeutic Touch. From the Homeopath to those who search for number sequences in Biblical verse, Matt illustrates in each example the case of human superstition gone amok.

Matt's next target is what most people would call popular religion. It's that large, loosely conglomerated assortment of anecdotal miracles, signs, and wishful thinking. But he doesn't stop with the common man's religion. Just as flawed are the arguments of the philosophers, as Matt illustrates while he dismantles the Ontological Argument, the Argument from First Cause, the Argument from Contingency, the Argument from Design, the Argument from Evolution, the Anthropic Principle, and the Argument from Mathematical Physics.

One of the best lessons in this book is that critical thinking isn't just what people should do on Monday through Saturday (or Sunday through Friday), and set aside for religious devotions. Though not always so, most religions have teachings that are directly testable by scientific methods, including the pervasive idea that there is some sort of all-knowing god who created the universe and thinks highly of humanity.

Matt also includes material that, while interesting, is a bit off track from his principle thesis. As a strict determinist he argues there must be hidden variables in Quantum Mechanics. His arguments in favor of hidden variables are somewhat strained and there is some important background information missing. I think most physicists would disagree about hidden variables, but it's neither here nor there as far as religion and superstition are concerned.

Matt describes himself as a strict determinist, and QM without hidden variables obviously causes problems for his philosophy. As a strict determinist he doesn't believe that people (or any other species) have "free will." However, his discussions about free will fail to define exactly what it is, or how to test for its existence. Lacking a good definition and a scientific test, speculation about the existence or non-existence of some nebulous thing called "free will" is little more than idle philosophy. On the other hand, Matt's overall conclusion that the human mind is a consequence of the physical brain, nothing more and nothing less, is on pretty solid ground

His final chapter sews it all together with a discussion about how he practices religious rituals and customs as a matter of heritage and (I suspect) as a way to find inner peace and meditation. I especially enjoyed this last chapter because Matt shows how to be introspective, sincere, and religious in form without encumbering one's self with all the unnecessary superstitious trappings that so often hitch along for the ride.

If you like to think, and to challenge yourself, and if you read only one book this year, you really owe it to yourself to read Matt's book.