Customer Reviews

Not by Design: The Origin of the Universe

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book makes a compelling case for the idea that the universe didn't come about through the handywork of some magical space pixie. The naysayers will throw about their arguments from incredulity while kicking & screaming but, in the end, even they (if anything like a rational mind still inhabits their bodies) will be forced to admit that this concept deserves serious consideration. Once, it was considered common sense that the sun moved around the Earth. "Look up at the sky and see it for yourself!", they would exclaim. But the thinking mind will take the known facts and discard the hypothesises that don't have compelling evidence to support them in favor of the ones that do. Thus far, only a superstitious mind would put the intelligent design idea into the latter category.

I have been a fan of Stenger for a while now and this book is great. It is lucid, entertaining, and strikes at the core of fine-tuning. It almost reminds me of an odd combination of Dawkin's enthusiasm with Sagan's massive insight into the workings of space.

Highly recommended for anyone who is a fan of Sagan, Asimov, Krauss, Tyson, or any of the new atheists.

Explains clearly and sensibly the way the universe was not by design and without guidance.

I thought the book was well-written and clearly presents Dr. Stenger's hypothesis for the origin of our universe. Although I am a Ph.D. scientist (organic chemistry), I am not that well versed in the inticate details of physics and may not fully appreciate his proposal because of my lack of expertise in his area of competence. However, it seems to me that he has a gap in his rationale. For example, in chapter 9, page 158, he states that "this single-particle universe would have been a black hole with a radius of 10 to the -33rd power centimeter, and the Big Bang may be viewed as the Hawking disintegration of this black hole." However, if the particle is at maximum entropy, what force or energy would cause disintegration? Similarly, he states that "the universe at the Planck Time nevertheless must have been in complete choas!", again raising the concern about how complete choas could have proceeded spontaneously to the Big Bang or anything. Also, on page 173, in a summary statement of his hypothesis, he writes that "It (a void) was as much nothing as nothing can be" and then, mysteriosly to me, "A fluctuation in that void then occurred, generating our universe...". One wonders how a "fluctuation" can occur in a void. It appears to me that he has magicallly invoked an independent energy source as his mechanism of action, returning to a cause and effect process that is proposed in typical space-time theorems.

Total garbage, not even worthy of being a door stop. Completely meaningless and a waste of money. As a evolutionist, I am so completely disappointed in this book I almost feel embarrassed. I'd suggest some class, like an old copy of the Blind Watermaker than something so foolish as this.

Garbage

This book has no value even as a doorstop. It is nothing but bunk. The author is so far removed from common sense and scientific rationale that I am amazed he is able to get a book published at all. Any decent publisher should be ashamed to distribute such a display of pseudo-science.