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    Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible
    Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible
    Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible
    Audiobook11 hours

    Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible

    Written by Jerry A. Coyne

    Narrated by Joe Barrett

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    In his provocative new book, evolutionary biologist Jerry A. Coyne lays out in clear, dispassionate detail why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion-including faith, dogma, and revelation-leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions.

    Coyne is responding to a national climate in which over half of Americans don't believe in evolution (and congressmen deny global warming), and warns that religious prejudices and strictures in politics, education, medicine, and social policy are on the rise. Extending the bestselling works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, he demolishes the claims of religion to provide verifiable "truth" by subjecting those claims to the same tests we use to establish truth in science.

    Coyne irrefutably demonstrates the grave harm-to individuals and to our planet-in mistaking faith for fact in making the most important decisions about the world we live in.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJul 14, 2015
    ISBN9781494585303
    Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion Are Incompatible

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    Reviews for Faith Versus Fact

    4.5/5

    63 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book explores the differences between science and religion, and no matter if you’re an atheist or a believer, you should read it!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Easy to understand, well thought through reasoning why science and religions are incompatible and why the religions in whole are harmful for the humanity.
    • 5/5
      Outstanding book. Clear, provocative, direct. In civilizations such as our, that embrace technological developments that would sound like magical to ancient people – the simple existence of a plane, for god’s sake! How would people from ancient Egypt or the time of Christ, or Buda or all the other people that gave us the written word of god – how would they think about a simple plane? I was saying, in civilizations such as our, is strange to find people that ascertain things like the origins of universe, the mysteries of life, human evolution and so on, from text written 25 centuries ago by people that would consider us like GODS!
    • 4/5
      Jerry A. Coyne is an emeritus professor of biology at the University of Chicago. He is also a fairly militant atheist. His latest book, Faith vs. Fact, argues that religion and science are completely incompatible. In so doing, he attempts to refute Stephen Jay Gould’s theory that religion and science were “non-overlapping magisteria.”
    • 4/5
      In the beginning of his book, I wasn't sure if Coyne would make his case, but he did, and in spades. I doubt he'll change many minds (he examines the incredulous ability for people to cling to faith when presented with incontrovertible evidence disproving one thing or another), but he collects in this book a nice set of tools for the next discussion. Overall, excellent point and counter point, addressing most of the common, and many of the more creative, accommodationist objections to incompatibility.

      One particular part resonated...Coyne's deconstruction of Stephen Jay Gould's non-overlapping magisteria. I used to think Gould was on to something, but I came to the conclusion that he really missed the point. While religion's domain of teaching authority certainly should never presume to intrude on science, science can, and will, be able to determine all things eventually - for a nontestable claim is nothing more than imagination.

      I like James Morrow's quote in his novel Only Begotten Daughter: “Science does have all the answers...The problem is that we don’t have all the science.”
      Someday, we'll have more science. Not all, but more. And we'll be able to explain more of religion than religion can ever hope to explain about science.

      Recommended, and worth a second read.
    • 4/5
      Jerry A. Coyne is an emeritus professor of biology at the University of Chicago. He is also a fairly militant atheist. His latest book, Faith vs. Fact, argues that religion and science are completely incompatible. In so doing, he attempts to refute Stephen Jay Gould’s theory that religion and science were “non-overlapping magisteria.” Gould was trying to be nice to religion by giving it a domain of knowledge that was other than and inaccessible to scientific inquiry—it was a different way of knowing. Coyne takes issue with that concept, observing that religion historically has asserted many propositions that were intrinsically empirical and thus subject to verification or refutation. He also remarks that many of those propositions have not fared very well when subjected to scientific scrutiny. Coyne argues that religious “knowledge” is not knowledge at all—it is merely unsubstantiated belief. Coyne takes on all “accommodationist” scientists, i.e. those who would carve out some types of analysis for revealed religion. The basic conflict between the two kinds of belief comes down to a disagreement over methods of inquiry. Coyne contends that the scientific method, broadly defined and understood, is the only route to genuine knowledge. He points out that if religion were permitted even a limited sphere of primacy, there still would be absolutely no way to distinguish the relative merits of different, conflicting religions, all of which purport to possess “the Truth.”Coyne’s book is carefully and tightly reasoned. He will make “men of faith” (a term that he thinks should be an insult, not a compliment) uncomfortable, although one wouldn’t necessarily expect them to read this book. (JAB)
    • 5/5
      Excellent!