I’ve just discovered that Victor Stenger is brilliant, and it really surprises me that he is not more widely known. I’ve heard Dawkins mention him a few times but I’ve only recently made the effort myself to read one of his books and seek out videos on YouTube. If you consider yourself intellectually active in the atheism/theism debate (passively or not) you owe it to yourself to check out his book God: The failed hypothesis. I really can’t recommend it enough.
In the book Stenger takes a ‘common sense’ approach in assessing whether the current evidence available to science allows us to finally say that the Judeo-Christian-Islamic god, ‘God’ does not exist. He does so without the distraction of discussing philosophical, social or political issues. Differently to Dawkins for example Stenger completely ignores issues relating to the taboo’s attached to the criticism of religions, the devastating effects it has on people’s lives and the ramifications of following doctrine. Dawkins’ point in this matter is of course an important one but Stenger doesn’t waste your time by going over old ground. It’s a relatively slim volume because it is almost completely devoid of chaff and waffle. And this is one of the best things about the book. Its sticks to the science and leads you by the nose to the unavoidable conclusion of its subtitle (How Science shows that God does not exist).
Again, I have no idea why Stenger is not as big as Dawkins/Hitchens/Harris/Dennet/Shermer etc and I’m even more surprised at myself for not checking his books out sooner.
http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/
