I am saddened by the news: Victor Stenger was a hardcore physicist with the sensibilities of a liberal arts professor. His books and essays are excellent — he always presented the physics without compromise, but he also explained how we came to understand what we know. I like my science leavened with that historical perspective, and he always delivered.
God and the Atom, for example, starts with ancient Greek philosophy and works its way forward…and convincingly argues that our earliest views of physical science were godless, and that only later did the mystery religions creep in and taint productive avenues of thinking. His very latest, God and the Multiverse, is sitting on my desk right now. I’m very much looking forward to reading it.
I got to meet Vic many times — somehow, we seemed to end up as the sciencey pair, one physicist and one biologist, at a lot of atheist conferences. He was also a genuinely nice guy, friendly and fun to talk to, and I was always pleased to see we’d both be at an event. I’m missing him already.
Here’s Vic at Skepticon 3. I have to mention that there are plenty of essays and discussions available at the link to his home page up top.
Bummer! I enjoyed his books, and learned from them too!
Sincere condolences to Victor’s family and friends. He will be missed.
A sad loss and one the world can’t really afford right now. But his work will live on.
Interesting interviews and stuff on his home page. Does he win Fuerstein’s $100k?
Q. Many people claim that science cannot prove God doesn’t exist. Given the immense volume of work you have done on this subject, there is perhaps no one better suited to answering it. How would you respond?
A. While we cannot prove that every conceivable god does not exist, we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a god that plays such an important role in the universe such as the Abrahamic God would have been detected by now. Absence of evidence is evidence of absence when the evidence that should be there is not. For example, if the people who write all these bestsellers about visiting heaven during a near-death experience really entered a supernatural realm, why do they never come back with any verifiable new knowledge? They should, and the fact that they don’t is proof it was all in their heads. See my book God: The Failed Hypothesis for other examples.
Just learning about him, but the quote at the top of his home page is awesome: “Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.” Shared it so others will know of this cool guy.
QFT!!!
Shoot!!! Cthulhu!!!
I read most of his books and liked them. I liked his physics books. I didn’t understand a lot of it but that meant I could just read them over and over and get something new out of them each time.
“God The Failed Hypothesis”, the title of one of his books says it all. God is a failed hypothesis.
My niece took a (Catholic) high school philosophy course last year. His book, God and the Folly of Faith, was on the list of books covered (not sure if it was required or optional reading). It’s been sitting on my TBR shelf since. Looking forward to reading it.
As a young man many years ago I realised that though I was not sufficiently clever to work much out for myself, fortunately, there would be people in the years to come who, like Newton and Darwin in earlier times, would boot me up the figurative staircase of my understanding step by step. Victor was one of those brilliant guys.
It’s a shame to have lost one of my icons in the sciences. His books have a clarity and conciseness that is rare, my favorite being “The Comprehensible Cosmos: Where Do the Laws of Physics Come From?”, which after explaining the physics of our universe, reviews the math behind it. I missed 3 of his talks by being out of town just days before or after them. Now I’ll never get another chance.
Condolences to everyone touched by the passing of Victor Stenger, and to you PZ on the loss of your friend and colleague.
The world just lost a really good egg. I haz a big sad.
:-(
Uh, that’s not by him, and it’s easily 10 years old; I’m really surprised you hadn’t encountered it before.
This is very sad news… We have lost another great mind and a bright light against the darkness of ignorance that theists are still trying to smother us in.
Fortunately, as Steve LaBonne says, his work will live on and continue to speak to generations of people, including those not yet born.
My heart and thought go outs out to his family and friends, particularly to you, PZ. I am so very sorry for their loss and yours.
@ #11
That slogan is not by him? It’s certainly credited to him in many places, Wikipedia, for instance. On richarddawkins.net, it’s claimed that, “Victor Stenger thought of this great original slogan as a possible ad for the bus campaign.” Who is it really by?
Ken and I send our heartfelt condolences to you and Vic’s family. We were fortunate to get to spend time with him at our room party for SkeptiCon 3. He will be missed.