Does quantum mechanics show a connection between the human mind and the cosmos? Are our brains tuned into a 'cosmic consciousness' that pervades the universe enabling us to make our own reality? Do quantum mechanics and chaos theory provide a place for God to act in the world without violating natural laws? Many popular books make such claims and argue that key developments in twentieth-century physics, such as the uncertainty principle and the butterfly effect, support the notion that God or a universal mind acts upon material reality. Physicist Victor J Stenger examines these contentions in this carefully reasoned and incisive analysis of popular theories that seek to link spirituality to physics. Throughout the book Stenger alternates his discussions of popular spirituality with a survey of what the findings of twentieth-century physics actually mean. Thus he offers the reader a useful synopsis of contemporary religious ideas as well as basic but sophisticated physics presented in layperson's terms (without equations). Of particular interest in this book is Stenger's discussion of a new kind of deism, which proposes a God who creates a universe with many possible pathways determined by chance, but otherwise does not interfere with the physical world or the lives of humans. Although it is possible, says Stenger, to conceive of such a God who plays dice with the universe and leaves no trace of his role as prime mover, such a God is a far cry from traditional religious ideas of God and, in effect, may as well not exist. This work presents a rigorously argued challenge to many popular notions of God and spirituality.
Victor J. Stenger (1935 - 2014) was an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado and emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Hawaii. He was the author of the New York Times bestseller God: The Failed Hypothesis, God and the Atom, God and the Folly of Faith, The Comprehensible Cosmos, and many other books.
"[It] is a carefully reasoned and incisive analysis of popular theories seeking to link spirituality to physics. What's great about the writings of Victor Stenger - well exemplified in Quantum Gods - is that he doesn't mince words or pull punches. He isn't disrespectful and he never dissembles, but neither does he waste anyone's time by skirting around the central tenets of claims and arguments made for the existence of Something Else that science has yet to discover." -- SirReadaLot.org, July 2009 "...I believe this book is fitting and timely. It will be a useful counter to some of the quantum mysticisms we are confronted with today." -- Open Parachute, July 8, 2009. "...recommended to anyone who wants to understand just why the new age gurus claiming quantum physics proof of God are dreadfully wrong." -- DaveNichols.net, May 19, 2009
