The Science of Good and Evil by Michael Shermer, Times Books/Henry Holt, $26, ISBN 0805075208
How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Wheen, Fourth Estate, 拢16.99, ISBN 0007140967 Reviewed by Martin Ince
IF SCIENCE can explain the origin of species or how the universe began, it should have no trouble with good and evil. At least that is how Michael Shermer of The Skeptic magazine sees it, as he sets out to show that no deity is needed to account for moral behaviour or for our instinctive sense that some actions are wrong.
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While his book is overblown, he does make some valuable points. As he says, religions try to lock their adherents into a moral code dating back to their own origins, while in practice morality changes the whole time. Thus the principles stay fixed, while growing populations, more complex societies and the emergence of new issues mean that the detailed rules by which we live do not. I recommend The Science of Good and Evil to humanists who need encouragement, or to believers who might be losing their faith.
By contrast, How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World makes it clear that irrationality is not confined to any one set of beliefs. Politics, philosophy, business and health have all succumbed to nonsense. Francis Wheen鈥檚 book has the index of the year. This entry, 鈥淏lair, Tony; claims descent from Abraham, [page] 165鈥�, gives the flavour.