Author: Taner Edis

Extremism, by J. M. Berger (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2018, ISBN 9780262535878). x+201 pp. Softcover, $15.95. Extremism is part of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, consisting of short expert overviews of subjects of current interest. The accusation of extremism appears often and, like terrorism, is too often one of those very elastic words …

“There is a Muslim tradition of religious skepticism, particularly among intellectuals with a modern education.”

If civilization lasts long enough, secularism might one day get another chance in Muslim countries. For now, it is dead.

To believers in God, our universe must look like it is a product of intelligence. Sometimes this leads to varieties of creationism, as in the current intelligent-design movement. But advocates of divine design need not object to evolution. They can argue that intelligence manifests itself at a deeper level. Some say that we live in …

Several readers objected to Taner Edis’s discussion of randomness in his “An Accidental World” (FI, Science and Religion, Fall 2002). Quantum randomness may be counterintuitive, but it isn’t just a good idea, it’s the law. We invited Edis to expound further on the admittedly quizzical quantum randomness. —eds. Physics can get weird, so everyone who …