Bryan Appleyard has secretly reviewed Frank Tipler's recent book, The Physics of christianity, for the Philadelphia Inquirer. The book review section of the Inquirer is edited by Frank Wilson, a contributor to Bryan's blog, and a fellow religious sympathiser. Nevertheless, I expected the review to be a little more scathing. Why not the Physics of islam, or the Physics of hinduism, or the Physics of Greek mythology? Tipler is quite potty, and although Bryan isn't in a position to adjudicate on the physics, I think he notices the extremity of Tipler's claims that "We have a theory of everything, all the problems were resolved 30 years ago...To deny the multiverse is to deny quantum theory; a complete theory of quantum gravity was stumbled upon long ago by Richard Feynman and Steven Weinberg." Tipler claims that his salary is "some 40 percent lower than the average for a full professor at Tulane as a consequence of my belief." I seem to recall, however, that he has a second home in Florida, so things can't be too bad for someone who has now written two populist books at the interface of science and religion, both of which employ what might be termed a large degree of 'artistic license' with the physics.
Speaking of Bryan, as a frequent commenter at Thought Experiments, you undoubtedly have noticed that he's apparently been confined to Blogger's version of purgatory the last few days, unable to gain direct access to his blog.
ReplyDeleteChip Dale has the details and some ideas on how to go about freeing the "Blogger One." (As Dale makes no mention of him, I assume he's content to leave Nige behind.)
As encouragement, I planned to suggest that you consider the possibility that, as a Blogger user yourself, "there but for the grace of God go you..." but for some strange reason I can't quite put my finger on at that moment, I doubt that would work. So I won't.
I thought Bryan and Nige might have eloped or something!
ReplyDeleteGood old Catholic purgatory! Is it the same thing as limbo? I'm never sure.
I was once told that, if you do the limbo low enough, you're well on your way there. Not quite sure it is the same thing, however.
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