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The problem with Deepak Chopra
The famous guru once again shoots at science and misses
Deepak Chopra, the renowned author of ninety (!) books, including several New York Times best sellers, has done it again: he has once more shot at science in a recent article entitled “The New Atheism and the Delusions of Science.” His target, in part, is the movement known as New Atheism, which is strange since there hasn’t been anything new about the New Atheism for years, and two of the four original “Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” have now passed away.
Before getting into the necessary details, it might be worth pointing out that I have been a vocal critic of the New Atheists, for some of the same reasons brought up by Chopra. And yet, as will soon become clear, our ways of thinking and worldviews couldn’t be further apart.
Chopra begins by noting that the number of people in the US who declare themselves unaffiliated with a major religious denomination has steadily been going up and now comprises about 1/3 of the adult population. Yet, he says, during the same period atheists have increased only from 2% to 4% of the total. Technically a doubling of numbers but, as he puts it, “a statistical sliver.”
He blames Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett for this, calling them “loud…
