Newspaper Article

THINK TANK His Formula Finds Room For God In physicist's vision, `virtual' human beings will live on Series: THINK TANK. AN OCCASIONAL SERIES ON CONTEMPORARY THINKERS IN AMERICA

By Fred Bruning. STAFF WRITER

1994

Overview

Before God passes judgment on science, though, other scientists will address the case of their brother, [Frank Tipler] - a process that the author welcomes. In fact, says Tipler, until peers reach consensus on the quality of his ideas, he will continue referring to himself as an atheist (as a boy in Alabama he referred to himself as a Southern Baptist) and, likewise, urged that readers exercise their own scientific skepticism. Don't be too quick to buy a God-and-heaven theory, says Tipler - even his own. In a television report on Tipler's book, a scientist at the University of Chicago called the work \"an insult to physicists\" and a review in the prestigious journal Nature begins with the wilting observation: \"This must be one of the most misleading books ever produced.\" The reviewer, George Ellis of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, said Tipler made selective use of scientific principles, embroidered his work with academic \"absurdities,\" demonstrated a total lack of \"intellectual rigour\" and foisted on the public \"a masterpiece of pseudoscience.\" Tipler says a speaking engagement at the esteemed Max Planck Institute in Munich was cancelled earlier this year after word of his book circulated. \"I was flabbergasted,\" Tipler says with a hint of resignation. Soon after, he said, an institute in Switzerland withdrew an invitation, too. Some suggest Tipler is just out to make money by pandering to the spiritual hunger of the times, and others hint he has been swept away by his own reductionist ideas. But, scientists agree, Tipler, 47, has done substantial work in the past and generally is highly regarded. \"Heretofore, he's had quite a fine reputation,\" said Josh Frieman, head of the astrophysics department at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill. Fine reputation or not, says Frieman, Tipler's book is more science fiction than science. \"The only merit I see is as entertainment,\" he said.

• Publisher: Newsday LLC
• Subject: Tipler, Frank