Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #930513 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Craft, Spacecraft and Witchcraft. By Emo Bright
Anyone reading this review who hasn't heard of Dr. Stuart Burgess should perhaps ponder why this should be. Almost certainly they will have heard of: Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. They may even have heard of Paul Dirac who was an undergraduate in the Mechanical Engineering Department that Dr. Burgess now heads at Bristol University having moved on from his position in the European Space Agency.

If any credibility at all is to be granted to the claims made in this book, then Dr. Burgess surely deserves to figure, at least somewhere, in the roll call of honour and glory that is so familiar to the scientifically aware portion of the public. The reason for this is that Dr. Burgess claims to have overthrown everything that these illustrious gentlemen stand for ( and a lot more besides) and has replaced it with his own, all embracing, "Theory of everything".

He backs up his claims, not with meticulous mathematics, oh no, nothing like that. He uses that trusted weapon of mediaeval scientific endeavour that perhaps contributed to the adoption of the phrase "Dark Ages" when reference needs to be made to the centuries where it figured significantly in the battle to impose rigid religious dogma on all minds. Yes! On Page 48, Dr. Burgess points the finger at our cosmological heroes and cries:

"Witchcraft! A case can be made that these people are in league with Satan!"

He goes on to claim that the clear evidence for use in such a case is that modern cosmological theory it "too complicated" for "ordinary people" and they can't understand it.

This heartfelt plea obviously comes from Dr. Burgess' heart because he goes on to demonstrate that he is himself, most definitely, one of those ordinary people who don't understand modern cosmology. In fact, and in spite of his proud boast of involvement in the space program, his understanding clearly doesn't even make it into the ranks of the many scientifically aware school children who have only a slight interest in space and merely an inkling of just why A. Einstein Esq. lends his name for use as an iconic representation of supreme intellectual genius.

Dr. Burgess achieves this magnificent downgrading of his own status via a great feat of misunderstanding the banality of which is breathtaking. On page 59 he includes a neat little diagram in support of his argument on Page 61 that the Universe has an edge and that our Galaxy is approximately at its centre.

As any of the afore mentioned school children will surely attest, this assertion violates the PRINCIPLE of relativity which demands that all points in the universe must be equivalent. So the universe has no centre and it has no edge.

It was this principle that Einstein started with 100 years ago and built his two monumentally important theories of relativity on the solid theoretical foundation that it provides.

So Dr. Burgess is asking us to accept that Einstein and all competent cosmologists who have spent the last 100 years marking his homework are wrong in principle and should have blessed themselves and gone with the arguments in this book.

Having replaced all of modern cosmology this with his formula ("God did it") Dr. Burgess rushes on to more important matters and lambastes Science Fiction and those who suppose that life might just exist elsewhere in the cosmos. His argument is that there can't be any aliens because that would mean that Humans are not his God's "special creatures".

Star Wars, ET, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and even poor old Dr. Who are next in line for the Burgess treatment. In another display of breathtaking banality Dr. Burgess denounces these characters and Science Fiction generally on the grounds that they "Promote a false view of the physical world" thereby demolishing the dreams of billions world-wide who are hoping to beam up to the Starship Enterprise any time soon.

Then, in a really spectacular "about face", he finishes off by reminding us that cauldrons, pointed hats, black cats, and broomsticks are all too real and in daily use by modern scientists in the practise of their craft.

He doesn't mention the Fairies. Maybe this is because he is still away checking on them.

Modern Science has not the slightest need to even shrug when confronted by nonsense of this kind. However, you have to wonder why it is that other Christians stand by and let Dr. Burgess tell the world what their creed stands for. I can only conclude that even if they can be bother to shrug, they just say "Ah well, it comes to the right answer ("God did it") so why bother about the argument?

Science takes the opposite view.

There isn't a snowball's chance on the sunny side of Mercury that this book lives up to the outrageous claims on its cover. However, I award it the maximum rating on the grounds that Christians everywhere should really come and see what Dr. Burgess says they believe.

Atheists should stay away and tend their cauldrons unless, of course, they are amused by such ramblings.

Oh dear, can it get any worse?
When are the young earth creationists going to drag themselves into the 21st century? No person capable of rational thought could possibly believe that the bible is literally true, how can a document with contradictions in it be literally true anyway?

But the young earth creationists believe just that, every last word, the implications weave a tangled web of deceit and mental gymnastics. In order to bend science to fit their deranged preconceptions they create the oxymoronic discipline of "creation science" and get member scientists to write books on "creation science" subjects in which they have no qualifications. This is one such book. Dr Burgess has many academic qualifications, but none of them relate to the subject of this book.

As usual the "creation scientists" prefer to attack evolution rather than make a case to support a theory of creation and true to form Dr Burgess attacks evolution in this book, here is a typical example:

"It is very difficult for evolution to explain how a dust cloud, which is at least 15 billion km in diameter, could condense into such a small number of neat planets and moons with extremely precise and stable orbits"

No one said science is easy; anyway, he clearly isn't referring to Darwinian biological evolution here because it says absolutely nothing about cosmological evolution. Dr Burgess (as usual) bundles all things evolutionary together, cosmic evolution, biological evolution, cultural evolution, and more, calls it "evolution" and throws handbags at it. Were he wanting to educate rather than obfuscate he would make distinction, apply definitions and be specific about his claims.

He claims that complexity in nature is screaming intelligent design, yet we see neatly nested taxonomical hierarchies of organisms from species through genera and families to phyla. Why is this? If the origin of diversity amongst current flora and fauna is biological evolution you would expect to see nested hierarchies because evolution only has what already exists to work on. A real intelligent designer is not limited by what already exists he can pull bits and pieces from other sources for example if we saw an organism that was half horse and half dolphin now THAT would scream intelligent design.

It's really is sad to see people living in a modern World spending time living in the past. Davis Young an evangelical and geologist put a case succinctly when referring to the young earth creationists claims about Noah's flood. He said:
"The maintenance of modern creationism and Flood geology not only is useless apologetically with unbelieving scientists, it is harmful. Although many who have no scientific training have been swayed by creationist arguments, the unbelieving scientist will reason that a Christianity that believes in such nonsense must be a religion not worthy of his interest. . . . Modern creationism in this sense is apologetically and evangelistically ineffective. It could even be a hindrance to the gospel.
"Another possible danger is that in presenting the gospel to the lost and in defending God's truth we ourselves will seem to be false. It is time for Christian people to recognize that the defense of this modern, young-Earth, Flood-geology creationism is simply not truthful. It is simply not in accord with the facts that God has given. Creationism must be abandoned by Christians before harm is done. . . ."

The book is worth reading if only for the mind numbing realization that there are people out there who actually believe the garbage it contains.

Instrucitve, delightful, refreshing
A very interesting book indeed; very well written, and well worth reading. Neither a research paper nor a detailed analysis of theoretical mathematics, the book is a lucid, eloquent and accessible introduction to the Christian perspective on Astronomy, clearly and concisely mapping out the basic groundwork of principles, premises and critiques.

As a Bible-believing scientist, Dr. Burgess' scientific arguments are informed by Biblical teaching instead of naturalistic philosophy. He is an accomplished scientist - a Reader in Engineering Design at Bristol University, he has over twenty years experience of engineering design in industry and academia; in 1993 he received the Worshipful Company of Turners Gold Medal for work on spacecraft design for the European Space Agency; and he has published over 50 papers on the science of engineering design.

The book is divided into two parts, addressing first 'The Question of Origins', and then 'The Question of Extraterrestrial Life.' In Part One, Dr. Burgess assesses the Biblical creation account and the Big Bang theory and presents scientific arguments confirming the former. In Part Two, Dr. Burgess astutely identifies Science Fiction as a powerful tool of propaganda for the idea of extraterrestrial life, an idea itself rooted in Evolutionary suppositions. And he explains why Biblical teaching precludes belief in aliens. Dr. Burgess closes by suggesting that in some ways scientific achievement can seem to confirm to man in his sin the foolish idea that he does not need God, and shows how man in his rebellion against God will believe anything but the Holy Bible.

This is a great book for Christians who wish to be encouraged in their faith, learn about the wonderful Biblical teaching pertaining to these subjects, and assess central issues of the debate between Creationist and Evolutionist cosmologies.

And for anyone else, who might perhaps be looking for a refreshing alternative to the intellectual suicide of subscribing to the view that nothing fluctuated by natural process into something, the sloppy, unscientific indulgence of fudge factors and ridiculously convenient fables about impossible accidents, the degradation of believing your ancestors were amoebae, the atrocity of believing you're an animal, the despair of believing life is meaningless, and the disappointment and humiliation of watching for aliens from outer space, then this book can provide an accessible, authoritative and fascinating entry into the glories of Biblical teaching about the cosmos.

Very, very highly recommended.