The Science Delusion

The science delusion is the belief that science already understands the nature of reality. The fundamental questions are answered, leaving only the details to be filled in.

In this book, Dr Rupert Sheldrake, one of the world’s most innovative scientists, shows that science is being constructed by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas. The sciences would be better off without them: freer, more interesting, and more fun.

According to the dogmas of science, all reality is material or physical. The world is a machine, made up of dead matter. Nature is purposeless. Consciousness is nothing but the physical activity of the brain. Free will is an illusion. God exists only as an idea in human minds; imprisoned within our skulls. But should science be a belief-system, or a method of enquiry?

Sheldrake shows that the materialist ideology is moribund; under its sway, increasingly expensive research is reaping diminishing returns. In the sceptical spirit of true science, Sheldrake turns the 10 fundamental dogmas of materialism into exciting questions, and shows how all of them open up startling new possibilities.