Militant atheism is on the rise. In recent years Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have produced a steady stream of best-selling books denigrating religious belief. These authors are merely the leading edge of a larger movement that includes much of the scientific community. In response, mathematician David Berlinski, himself a secular Jew, delivers a biting defense of religious thought. The Devil's Delusion is a brilliant, incisive, and funny book that explores the limits of science and the pretensions of those who insist it is the ultimate touchstone for understanding our world.

The calculus, which Berlinski explained in his enormously successful book, "A Tour of the Calculus", is the idea that made modern science possible. The algorithm, which Berlinski discusses here, is the idea of an effective procedure that has made the modern world possible. Here is the story of the search for and eventual discovery of the algorithm, the set of instructions that drives computers. The algorithm was discovered by a succession of logicians and mathematicians working alone and in obscurity during the first half of the 20th century. Their story makes this the book of Genesis for the computer revolution. "A playful, witty, highly literate effort to guide the mathematically uninitiated through the mysteries of the calculus." Illustrated.

A protean look at the science establishment-as well as the personalities behind the scenes-in such fields as behavioral psychology, linguistics, and economics.