The Noble Lie: When Scientists Give the Right Answers for the Wrong Reasons

By Gary Greenberg

Book Overview

Is drug addiction really a disease? Is sexuality inborn and fixed or mutable? Science is where we often turn when we can't achieve moral clarity. In The Noble Lie, acclaimed and controversial science writer Gary Greenberg shows how scientists try to use their findings to resolve the dilemmas raised by some of the most hotly contested issues of our time, from gay rights to euthanasia and the drug war. He reveals how their answers often turn out to be more fiction than science-and explores whether they cause more harm than good.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1630269158
• ISBN13: 9781630269159
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Length: 252 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Immensely thought-provoking

Greenberg is a find--informed, original, humane, humorous, and above all, intellectually honest. I felt only one major disagreement with his thesis: I'm not convinced that all the lies are noble.

Thought-provoking Book

In The Nobel Lie, Dr. Greenberg manages the near impossible. While enteratining the reader with a humor that's both deep and dry, he probes a medical issue that gets right down to the question of what is normality and what, if anything, it's worth. The implications ripple into religion, politics, law, morality, even the nature of consciousness and existence. His interwoven threads of reasoning and observation bring together homosexuality, hallucinogens, the Unibomber, and death. What do they have in common? Well it's a little hard to explain, but Greenberg manages to do it and even makes it look easy. He doesn't exactly answer life's biggest questions, but he renders them as palatable as popcorn. This is a good book for anyone who needs something new to think about. For others, well, there's always hallucinogens and TV.