---
title: "What Is Your Dangerous Idea?"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_Your_Dangerous_Idea?"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:35:10.421389+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Beliefs ===
Several different beliefs were mentioned in the essays such as the relationship between science and religion.  Sam Harris, in his essay titled "Science Must Destroy Religion," discusses different types of reason and belief as well as the conflict between science and religion.

The conflict between religion and science is inherent and (very nearly) zero-sum.  The success of science often comes at the expense of religious dogma; the maintenance of religious dogma always comes at the expense of science. —Sam Harris 

== Response ==
According to Jill Murphy, a reviewer of the website "The Bookbag", What is Your Dangerous Idea? provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the topics covered in this book. She expands by writing that the ideas make the reader think about them.

The joy in this book is that it is easy to understand. Science duffer that I am, I had no difficulty with any of the concepts or theories. The Edge contributors really had exceeded their game. These ideas don't challenge the reader to understand them; they challenge the reader to think about them.
The book has also been likened to "Shakespearean science" by one reviewer, due to the similar qualities it holds with William Shakespeare's works.

The result is definitely a "dessert island book"—one you would choose if marooned on an island—because most of the short answers provoke enough speculation and wonderment in your own mind to last a lifetime. You would take it for the same reasons you'd take Shakespeare—beauty and universality. Shakespeare of course has on his own already expressed poetically what these thinkers say as a matter of science; but these ones cite research.
Another reviewer summarized the various ideas, concluding that science's progress may make us realize our limits.

And so we are left with our final dangerous idea: Science's long journey down the corridors of knowledge has led us back to the realms of mystery and wonder. A method of inquiry that promised us mastery may ultimately remind us of our limits.
Stephen Totilo, on MTV.com relates the book to gaming, in his article titled "Could Xbox Destroy the World?" The essay by Geoffrey Miller was discussed in how its topic (Fermi's paradox) could relate to how much people game. Miller states that the cause of the paradox might be that aliens become addicted to video games.

== See also ==
What We Believe But Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty
The Third Culture: Beyond the Scientific Revolution
Intelligent Thought: Science Versus the Intelligent Design Movement
The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century
Edge Foundation, Inc.

== Endnotes ==

=== References ===

== External links ==
Review of What Is Your Dangerous Idea.
The Edge Foundation, where What Is Your Dangerous Idea originates.