Tells the story of science's ideas - from its genesis to the 21st century. In this title, the author makes the case that the total absence of empirical facts and theoretical arguments to support the existence of any component to reality other than atoms and the void can be taken as proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

Physicist Victor J. Stenger chronicles one of the most successful scientific hypotheses ever devised. Originating separately in both ancient Greece and India, the concept of the atom persisted for centuries, despite often running afoul of conventional thinking. Until the 20th century, no direct evidence for atoms existed. Today it's possible to observe atoms using a scanning tunneling microscope. The book begins with the story of the earliest atomists, the Greek philosophers Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus, and the Latin poet Lucretius. The idea of elementary particles as the foundation of reality had many opponents throughout history, from Aristotle to Christian theologians and even some 19th-century chemists and philosophers. While theists today accept that the evidence for the atomic theory of matter is overwhelming, they reject the atheistic implications of that theory. Stenger makes the case that in the final analysis atoms and the void are all that exists.