Product Description: Explains modern physics to general readers without oversimplification. Using the insights of modern physics, this book reveals that modern scientific discoveries and religious faith are deeply consonant. It is aimed at anyone with an interest in science and religion.
A brilliant book ^ I heard Stephen Barr speak at the University of Iowa's Geneva Lecture Series. It was a good talk. I have a B.S. in physics and enjoyed it immensely, but even my friends with a non-physics backgrounds enjoyed it too. I decided tentatively to buy his book.
The book is brilliant. I may not agree with everything he says, but he definitely gives the reader much to think about. He's not trying prove the existence of God, but demonstrate that Theism is a viable option as oppose to Scientific Materialism. He's asserts that the Catholic Church supports the theory of evolution, so he's not advocating Intelligent Design in the modern sense. He's uses a broad range of physics from the Big Bang theory, cosmological constants to quantum mechanics to show areas that pure materialism has a hard time explaining such as free will, reason, and life itself. Some of the arguments are stronger than others, but the book is always entertaining and educational. It is a great refresher course for me in physics and some areas of theology.
The book is somewhat difficult to read. I saw a Nova special on quantum theory and I would say it is about the same level of difficulty. Equations are kept to a minimum and he does a very good job of explaining some of the metaphysical implications of quantum mechanics. I think everybody should read it, but definitely every Christian who is a science teacher or researcher or college freshman taking some of the hard sciences would benefit from this book. My favorite point of Barr's is when he points out that in Genesis, the first thing God creates is light. He creates light before stars, the sun or even the moon. One may ask, where does the light come from? Barr points out in the Big Bang all there is in the beginning is electomagnetic radiation or different frequencies of light.
A dense and difficult read, but incredibly eye-opening ^ This review will be brief, as more substantive reviews, by more qualified reviewers, are found elsewhere. I read this book as a professional theologian; of physics, and science in general, I am an absolute layman. In terms of difficulty, I found the book very readable and non-technical. Indeed, the author avoids technical jargon consistently, and will occasionally offer an 'aside' to experts, which I felt free to skip. It is not, however, written for a 'popular' audience - anyone with less than an undergraduate education will have to work to understand it, but it is well worth the strain.
Barr focuses on issues of human rationality and freedom (especially in relation to quantum physics), and there is a bit on cosmological issues at the beginning (I hoped for more of this). He does a good job exploding the modern myth. That is, most of us have heard the line that 'modern physics' have disproved and undermined the 'ancient faith'. That seemed to be true, Barr says, for most of the 18th and 19th century. But the 20th century, Barr shows, has proven the opposite - the most recent discoveries (big bang, quantum physics), far from undermining the Judeo-Christian faith, have manifested shocking 'parallals' to it. Above all, Barr is very, very fair. He does not pretend that science has 'proven' the faith, which is hardly possible, and he is very aware that even the findings of modern science are subject to revision, and could be changed. He gives the other side its due (offering whole chapters which describe rebuttals to his position), and when the debate remains open, he is not afraid to say so.
Challenging and helpful ^ This book has taught me more than any other about how the discoveries in physics in recent years provide evidence for belief in God. The author knows his subject and is very fair-minded. It does not require a high level of scientific knowledge, but you need to be interested. Topics include the big bang, the design of the universe, freewill, quantum physics and the human mind.
Leans heavily towards the Roman Catholic perspective ^ I've read a lot in the religion and science area and I found this book excellent but a bit surprising. The surprise is that it really is a Roman Catholic perspective. And that, in turn, forced me to realize how Anglican most of the literature I tend to read actually is. Blame it on all those religion and science scholars from Cambridge and Oxford. :-) Anyway, it was a treat to get a fresh perspective on things.
...or is the difference i'm sensing not a Roman Catholic-Anglican one? Barr is merely expressing a deist view as one of the other reviewers here says. Not sure. In either case, something is quite a bit different in Barr's perspective from John Habgood or William G. Pollard, for example.
Confusing deism with Christianity ^ This is an important book, as the other reviews show, and I cannot add much to them. But I have noticed that Dr. Barr has not distinguished his theological viewpoint from Deism. Many people who understand that materialism is not science nonetheless mistake Deism for Christianity. It seems that he is saying that God initially created the world with all of the plans for all of modern life and humanity inherent in matter, and did not need to intervene.
This, of course, denies Christianity as God sending His son. This may not be what Dr. Barr meant, but why did he not say so? It appears he totally misunderstands traditional Christianity, in spite of his claim to be a Roman Catholic.
Dr. Barr argues for evidence for God in physics, but does not adequately deal with the basic problem he brings up, namely that no one can see evidence for God in the world if he begins by mistaking materialism for science, as most scientists do. Also, it is easy to let your eyes get glazed over at his math, but that is my problem, not his.
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