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Type of bind: Kindle Edition
Dewey Decimal Number: 231.7
Format: Kindle Book
Label: InterVarsity Press
Manufacturer: InterVarsity Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 257
Printing Date: July 31, 2006
Publishing house: InterVarsity Press
Sale Popularity Level: 34344
Studio: InterVarsity Press
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About the Book
Meaningful or meaningless?
Purposeful or pointless?
When we look at nature, whether at our living earth or into deepest space, what do we find?
In stark contrast to contemporary claims that the world is meaningless, Benjamin Wiker and Jonathan Witt reveal a cosmos charged with both meaning and purpose. Their journey begins with Shakespeare and ranges through Euclid's geometry, the fine-tuning of the laws of physics, the periodic table of the elements, the artistry of ordinary substances like carbon and water, the intricacy of biological organisms, and the irreducible drama of scientific exploration itself.
Along the way, Wiker and Witt fashion a robust argument from evidence in nature, one that rests neither on religious presuppositions nor on a simplistic view of nature as the best of all possible worlds. In their exploration of the cosmos, Wiker and Witt find all the challenges and surprises, all of the mystery and elegance one expects from a work of genius.
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Rated by buyers 
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My journey towards a more intellectually satisfying, propositional Protestantism began with Chuck Colson's / Nancy Pearcey's "How Now Shall We Live". Dozens of books later, there are three or four that I consider essential reading, and Wiker's book has catapulted to the top of that list. His goal to reveal the 'genius of nature' readily betrays the genius in the author himself. Truly a most enriching read, this book receives my highest recommendation.
Rated by buyers 
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The authors direct a tour featuring literary art (Shakespeare's Hamlet), mathematics (Euclid's Elements), the periodic table, anthropic cosmological quantifications, and a warranted holistic approach to cellular biology. They query: "why, we might ask, was the big bang a bloom?" The total energy of the "bang" "cannot have differed by more than one part in 10 to the 15th power and still lead to a complex, life-friendly universe." (pg 153; here citing Rees' Just Six Numbers), I've found that, unfortunately, many people don't like numbers very much, and are even afraid of them if they're perceived as providing unwanted information. But "one part in 10 to the 15th" is a mind-bendingly precise mathematical entity! Especially so for the biggest explosion conceivable! This is the kind of `big picture' of the world that reductionism, in its extreme that is, simply tries to dismiss by unwarrantable ideological diktat.
The authors' thesis is set against the ideological extremes of reductionism (which can become a pseudo-religion). I wish they had more specifically and explicitly defined their antithesis as being reductionistic *extremism*, as science must necessarily utilize a practical reductionism. However, the extreme reductionism that came of age in the 1970s has since been demonstrated to provide a grossly impoverished understanding of the world. Many of the author's arguments are very good, but they should have made more effort to differentiate pragmatic scientific reduction from the ideological extremity of "reductionism." This would have `tightened up' their thesis (good science examines the world by methodic reduction AND acknowledgement of the nature of the whole). But this is a valuable book for anyone interested in complexity, as complexity relates to science AND art. As to the scientific limits of reductionism, several writers have addressed this from a more neutral, agnostic viewpoint; see, for example, theoretical physicist Paul Davies' The Matter Myth.
Rated by buyers 
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I have read a great many books on science and spirituality and found this book to be pretty good, OK, but not great. Basically the authors are arguing for intelligent design and against materialism/reductionism, passionately saying that the world and all creation has meaning. Alright, I certainly agree. Especially the chapter on the periodic table was excellent, and I enjoyed the one on geometry. The rest of the book seemed to just rehash old arguments on intelligent design. The chapters on Hamlet and Shakespeare were burdensome and could have been reduced to a few paragraphs. If you want to read a truly great book like this one, go straight to The Wonder of the World by Roy Abraham Varghese. It does a far more substantial job covering basically the same area.
Rated by buyers -
Not only is the content of this book fascinating, but it is extremely well written and entertaining to read. It is not a typical science text. When you read it, it feels as though you're listening to a live lecture given by a well-trained orator. In initially looking at the table of contents, the fields covered varied so much, I was curious how they would all fit together. But the authors do a masterful job of relating the vast genius and meaning built into all areas of our existence. I also enjoyed how they explained the history and background of each topic at a level that was at once easy to follow, interesting, and not condescending. I put this down as one of the best books I've read all year, and one I'm sure I will re-read many times.
Rated by buyers -
Although I am fascinated by the subject matter and have read numerous books on the topic, I did not get very far into this book. The information is good, but I found the presentation of that information to be very philosophic in nature. The discussions are very deep. This was not an easy read, but to be fair, this might be the type of book I pick up again in six months and cruise through.
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