God's Universe

by Owen Gingerich

Book Overview

We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine?

Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674023706
• ISBN13: 9780674023703
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Belknap Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.8" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

A good introduction for those with limited reading time

Owen Gingerich's brief but provoking book provides a perspective of cosmology from an astronomer, science historian and amateur theologian. The fact that Gingerich draws from his Mennonite heritage should come as no surprise, as Mennonites have a tradition of careful thought about the revealed Word, and the relationship of science and theology. What may be surprising to some is that Gingerich does not conform to the expectation that he would adopt a more literalist approach in his theology. In his view, God operates more by intention than by intervention. In Gingerich's view, the Genesis account of the earth bringing forth every living creature after his kind does not preclude common descent with modification or the possibility of macroevolution. Gingerich finds support for his view from the fact that a single mutational aberration in his Amish ancestry is the cause of occasional six-fingered dwarfism. He wonders whether beneficial mutations can be inspired, prodded on by contingent causes at the physical level, although he acknowledges that science can never confirm or deny that question. Gingerich argues that our epistemology is not always based on proof, but more often on persuasion, both in science and in theology. And that persuasion results from the coherence and consistency of the evidence, `a comprehensive pattern of interconnected answers to questions posed to nature'. Historically, Copernicus found that more phenomena could be more easily explained by postulating a heliocentric solar system. For example, assuming the visible planets are spaced at increasing distances from the sun explains their periodicity much better than the epicycles within epicycles of the Ptolemic system. In theology, Gingerich sees a consistency and coherence that leads one to explain more things more easily through belief than through non-belief, such as the apparent purpose and design in nature. The place of science as a tool for explanation is a recurring theme. Gingerich refers to Polkinghorne's question of "Why is the water in the teakettle boiling?" to point out that answers can be given at different levels, the level of the efficient cause (heat raises the temperature to accelerate the motion of molecules - the `how'), and the level of the final, purposive cause (because we want some tea - the `why'). Science is restricted to the explaining the efficient cause. Interestingly, as one of the world's foremost authorities on Copernicus, Gingerich looks at both sides of what has been called the `principle of mediocrity'; that man, in the cosmological viewpoint, has been relegated from the center of the universe to a fringe outpost of a backwater galaxy. Certainly from a physical perspective this is true, even to the point of accepting the distinct possibility of sentient, self-reflective life on other planets. But the many conditions that defy the luck of the draw for our existence, such as the `missing mass five element', suggest that humans ha

"HOW?" vs. "WHY?" - an important difference.

"God's Universe" is mostly (but not exclusively) about cosmic theology. As a true Christian, Professor Gingerich neither attacks viciously nor tries to ridicules "godless" boffins. He writes to them not to be so cocky. There is no need to write voluminous and often exhausting scientific book in order to successfully counter fundamental atheists. In this short but quite convincing treatise Gingerich decisively defends Christian scientists and their rights to believe in the beginning, design and cosmic purpose. He presents just several stunning facts/cases discovered by science of genetics and astronomy and this is enough for educated and intelligent reader to take a deep breath. "Why" (rather than "how?") do we have such perplexing coincidence and tuned up properties around us? Has science found God? Fact is: NO. But Gingerich states it is not a science role - science cannot replace metaphysics. Together with Alister McGrath's "Dawkins' God" this text represents well constructed message to all who treat science as a religion.

faith and science at its best

Owen Gingerich (b. 1930), Emeritus Professor of Astronomy and History of Science at Harvard University, was born in Washington, Iowa to a devout Mennonite family. After graduating from Goshen College in Indiana, at age twenty-one he enrolled as a graduate student at Harvard. A leading authority on Johannes Kepler and Nicholas Copernicus, he has an asteroid named in his honor ("2658 Gingerich") and has preached in Washington's National Cathedral. He fondly recalls viewing the rings of Saturn through a simple telescope that his father helped him build from a mailing tube and leftover lenses from a local optometrist. Gingerich's book contains his three public addresses for Harvard's William Belden Noble Lectures (November 2005), and as Peter Gomes notes in his foreword, they are characterized throughout by their "disarming understatement" and "intellectual modesty." Gingerich argues that science deals with what Aristotle called "efficient causes"--a description of how something happens, but not with "final causes"--an explanation of why something happens. At its best, science adopts a methodological naturalism as a research strategy, and thus remains neutral about metaphysical or philosophical claims outside of its narrow purview. "It is just as wrong," writes Gingerich, "to present evolution in high school classrooms as a final cause as it is to fob off Intelligent Design as a substitute for an efficacious efficient cause." The cosmos in general and the earth in particular, with their complexity and fine-tuning, are remarkably congenial for humankind to flourish. Nor was humankind--with our complex language, altruism, conscience, creativity, self-consciousness, and abstract reasoning--"necessarily inevitable." It would seem, then, that humankind is an unimaginably lucky and "glorious accident," or perhaps part of a cosmological design or telos. Science can inform one's thinking on the matter, but it cannot, ultimately, determine the answer. For Gingerich, a religious view of the universe makes more sense, explains more, and is more satisfying than a non-theistic view. He admits that this is hardly a proof, just a matter of personal persuasion, what John Polkinghorne likes to call verisimilitude or "the ring of truth." Gingerich ends his book by quoting the prayer with which Johannes Kepler concluded his The Harmony of the World (1619): "If I have been enticed into brashness by the wonderful beauty of thy works, or if I have loved my own glory among men, while advancing in work destined for thy glory, gently and mercifully pardon me: and finally, deign graciously to cause that these demonstrations may lead to thy glory and to the salvation of souls, and nowhere be an obstacle to that. Amen." Reading this slender volume which culminates a lifetime of dedication to robust Christian faith and rigorous world class science was a privilege that filled me with awe, admiration and gratitude.

Science and religious belief meet peacefully.

Gingerich, a Harvard professor emeritus of astrophysics and science history, is perhaps America's best known living astronomer. His book God's Universe will fascinate and inform anyone interested in either natural science or religious belief, but it will especially invite those interested in the interface and supposed conflict of science and religion. Gingerich's views echo those of John Polkinghorne: both a studied religious belief and the modern progression of natural science are thoughtfully embraced. The anti-science views held by many religious people are often due to ignorance of science (and religion), and these views can prove superfluous to orthodox religious belief. Similarly, the anti-religious views held by many scientifically oriented people, are also often due to a comfortable ignorance, and are likewise expendable. Like Polkinghorne (British quantum physicist and cleric), Gingerich believes the world is best explained and understood if it is something that is intelligently purposed. Given the almost unfathomable fine-tuning of the laws of physics, materialistic demands that there cannot be any such intelligent agency are contraindicated, based in personal psychologies or ideologies rather than scientific evidence (are scientifically arbitrary), venture well beyond the domain of natural science, and ultimately lead to no truly deep explanations of the world. A God-ordained world simply makes better sense than the alternative. In Gingerich's words, "a common-sense and satisfying interpretation of our world suggests the designing hand of a superintelligence." Einstein famously agreed. But Gingerich is leery of many formulations of Intelligent Design arguments and distances himself from the ID movement. However he also believes that certain intelligent design arguments are not understood by many who dismiss them due to a kind of knee-jerk conditioning, and a philosophical commitment that departs from strict science. The book is small precisely because it is efficiently presented. Repetition is virtually absent. Many writers who argue against a God-ordained universe inflate books with repetitive assertions (Oxford zoologist Richard Dawkins being the obvious example). The second characteristic that distinguishes this book is Gingerich's dispassionate focus. His assertions have the flavor of straightforward observation rather than argument. The emotional belligerence that many writers have brought to the topic is completely absent.

A Broad-Based, Integrated Approach to "Veritas"

Owen Gingerich is Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and of the History of Science at Harvard's Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In this concise and readable work, he advocates a broad framework for integrating science and religion -- one that does not artificially mandate a secular explanation for every facet of the universe. Dr. Gingerich is addressing cutting-edge astrophysics. But his approach to science is not new. It was the dominant worldview of the founders of his school. Harvard was formed to honor God through the integrated pursuit of science and religion. As reflected in the original Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Harvard's founders believed that "the encouragement of arts and sciences ... tends to the honor of God." (Article I) More recently, in the early 20th Century, Harvard Professor of Philosophy Alfred North Whitehead argued vigorously and persuasively that modern science would never have developed without the confidence in a rational universe, a confidence produced by the fusion of Stoicism and Christianity: "Centuries of belief in a God who combined the personal energy of Jehovah with the rationality of a Greek philosopher first produced that firm expectation of systematic order which rendered possible the birth of modern science." Dr. Gingerich's work continues that Harvard tradition, suggesting areas of inquiry (such as the cause of the Big Bang and the fine-tuning of the universe for life) in which religious explanations should be considered. Religion and science, working together, to fully explore both physics and metaphysics.