The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom

by Gerald Schroeder

Book Overview

For the readers of The Language of God, another instant classic from "a sophisticated and original scholar" (Kirkus Reviews) that disputes the idea that science is contrary to religion. In The Science... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076790303X
• ISBN13: 9780767903035
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Broadway Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Perspective changing!

Love this book and how it ties God and Science together and does not make them a competition!

Non-fiction: Linking Genesis creation story to cosmology and the fossil record

As a Bible believer with a scientific mind, I was very intrigued with this author's viewpoints, for he is one who holds a doctorate degree in physics, so to me, carries the weight of being believable! Scientists typically do not "believe" in God or creation! With all the mystery surrounding the creation story in Genesis, and the age-old argument of whether the Bible is fact or fiction, this author/scientist is a highly-educated and open-minded researcher, presenting the facts very understandably to a less-educated reader. He is also highly educated in the Jewish Torah, and in a surprising-to-me way, unfolds his explanation of the Biblical creation story comparing scientific facts along the way, presenting how Science and Bible are COMPATIBLE! Every chapter is more revealing than the previous, and unfolds exciting information for the reader's speculation! Take it or leave it, it's great reading and further reason for continued speculation on the topic of the origin of the universe, life, and time itself. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the topic!

Should, as with all four of Schroeder's books, be required reading in every church and laboratory

Guaranteed to contain a bit of something to offend everyone, but those with the courage to keep reading will be rewarded with a far deeper understanding of their own views, as well as the "opposition's".

Schroeder offers up a smorgisborg of new ideas

Previously I have read a few books on Intelligent Design which present you with the Chef's menu: a full meal is picked for you: take it all or leave it all. Schroeder's work is the opposite. He's throwing out intriguing and open-ended possibilities - you pick from the buffet what suites your fancy. Nothing feels cramed down your throat. I bought 5 copies of this book to share with friends because it has given me hope. It is bridging the decades old schisms in my mind left by my voracious appetite for scientific truth and my convictions about the authority of the Bible. His work achieves its magic by stretching the beliefs held on both extremes. This book will not satisfy black and white thinkers commited to either strict Biblical literalism or abiotic evolution. It is however a wonderful read for anyone caught in the middle who is left unfulfilled by either extreme.

A wonderful book, and a must read.

Several have said that this book is completely unconvincing for various reasons. The reasons tend to be as follows: 1. The author quotes non-Biblical sources such as Kabbalistic writings, therefore they have no relevance to the Bible. 2. The author does not read the Bible in a literal fashion from a person's perspective on Earth (and that's what the Bible was intended to be, damn it!). 3. The author is an idiot because he is trying to prove the existence of God, and it's clear God doesn't exist. 4. This book is no more than this person's opinion, and therefore has no value. Each of these reasons contains a kernel of truth, but little more. All of them show inconsistency in reasoning. To refute: 1. The non-Biblical sources such as commentary on Scripture CAN be true, even though they are not the primary source, i.e., the Bible itself. The logic in point one is presented thusly: a. The Bible is true. b. Source A is not the Bible. c. Ergo, Source A is not true. This is a non sequitur fallacy that implies that only the Bible contains truth, and everything else is false. Even the Bible itself says that there are things (specifically, other miracles of Christ) not mentioned in the Bible. Other works besides the Bible can be sources of truth, even if those works are not divinely inspired. (Example of inconsistency in reasoning in this logic: most who agree with number 1 will claim the above and then read other authors like Billy Graham or Hal Lindsey. If the writings of Billy Graham can contain truth, why not the writings of Josephus or the writings of Rambam?) 2. The whole point of this book is to attempt to square the text of the Bible with modern science. To those who would say that the author is out of bounds by interpreting the six-day creation story as being six days from God's perspective (as opposed to the perspective of someone on Earth), let's look at another passage. Is the bread and wine at the Last Supper LITERALLY the Body and Blood of Christ, or only symbolic? Most who hold to the logic evinced by point 2 would say that the Six Days were six days as we understand them, but that the bread and wine were only symbols of Christ's Body and Blood. once again, this is inconsistent reasoning. Incidentally, as a Catholic, I believe that the bread and wine, are, in fact, the actual Body and Blood after the Consecration. Also, nothing in the Bible says that EVERY word in the Bible is absolutely literal, so to assume otherwise violates the (also unbiblical, yet ironically assumed by many) tenet of Sola Scriptura. 3. If you accept premise number 3, you are no scientist. Theists, atheists, and agnostics can all be good scientists. Since we cannot disprove the existence of God, it is an irresponsible (and unscientific) person who claims that only atheists can be real scientists. We are free to discuss problems in logic of the various religions, but to dismiss out of hand the possiblity of the existence of a Creator

A relief from uneeded strife

The main reason I chose to write this review was to clear up some of the misunderstandings in other reviews about Schroeder's time calculations. The choice of the factor million million is NOT arbitrary. It is based off of the redshift of cosmic background radiation between quark confinement and approximately the present. It is also related to the change in temperature from quark confinement to the present. I double-checked this temperature change in "Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics: Volume II (3rd Edition)".Actual review: this book is great. As a christian, I had fears when I began reading it. I see this fear when evolution is mentioned in my church. It is the fear that your entire life is based on something that doesn't agree with the facts, that you have been missing the truth.But in reading it, my faith in the Bible is stronger than it has ever been. It is true what he says: an understanding of the works of God comes not only from the Bible, but from a firm understanding of science. Don't blink at the facts. Read this book and understand why there is no reason for conflict between two of God's greatest creations.

I was, I am, I will be

Here we have one more crusader, a distinguished physicist and Biblical scholar, trying to bridge the gap between religion and science, showing that what might appear as diametrically opposed descriptions of the creation of the universe, of the start of life on Earth, and our human origins, are in fact identical realities viewed from different perspectives. His theological sources are the hewbrew Bible, the Talmud, and the 13th century kabalist Nahmanides.Schroeder tackles the issue of Darwin's theory of evolution and its flaws ("nature does not make jumps" versus "natures only makes jumps"), quantum uncertainty, relativity, cosmic background radiation, convergent evolution, anthropic argument, and other recent scientific innovations. All of these issues are placed side by side with Biblical and kabalist commentaries.The result is an amazing tapestry where the six days of creation match scientific description (time dilation), the Biblical "bere'shith" is the beginning of time, matter, and space, quantum mechanics is the graveyard of determinism and confirmation of free will, and the scientific "insufficient caused event" is the age-old Biblical definition of a miracle. There is room for concepts such as: God was to chose Abraham only long after Abraham had chosen God, scientific confirmation that less-than-human creatures with human-like bodies and brains existed before Adam, and pre-programmed DNA.It is in fact an "Amazing Technicolor Raincoat," weaved by a brilliant mind. Schroeder may be accused for "seeing reality as he assumes it to be," and for far-fetching his Biblical interpretations. It is clear, however, that his honest intentions are not to bring disruptions but rather contribute to the convergence of science and theology. Needless to say, strict believers on each side of the fence will have to open their minds.

An amazing, thought-provoking read

I never realized that a book dealing with science could be so poetic and intriguing. Yet Dr. Schroeder has written such a book: a real page turner. Using information from the fields of micro-biology to quantum mechanics to cosmology, as well as traditional biblical commentaries from past centuries, Dr. Schroeder brings amazing and convincing data to support his thesis that science and the Bible are not only compatible but the study of one is enhanced by the study of the other. The knowledge brought from both do not compete or contradict, but converge. Without being in any way dogmatic or preachy, Dr. Schroeder shows how biblical texts have within them the hidden meanings known in ancient times which we can only now more completely understand with the help of science. One cannot come away from this book without a deeper appreciation of the intricacies of of the world we live in from the smallest particle to the scope of the expanding universe. The "how" that we can learn from science is absolutely mind-boggling. Dr. Schroeder helps synthesize this with the no less intriguing "why" that we can gain form biblical sources. Anyone interested in such diverse topics as what kind of statistical possibilities are necessary for random evolution, the naturalness of miracles, and what kind of god allows the good to suffer will appreciate this awesome book.