The Science of God

Rating:
Summary: Bad Science
Review: Instead of testing deduced hypotheses against data, the author looked for patterns in the infinite mess of reality that sort of fit the template provided by the Bible. Maybe I missed something, but this isn't satisfactory in science. The book is still fun to read, in the same way that it's fun to read horoscopes.

Rating:
Summary: The Science of God
Review: Gerald Schroeder combines physics, physical chemistry, statistics, paleontology, biochemistry & other scientific fields of knowledge in an analysis of the Bible & cosmology in what should bring any atheist to an epiphany. Applying the the theories of the most widely renowned & greatest physicist of our time, (Relativity/Einstein and the big bang/Hawking) and the results of the Cosmic Background Radiation Explorer Satellite mission by NASA, he shows that Genesis and the timeline of the big bang and the fossil record match to an accuracy of one part in a million million (unheard of accuracy in modern scientific experimentation). Also in a statistical analysis of the DNA of the eye alone, the likelyhood of a Darwinian evolutionary formation is smaller than 1 part per all particles in the universe! And of course this lucky and unlikely occurence in some primordial soup had to happen 5 different times for each basic life form in nature that uses the basic structure of the eye . This is truly a strange occurence in a universe in which entropy is always increasing. And of course there are the well kept secrets that not one missing link of any kind has ever been found in the fossil record and that all life at various epochs appeared on the scene essentially at the same time without the chance or time for evolution between species. It is clear that Darwin was a dogmatic atheist that had a very negative attitude toward religion, not leaving the door open to the possibility that his theory may be wrong. This dogmatic attitude permeates our popular culture and has been an essential component of the agenda of those who wish to undermine the judeo-christian foundations of the country in order to pursue greater licence under the guise of greater individual freedom. I ask atheists who profess to having an open enough mind to entertain that evolution explains away the existence of God and give up said beliefs to also have an open enough mind to read this book and entertain that all the previously mentioned theories are an important proof of the likelyhood of the existence of God. Thanks to this book it is clear that evolution should be relegated to ash heap of history & science. With reliance on the most flawless scientific theories of our time, it is clear that creationism must be taught along side of evolution in all schools and universities. I can only imagine the shiver going down the spine of a non-believer as he/she may entertain the previously ridiculous notion that the Bible may truly be the Word of God.

Rating:
Summary: He's got it backwards!
Review: When I first started reading this book I was very much encouraged to see his accounting for gravitational time dilation. Then I realized he got it backward. A clock ticks slower in a gravitational field, so time on earth is 24 hours and ticking of a clock at the edge of an expanding universe is much much faster, billions of years. The author is a Day Ager. This theory is in error both theologically and scientifically. The days of Genesis are not long ages of time, they are 24hrs of earth time. How could someone of such intelligence and learning get it backward and be so confusing on this subject?

Rating:
Summary: Redirecting the Debate in Useful Ways...
Review: From scouring the above reviews I can see that this book will do little to engage die-hard materialists or fundamentalist christians. For those of us left in the middle, trying to make sense of a faith in a creator while at the same time loving science and the pursuit of that brand of understanding, this book is an interesting and welcomed salvo.

Rating:
Summary: Dramatic and Compelling Harmonization of Geology and Genesis
Review: If you are like the majority of educated Americans (in my case PhD in Engineering), you have no trouble laughing at evolution as the explanation for species. (Polls show that 10% of us believe it -- same number believe that Elvis is still alive!). But we have no trouble accepting astronomical and geological dates in the billions of years. Schroeder does a magnificant job of reconciling these billions-of-years timelines with Genesis. His calculations on the probabilities for evolution are well done and convincing - and remain unchallenged by the evangelists of evolution.

I do have some minor nits with the book. Schroeder is very selective with certain tiny quotes from Hebrew writers. His dealing with dinosaurs ignores Job 40 and 41.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent synthesis
Review: Schroeder does an outstanding job of synthesizing Biblical and extra-biblical Jewish texts in relation to modern scientific discoveries, particularly as they relate to the Big Bang and evolution. His understanding of astrophysics, quantum mechanics and the present state of evolutionary biology seem solid. He has a keen understanding of Biblical texts (see his discussion in the appendix on 'dinosaurs in the Bible!'). Theologically, I find the only drawback to be an apparent equal weight given to the Kabalah as to Torah and the prophets, with little distinction between the wisdom of sages and divine inspiration of the texts. Overall, the book is quite excellent and I have recommended it to many already.

Rating:
Summary: Some good points, some questions
Review: Schroeder makes a good case for interpretating the 6 creation days in light of relativistic physics. Based on how the Bible doesn't use "Earth-time" until after Adam, he argues that the first 6 days are days according to universal time, found by examining remnant radiation from the creation event. He also reviews some of the evidences for design and some of the questions in Darwinism. He briefly touches on the implications of multidimensional physics for the reality of a transcendent creator. A more detailed discussion of the latter can be found in Hugh Ross' "Beyond the Cosmos" (Navpress, 1999, 2nd edition).

Now for the disagreements: Oddly on page 43, he says there is "scant" biblical basis for assigning "epochs" to the creation days (he doesn't attempt to refute or address the more than "scant" evidences put forth by authors like Hugh Ross or Peter Stoner). This is odd because he does just this, ascribe certain periods of time to each creation day. He only looks at through the differing perspectives of Earth and pre-human time. As he says, the creation week is both billions of years and 24hr days, so he is in essence agreeing with other old-earthers.

On page 193, the author claims dinosaurs are mentioned in Gen 1:21. I question this interpretation since the verse is talking about sea life, so while sea dinosaurs may be included, it is unlikely that it means "big reptiles" as the author states. In any case, the Bible doesn't explictly mention dinosaurs, along with many other things (from oranges to black holes).

Another questionable interpretation is on p. 203, in his quote of Psalm 105:8. His version says "commanded to the 1000th generation," implying that there are missing gernerations in the genaologies before Moses. Problem is, every major Bible translation, by scholars around the world, doesn't render it such. Schroeder vaguely links the "missing" generations to cro-magan man. He seems unware that Hebrew tradition allows for the skipping of lesser individuals in the listings (all the more odd since the author comes from such a background). Examples of this can be seen when comparing Matthew 1:8 and 1 Chronicles 3:10-12.

He interprets Gen 4:25 and Gen 5:3 as meaning Adam mated with other bipedals (non-soulish). This is speculation at best and seems to violate the "covenant" of marriage started with Adam and Eve. The author is using this as part of his explanation for the similarity between humans and pre-adam bipedals.

These interpretations are a result of trying to adhere to the @5000 B.C. for Adam's creation and trying to explain the similarities of humans with pre-Adam bipedals. As discussed above, the date can be pushed back. The first "humans" are often defined by those whom first showed spiritual expression, not merely making tools or burying dead (the latter isn't all that uncommon among animals). This takes us to at least 30 000 B.C. if not more (this is not to say other bipedals didn't live at the same time as humans).

The author's reasoning in connecting Adam to bipedals seems speculative at best, and even uses some legends as support. He is trying to reconcile science and the Bible, but there may be a simpler, more factual way. Recent genetic studies reported in journals put the common ancestor of man around 50 000 years ago. If we are related to pre-Adam bipedals, why not millions of years? Similar studies seriously question our relation to neanderthals as well. Science seems to be supporting special creation of man. Further studies will shed more light on this.

This book was a good read and is a valuable resource. I recommend it be read with Hugh Ross' "The Genesis Question." The latter goes into more detail on the events in each creation day and how they fit science and more on the validity of a local flood (which Schroeder only briefly discusses). Their only major disagreements are on the Adam/pre-Adam bipedal issue and Schroeder seems more of a theistic evolutionist, while Ross isn't an evolutionist at all.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: Dr. Schroeder presents a brilliant analysis of both science and Bible. His biblical readings are impeccable although those unfamiliar with proper techniques for understanding the hebrew bible will not fully understand his precision and accuracy. While this may not be the last word on this subject, I believe recent evidence points to a 12 billion year old universe and not 15, it is certainly a bold step forward. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the subject.

Rating:
Summary: Useless book
Review: The second book by G. Schroeder contains a few good passages, but also some egregious errors, which are puzzling when made by a PhD in Physics. For example, G. Schroeder completely misinterprets the experiments with particles moving through openings, invents some odd concept of heat diluting in enlarged volumes, misrepresents the story of photoelectric effect, etc . One striking feature of this book is that Schroeder suggests in it the chronological data , which completely contradict his own data on the same subject, given in his first book, without a word of explanation why he changed those data. A useless book.

Rating:
Summary: Intellectually dishonest, lack of substance, disappointing
Review: Schroeder's thesis is that the author of Genesis is describing a 15 billion year history of the universe and life, even though that was never his understanding or his intention. The true meaning Genesis 1 went undetected until it was discovered by the cabalist author Nahmanides in the 11th Century AD. It was lost again until Schroeder rediscovered it.

Even accepting the dubious proposition that people can write things that actually mean the exact opposite of what they intend, the match between the Genesis timeline and the scientifically proposed history of the universe makes an ill fit. Schroeder tries to reconcile the two by focusing minutely on certain words in Genesis that could be interepreted to allow for longer time periods, while totally ignoring the text read in its entirety. For example, day three of creation supposedly lasts 1.6-3.6 billion years ago. Genesis said "let the land produce vegetation". Success, proclaims Schroder, that matches the plant life on the planet, which is found only in the... water! He conveniently ignores the rest of the verse which calls for fruit-bearing trees and seed-bearing plants. There was nothing but protozoa and plankton back then. This is typical of the book.

The most absurd argument is that, if properly interpreted, the 6 creation days correspond to 6 actual 24 hour days on earth AND 15 billion cosmic years. How so? Einstein's relativity of time! Schroeder makes such an effort to preserve the 6 days of creation and the order of creation.

This book is ultimately a polemic. Although brilliant and articulate, one gets the feeling that Schroeder cannot bear to have Genesis undermined. That compromizes his scientific judgement. In that regard, this book is a slightly more sophisticated version of the trash put out by the Creation Science Institute and other pseudoscientific creation defenders. There are probably good ways for a believer in creation of reconciling with the evidence. Unfortunately, this is not one of them.