God in the Equation : How Einstein Became the Prophet of the New Religious Era

Rating:
Summary: Wow! A real mind-opener.
Review: I can't recall ever reading another book quite
like this one. Most of the books about science and
religion I've seen fall into one of two categories.
They either try to make the case that scientists are
secretly religious people, or else they try to argue
that science leaves no room for faith. Powell takes
the discussion in a very different, more subtle
direction, one that reminds me of some of Daniel
Dennett's ideas. In essence, Powell argues that
spirituality is an integral component of the way
humans process information about the world--even if
the people doing the processing are cosmologists who
openly describe themselves as atheists. That
perspective puts a whole new spin on Albert Einstein's often-puzzling use of the word "God" as something interchangeable with the laws of physics. It also explains why, in his later years, Einstein was so committed to the idea of a cosmic religion.

Alas, Einstein was an idealist and I'm afraid Powell
may be too. His dream that science can reform religion
of its more destructive impulses looks just like
that--a dream. Religion seems to be doing just fine in
the Middle East, not to mention in Mel Gibson's bank
account. But Powell's analysis of how the scientific
process works is both original and eye-opening. I also
really enjoyed his sweeping history of cosmology, full
of clear explanations and surprising details. The
section on the early history of the big bang, in
particular, covers territory that I've never head
about before. (The father of the big bang was an
obscure Russian meteorologist--who knew?) This book
does an amazing job explaining what we know about the
universe and how we know it. If it also helps advance Einstein's pacifist agenda, so much the better. Truly inspirational.

Rating:
Summary: a provocative mix of science and philosophy
Review: It's hard to get much bigger than the themes in this
book: how did the universe begin, how will it end, and
is there any way to find spiritual satisfaction
through science? Amazingly, this writer pulls it off.
The first part of the book covers historical ideas
about the universe, bringing people like Galileo and
Newton to life as complex, passionate thinkers. The
later chapters get into modern cosmology, covering the
big bang and some of the current far-out ideas about
"dark energy" and other universes.

Rating:
Summary: a provocative mix of science and philosophy
Review: That would be the cosmological constant that Einstein referred to as "the biggest mistake of my life"? Not that he in any way intended it to be considered as an intelligent agent, as the author here would seem to wish us to believe.

Personally I'd recommend reading something that isn't completely duplicitous instead, but maybe that's just my preference not to be misled, deceived or manipulated when I read a book.

Rating:
Summary: Hawking's Too Hard; This is Comprehensible Cosmology
Review: The editorial review above notwithstanding, this book essentially mischaracterizes Einstein's own declared statements on the God issue: " . . . I am, and have always been, an atheist."

How, therefore, can Einstein be seen as a prophet of a new form of religion? If we confront his own statements honestly, we must realize that he can't in any traditional sense of "prophet," because Einstein was a self-announced non-theist. But there is historical precedent for the non-theist being later defined otherwise: Gauthama, the original Buddha, reached what he called enlightenment as a form of realization that priests had no actual divine authority because there was no "divine authorizor." But his own statements were increasingly ignored as he became deified by his followers, who progressively redefined him.

Einstein is simply being redefined, in this book, as something other than he declared himself to be. But since he is no longer around to defend his view, he may indeed be installed by others as some form of prophet of a religious philosophy.

I rated this book as a three instead of a one because, though it fundamentally misrepresents a key issue, it is nonetheless well organized, engagingly presented and thought-stimulating.

Rating:
Summary: A Distorted View of History
Review: With his invention of sci/religion, Powell appears to have abandoned historical reality for a mystical journey of misinterpretation of relativity and the reason Einstein originally thought it necessary to invent the cosmological constant. In my judgement, this book is neither good physics, accurate reporting nor good writing.