Gingerich’s God’s Universe is the brief and elegant
apologia of an emeritus professor of astronomy and the history of science at Harvard
University. As a historian of science, Gingerich is well aware of the complexities
involved in producing scientific and religious knowledge. The history of science is
one in which progress is made through the ‘persuasive coherency’ of the new picture
that is presented, rather than through simple knock-down proofs. It is at this
general level of world pictures that Gingerich’s Christian faith generally finds its
expression.
-- Thomas Dixon Times Literary
Supplement
In his slim and elegant new book,
God’s Universe, Gingerich finds that indeed everywhere he looks
he can discern the hand of a benevolent Creator—all without compromising his
adherence to a rigorous methodological scientific naturalism… Despite the fact that
as an atheist I do not see the hand of God in the universe—I found myself cheering
for this lucid and poetic little book… In this time of sectarian wars, when theists
and atheists are engaged in increasingly hostile incivilities, Gingerich lays out an
elegant case for why he finds the universe a source of encouragement for his life
both as a scientist and as a Christian. We do not have to agree with his conclusions
to be buoyed and enchanted by the journey on which he takes us.
-- Margaret
Wertheim Los Angeles Times Book Review
Gingerich
pleads for separating physics from metaphysics, efficient causes from final causes,
how from why… In the end, he persuaded even a hardened skeptic like me that there
might, possibly, be more to the cosmos than is dreamt of in my
philosophy.
-- George Scialabba Boston
Globe
God’s Universe is less an
apology for faith in the age of science than it is a humble meditation given by a
leading American astronomer on the possibility that a scientist can be a person of
faith and retain intellectual credibility… Gingerich is a theistic evolutionist who
is willing to confess God as Creator of the universe. He accepts the scientific
datum demonstrating that we are the product of evolution and rejects intelligent
design (as defined by Philip Johnson, Michael Behe, and the Discovery Institute) as
an alternative scientific explanation for human origins. This rejection of
intelligent design as an ideology doesn’t rule out the possibility of what he calls
‘small ‘d’ design.” His is, therefore, a humbler quest, one that looks to theology
rather than to scientific theory for a sense of meaning and purpose in the
universe.
-- Robert Cornwall
Congregations
[An] elegant little book… Attractively
and accessibly written.
-- Sarah Coakley Harvard
Magazine
Gingerich’s work is a survey of the
conflicts—and confluences—between hard science and deep faith; along the way he
provides a brief but magisterial history of science that is as astute as it is
original. He’s a superb writer too, handling scientific and theological complexities
with equal aplomb but enlivening his account throughout with poetry, dramatic
anecdote, and snippets of autobiography… Because he is also steeped in science, both
as researcher and historian, Mr. Gingerich is aware of how improbable and even
fantastic his Christian faith must appear to skeptical colleagues. In slipping so
effortlessly into both realms—provable fact and unsearchable mystery—Mr. Gingerich
reminds me of some adroit intellectual amphibian, calmly at home in contiguous but
incompatible terrains… A sense of wonder animates this book, but it’s never the
swooning and manipulative wonder of such showmen as the late Carl Sagan; rather,
it’s the verifiable fact in its specificity, abetted by the promise of some final
cause beyond all our telescopes, which informs Mr. Gingerich’s awe.
-- Eric
Ormsby New York Sun
Astronomer Gingerich believes in
a designed universe, though not in intelligent design (ID), the anti-evolution
theorizing that some evangelical Christian activists want taught in public-school
science courses. His intent isn’t, however, to flay ID as Michael Shermer does in
Why Darwin Matters; it is to explore a few topics in science that
suggest design and a designer, God. He weighs the Copernican principle that
intelligent life isn’t exceptional in the universe against the Darwinian emphasis on
the uniqueness of life on earth. He probes the differences between atheist and
religious scientists (this is where he dismisses ID along with evolution as a
materialist philosophy as ideologies), especially over the big bang and cosmological
teleology. Finally, he raises some Questions without Answers to point up the
different, irreconcilable concerns of physics as opposed to metaphysics, science as
opposed to religion. Utterly lacking scientific or religious triumphalism,
demonstrating why both ways of knowing are indispensable, Gingerich’s highly
re-readable remarks may well outlast all the brouhaha of the ID–evolution
fracas.
-- Ray Olson Booklist
This little
book—intelligent, provocative, and respectful of a range of views—shows how a modern
scientist can support both evolution and intelligent design and, more generally,
offers a meeting place for science and religion.
-- Alan
Lightman
I have always felt the words should be
‘Science and Religion’—not ‘Science or Religion.’ Owen Gingerich offers both
intellectual heft and spiritual stamina to back up that claim. This slim volume will
pay rich dividends to the seeking mind and the longing soul.
-- Tim
Johnson, M.D.
Writing in a style that is accessible
and laced with interesting historical anecdote, Owen Gingerich uses his expertise in
astronomy and its history, together with the insights of his Christian faith, to
give a well-argued account of humanity’s place in the cosmos.
-- The Rev.
Dr. John Polkinghorne, KBE, FRS
In God’s
Universe Owen Gingerich makes the case that the probability is
miraculously minute, first, that a planet hospitable to life could form after the
Big Bang and, second, that once it had formed, intelligent life could develop there.
Whether one agrees or disagrees, one will learn from this beautifully presented
account of the relevant astronomy and physics. But that isn’t all; Gingerich’s
reflections (as a liberal Christian) on the theological significance of all this are
sensitive and deep. A truly fascinating read.
-- Hilary
Putnam
This is a timely and important book. In
contrast to the shrill dogmatics on both sides of the current intelligent design
debate, Gingerich offers a sweeping and authoritative account of our continuing
encounter with, and understanding of, the Universe of which we find ourselves a
part. Meticulous in its scholarship, humane in its approach, generous in its tone,
restrained in its assertions, but audacious in its scope, this little book is a
solid and significant contribution to the ongoing debate.
-- Frank Rhodes,
President Emeritus, Cornell University
