Michael Potts's Blog: Bits and Pieces: Book Reviews and Articles on Writing, Horror Fiction, and Some Philosophy - Posts Tagged "science-and-religion"

Signposts to God: How Modern Physics and Astronomy Point the Way to Belief by Peter Bussey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Peter Bussey offers a clear introduction to the relationship between physics and religious (specifically Christian) belief. His discussion of the nature of matter given quantum field theory is fascinating--it is difficult, if not impossible, to say what matter is. This could suggest a softening of the Cartesian divide between mind and matter.

Bussey presents a detailed version of the Kalam Cosmological Argument for the existence of God. This version of the cosmological argument attempts to show that the universe had a beginning in time, and if so, it must have had a Creator since something cannot come out of nothing. He argues that current cosmological theories that posit "something from nothing" are not talking about true nothingness. Quantum fields or new universes forming are not nothing and still require an explanation. For Bussey, only God can be an adequate explanation.

Although I agree with Bussey's point about "nothing" as it is misused by some contemporary physicists, I am not yet convinced that the version of the cosmological argument he uses in such cases is the Kalam argument; rather, it seems to be a version of Aquinas' first three ways to prove God's existence. The heart of those arguments is that the universe is contingent, dependent on something or someone else in order to exist. All of Aquinas' versions of the Cosmological Argument assume that the universe exists everlastingly, although Aquinas personally disagrees with it due to his Christian faith. It does not appear that Bussey's argument, at least in response to Hawking or the bubble university theory or other theories of "something coming from nothing" can prove a temporal beginning of the universe. Bussey, however, does an excellent job of showing why none of those new theories disprove the existence of God.

I recommend this book to the layman interested in religion and science; it is readable and as easy to follow as any book on science and religion I have read.



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Cosmology, Evolution, and Resurrection Hope: Theology and Science in Creative Mutual Interaction: Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Goshen Conference on by Robert John Russell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a splendid book concerning an eschatological answer to the problem of suffering in light of modern science. Professor Russell is on the mark when he says that conventional "solutions" to the problem of evil break down in the midst of intractable pain or the suffering and early deaths of children, as well as in instances of great human evil such as the Holocaust. He offers the cross as a means to show Christ's suffering love in the midst of human suffering and a transformed world in which everything will be made new as the only viable way to deal with the issue of both human and nonhuman animal suffering. In this approach he is similar to Eastern Orthodox approaches to evil and suffering (cf. The Brothers Karamazov). Russell is open not only to the possibility of universal human resurrection, but to the resurrection of individual higher animals (and perhaps other animals as well). Russell brings in important insights from quantum theory, chaos theory, and evolutionary biology to deal with doctrines such as creation ex nihilo, the Fall, the resurrection of Christ, and the universal resurrection of all human beings. I recommend this book to all theology students as well as those interested in the philosophy of religion and issues in science and religion.



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