The Physics and Philosophy of the Bible: How Relativity, Quantum Physics, Plato, and History Meld with Biblical Theology to Show That God Exists and That We Can Live Forever

The Inevitable Truth

by James Frederick Ivey

The Physics and Philosophy of the Bible is a book on Christian apologetics that supports the premise that science, Platonic philosophy and history endorse the validity of Christianity. An analysis of the claims of science shows that this discipline is just as much about faith and belief (vs. fact) as is Christian doctrine. Quantum mechanics has rendered atheism obsolete and has provided us with insights concerning the possible nature and origin of the Biblical God. Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity has virtually proved that we all live forever in some kind of timeless state. Quantum observation, a consequence of quantum physics, has provided us with strong evidence that the true God is He of the Bible. Augustine of Hippo said that he probably would never have been converted were it not for Plato. Other theses entertained in this volume are that mind is primary in our world, which is the thought of God; that God emanates from The Truth, synonymous with goodness and all that is good for cognitive individuals; that faith is much more than blind belief in Him; and that the history of the Jews provides us with powerful evidence that they are the chosen people of the true God. Christianity is unique among religions in terms of reason, logic, and common sense. Here is an example of the writing to be found in my "Quantum observation is heavily involved with the concept of form and substance, something that greatly interested Plato. In our world, we can discern two aspects of a material substance, the "stuff" of which it is composed, and form, which is its shape. These two characteristics are always connected on the human level of size; according to our physical senses, any separation of them is ridiculous. On the bizarre quantum level, however, elemental entities can exist as form alone or as substance alone. When these are in the state of form, they are waves, and, when they assume the mode of substance, they exist as discrete packets--ultimately, of energy. These are distinct bodies of substance that we call quanta.I am privileged to have received an endorsement of my work from Charles Taliaferro, Chair, Department of Philosophy, St. Olaf College; Editor-in-Chief, Open Theology. It reads as "Because medical doctors or physicians have made vital contributions to philosophy, from Maimonides, Avicenna, and John Locke in the history of philosophy to Raymond Tallis today, it should not surprise us to see Dr. James Frederick Ivey's superb contribution to our philosophical reflection on the bearing of current physics on Biblical faith. Perhaps it takes a person well trained in the application of science in medicine to see the ways in which the application of science, especially modern physics, quantum mechanics, and relativity have important applications in our thinking about God, the Bible, and Judeo-Christianity. The terrain is not unexplored by philosophers, theologians, and popular writers, but it is rare to see the kind of engaging clarity, breadth, and conscientious, mature reflection to be found in Ivey's book." I have a second professorial endorsement that reads "In his book, The Physics and Philosophy of the Bible, Dr. James Ivey, although a physician, has done his homework in both the physical sciences and philosophy. He argues that modern physics, relativity and quantum mechanics, strongly infer the existence of God. He concludes that the historical man, Jesus of Nazareth, was not a lunatic or a liar, but truly God. He submits that Biblical Christianity has all the truth in it and is radically different from all other faiths. His book is a must read for those who have problems with science versus theology." David A. Kaufmann, Ph.D., Past Secretary, Creation Research Society and Professor of Applied Physiology (Retired), University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.

Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Science, Philosophy, Christian Non Fiction, Physics, Spirituality

318 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 6, 2014

Reviews

[Frank Peters · Rating 1 out of 5]

As a follower of Jesus, who teaches Physics and likes to read Philosophy of science and faith, this book would seem to be designed for me. It is not – I found the book to be dreadful. The book does not fulfil what it claims. To being with, there was no discussion on physics or philosophy until the book was half over. For the first half the book, the author chose to preach to the reader about why Christianity is correct, and all other views are wrong (mostly based on straw-man arguments). This included a long glowing account of the modern state of Israel which the author believed he was using as proof for the existence of God. The author continually preaches to the reader and expects his opinions to be believed even without any effective reasoning. I even agree with the much of what the author was claiming, but found myself cringing internally due to the lack of any reasonable argument. I find that sometimes people who have positions of intellectual power (e.g. physicians, professors, lawyers and pastors), sometimes start to believe that they actually know everything. I fear that the author has this particular disease. Objectively, the book was also very poorly edited for content (the English was fine). For example, the author claims that the lepers in the Bible who went out to the camp of the Syrian army were living at the gates of Jerusalem. They were not, but lived outside Samaria. The author claimed that Isaiah wrote half a century (~50 years) before Paul. Rather Isaiah wrote more like five centuries (500 years) before Paul. Similarly, much of the science was simplistic or even wrong. Certainly part of the early discussion on special relativity was incorrect. Thus, while the title has promise, I would strongly recommend avoiding the book.

[Rod Innis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. I began not knowing what the author believed but somewhat quickly realized that his theology was certainly not orthodox! I finished it but am not sure why I did. He kept promising things but never delivering. A truly poorly written book.

[Jerry Owens · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a waste of my time. In my opinion it is not worth the read. First the title is a misnomer. It is not about physics and philosophy of the Bible. What the author attempts to do is prove that God exists with physics and philosophy but he falls far short of doing that. He makes mistakes in philosophy such as in one place confusing Ockham's razor with William Paley's watchmaker analogy (in other places he gets Ockham's razor right). I find the author's theology questionable and he does not seem to have any concept of Biblical hermeneutics or exegesis. As far as writing style I found him hard to follow.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, but I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Frank Turek is much better. This book as some good information on recent science discoveries but doesn't add much to what Frank Turek says in his book. Save your time and read I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist instead.

[Andrew Scholes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book desperately needs an editor. There were a couple misspellings and a couple passages that were repeated word for word for no reason. He may be a learned physicist, not being one, I have to defer to those more knowledgeable in that area. In his thoughts about the Bible and its contents, He wraps it up nicely at the very end. Throughout the book, there are ideas and terminology that really had me wondering. He seems to be a universalist, that everyone is going to heaven. He seems to ascribe sin to God and also gives humans the idea of being immortal.

[Jordy Madueño · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think it has some interesting thoughts but my main problem was that it’s very messy. I mean, it has a lot of argumental weaknesses. For example, when he talks against Argumentum ad Absurdum he uses Argumentum ad Populum. You cannot do that. Anyway, it's weak at the argumental level. What is interesting is that he adds a lot of great references that I want to read. My favorite book about faith and science is the one by Jhon Lenox who is a mathematician, therefore, his arguments are very clear and solid. This one was a good try but too many words for too little to say.

[C. Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

I approached this book with great expectations. Sadly, they were not realised. I really need to go over my comments on my Kindle to review properly, but I will say, first of all, that the author needs to make use of a proofreader. I, too, am an author (non-fiction), and would never dream of publishing without at least two other appropriate people reading through the MS. The basic grammatical errors were bad enough, but the content errors were much more important.
The second thing that I would say is that his version of Christianity is not the same as any true evangelical that I know. As an ordained minister of the Gospel, myself, I noticed many errors.
I could not, in all honesty, recommend this book to anyone. I give it two stars basically because of a number of useful quotations!

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Other religions

This book was interesting, but since I know that the author misrepresented what The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the mormons) believe, I have a hard time believing the accuracy of other religions. And to put the LDS with the Muslims is ludicrous at best. I had relatives that are Mormon, Christian (although Mormons are Christian), Muslim and Jewish. I know that there is no way the LDS should be put in with the Muslims. Because of the falsehoods about the LDS, I have a hard time with this. That being said, I did get good things to think about.

[Steve Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Incredibly Convincing Book

At times I found this book to be so mind-warping that I had to put it down and digest it. The author lays out a convincing series of arguments that it became impossible for me to refute the conclusion that the universe is, in fact, mind-stuff; God's mind-stuff. I wish he had continued through on the arguments more strongly about Jesus and, as he hints at a follow-up treatise, I hope he goes into more depth there.

[Michael K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! Just WOW! A great portion of this book was pretty well over my head; however, what I did get out of it was phenomenal. A well written book chock full of both the physics and philosophy of the bible, which in turn was used to corroborate the biblical text and the subject matter of the bible itself. Science does not prove anything, what science does is observe the real world with respect to the known laws. A great read and well worth the time to understand that which is not well understood.

[Pamela Kay Vaughan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interwsting

This book brought up some facts points proving the Bible and the existence of God, showing where science indeed proves the Bible. A great read for anyone still struggling with what they believe. It was refreshing to read as a Christian. They only thing was some of the science stuff was hard to understand for a person like me. Science was never my best subject and during some of it, my mind wandered. All in all, though, I loved it.

[Mickey Stanfield · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Science May Be Solid; The Philosophy Rambles,

This book was a bit of a disappointment. Although it had gems of lucidity, the philosophy sections were rambling messes. The author did not understand some of the philosophies quoted here, but the science sections were elucidated well. The science sections, were obviously an area of comfort for this author. He didn't ramble here; he did not attempt to impress us with his language. This is maybe not worth the read, I'm not sure I'd read again if given the chance to go back.

[Mike MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. It is complicated, not a fast read or a book you can be interrupted much while reading. And of course a second time through will be in order.
Some of the physics was over my head, but the author did a lot to explain things by everyday examples. I have friends who are non-believers that I think will get a lot from it. Very happy.

[Bob Rivera · Rating 2 out of 5]

A somewhat rambling study and a bit of a Slog.

First three chapters focus on Philosophy.

Physics discussions in Chapter 5 "fit" biblical creation into an "Old Universe" big bang approach as opposed to a "Young Universe" ex nihilo (out of nothing) approach.

He offers an "interesting" theology that since heaven is timeless, and if your destination is heaven, since it is timeless, you have always been in heaven...I take issue with this. As humans and created beings, we initially exist and can only initially exist "in time". So this approach is problematic to me.

He also offers a different explanation of how he believes the first seconds of creation start, that is not consistent with the "ex nihilo" out of nothing story that Genesis clearly implies.

[Bennie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one took some effort to finish. While I did get some good ideas and some understanding of the author's intent, a lot of the info was over my head. I think I may revisit this one and read it again as some of the material was very interesting.

[Nancy Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Proof of Eternal life

Analysis of different aspects of science to proof that man is an eternal being.
Kind of exciting though I’d probably have to read it a couple more times to get al I could out of it. Loved it!

[P.F. Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting stuff, whatever your stance

Interesting reading for anyone who wonders and contemplates- whether they be those of faith; atheists; agnotistics; or
scientists of any persuasion

[Jake · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was expecting something a long the lines of Cold Case Christianity or The Case for Christ, but it didn't. Felt like I was reading a very long lecture on comparing religions, Greek philosophy, and a little science sprinkled in.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Belief

Not a casual read as author moves fast exploring the basis of belief. I enjoyed the large assemblage of philosophical and scientific ideas presented and the author attempting to find a common understanding to the Bible. Not recommended for Darwinian readers.

[Thomas Kermes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book. A good read for everyone. My question is how do I get my atheist mathematician son to read it?

[Kristine Vigil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could not finish this book. The authors style of writing had me confused as to what he was saying.

[Kaydee Barker · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book wasn't exactly what I was expecting, as "Physics and Philosophy of the Bible" suggests to me that Ivey would be explaining (particularly the hows of) specific passages and concepts in the Bible through the eyes of science and philosophy. The subtitle describes more accurately what the book is about, but I don't feel that Ivey touched much on Biblical theology.

What he did (and did quite brilliantly), was explain how modern theoretical and quantum physics supports the existence of God as well as the likelihood of a dimension outside of space-time, where we transition to at our "death." Before getting there, however, he compared religions and covered a lot of "background knowledge" to the main content. I thought the background information was pertinent and good, but it's not included in the description, even though it takes up a large portion of the book.

Ivey quotes a lot of physicists, philosophers, and great minds from throughout history. He obviously has done extensive research, and I was delighted to learn from him. I did find his writing style a little wordy, but overall it was very insightful and logical. I would recommend it.

[Lynn Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of interesting. The author was attempting to show how science and theology can be compatible and prove the validity of God's word and his existence rather than being in opposition as many think. Some of the concepts were beyond me, simply because I never took physics or quantum mechanics. It is not for a casual reader, though a casual reader might enjoy scanning the book. If you are a very scientific person who loves physics and/or quantum mechanics and philosophy and you're also a Christian (or maybe have doubts about God due to your scientific beliefs), this would definitely be a good read.

[Bertie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overwhelmning

I know nothing of quantum- physics of relativaty etc. But I was convinced of Christianity all over again. The author wrote clearly and in my mind creatively giving me an assurance that I could understand the whole thing. Wondrous!

[skw · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've marked this book as abandoned because I haven't picked it up in a very long time. This author has good and interesting things to say, but the book is very dense. It requires great focus and I just can't do that right now. Maybe later.

[Denise K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Read

I was very interested in the ?ink between Physics ,Philosophy and the Bible. I enjoyed reading the first part, but got somewhat bogged down reading the rest if the book. I probably will read it again in order to gain understanding!

[James · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was bored.

[Victor A. Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

All human thought is interelated

This is the best analysis of human thought since Steve Parrish book The knower and the known. if you enjoy Plato and Einstein you will love this.

[Georgia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bit too much for me! I already believe so he didn't need to convince me with ancient scientist, philosophers, quantum, particle etc. theories.

[Troy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh...