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The Hand of God: Thoughts and Images Reflecting the Spirit of the Universe
The Hand of God combines inspiration for the mind and spirit by juxtaposing majestic photographs of the cosmos with illuminating words of scientists, poets, and theologians. It was once believed that to look into the heavens was to look into the face of God. These eerily luminous landscapes, splendid with color and motion, give a glimpse into the outermost reaches of the universe. Together the images in The Hand of God and the accompanying reflections encourage a sense of awe and, perhaps, purpose in an age often hostile to both.
160 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 2001
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About the author
Michael Reagan
49 books13 followersAmerican conservative and republican strategist and former talk radio host, his audience was estimated to be around the millon people.
Michael Reagan is the adopted son of Ronald Reagan
Michael Reagan is the adopted son of Ronald Reagan
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 14, 2016
I bought Hand Of God years ago (my edition was published in 1999) for the pictures. Imagine being able to see images of stars, nebulae, and galaxies captured by the Hubble telescope! This book was the most affordable way for me to do that. I dreamed over the photos many times but just skimmed the accompanying quotations. I was more enchanted by the captions which explained each image.
The Lagoon Nebula or NGC 6523 is in the constellation of Sagittarius. It glows with the red light of hydrogen excited by the radiation of very hot stars buried deep within its center. It is abut 6,500 light years away and 60 light years across. ~~ page 35 ~~ https://www.google.com.mx/search?q=hu...
Andromeda Galaxy M31 is a large spiral galaxy very similar in appearance to our own galaxy and our closest neighbor. A gigantic collection of more than 300 billion stars, it is about 65,000 light years across and about 2.93 million light years away. ~~ page 56 ~~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androme...
Recently I decided I owed it to the book to actually read everything in it, and try to concentrate on the rest of the words as well as the pictures and captions. So here we are. Was I able to read, understand, and absorb the message the publishers were offering? Or did I just continue to be spellbound by the illustrations?
The long introduction was a bit of a chore to get through. I still just wanted to look at the pictures, not read about how science and religion are working toward the same goal. The idea is that the deeper scientists look at the universe and how it is evolving, the more religious they become, the more certain that there is a God behind it all, because they get to a point where there is simply no other plausible answer to the question 'Why?'
True or not, this could spark all sorts of debate, intelligent dialogue, argument, or war, choose your noun. I am not qualified to speak about this topic. I know what I believe, thanks to the events of my life and my own explorations of the Universe. I think we as a species will only know the entire truth when we go Home, and then we will all be surprised and possibly a bit ashamed that we did not understand from the very beginning. This world might have been so very different if we had. Maybe better, maybe worse, but certainly different.
Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. ~~ Arthur Schopenhauer ~~ page 135, paired with a picture of the Trifid Nebula ~~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifid_...
The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books...a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. ~~ Albert Einstein ~~page 124, paired with a picture of the constellation Cygnus ~~ I'm sorry, I could not find the exact image that is in the book.
The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? ~~ Oscar Wilde ~~page 101, paired with a picture of Spiral Galaxy NGC4414, 60 million light years away ~~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_441...
After reading, I wanted to see more and I found a lovely website full of stunning pictures http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/
I love life, but when I see pictures like these and the others in this book, I feel an almost desperate yearning to be out there, to be Home, to be star stuff once again.
The Lagoon Nebula or NGC 6523 is in the constellation of Sagittarius. It glows with the red light of hydrogen excited by the radiation of very hot stars buried deep within its center. It is abut 6,500 light years away and 60 light years across. ~~ page 35 ~~ https://www.google.com.mx/search?q=hu...
Andromeda Galaxy M31 is a large spiral galaxy very similar in appearance to our own galaxy and our closest neighbor. A gigantic collection of more than 300 billion stars, it is about 65,000 light years across and about 2.93 million light years away. ~~ page 56 ~~
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androme...
Recently I decided I owed it to the book to actually read everything in it, and try to concentrate on the rest of the words as well as the pictures and captions. So here we are. Was I able to read, understand, and absorb the message the publishers were offering? Or did I just continue to be spellbound by the illustrations?
The long introduction was a bit of a chore to get through. I still just wanted to look at the pictures, not read about how science and religion are working toward the same goal. The idea is that the deeper scientists look at the universe and how it is evolving, the more religious they become, the more certain that there is a God behind it all, because they get to a point where there is simply no other plausible answer to the question 'Why?'
True or not, this could spark all sorts of debate, intelligent dialogue, argument, or war, choose your noun. I am not qualified to speak about this topic. I know what I believe, thanks to the events of my life and my own explorations of the Universe. I think we as a species will only know the entire truth when we go Home, and then we will all be surprised and possibly a bit ashamed that we did not understand from the very beginning. This world might have been so very different if we had. Maybe better, maybe worse, but certainly different.
Everyone takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world. ~~ Arthur Schopenhauer ~~ page 135, paired with a picture of the Trifid Nebula ~~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifid_...
The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written these books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books...a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects. ~~ Albert Einstein ~~page 124, paired with a picture of the constellation Cygnus ~~ I'm sorry, I could not find the exact image that is in the book.
The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? ~~ Oscar Wilde ~~page 101, paired with a picture of Spiral Galaxy NGC4414, 60 million light years away ~~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_441...
After reading, I wanted to see more and I found a lovely website full of stunning pictures http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/
I love life, but when I see pictures like these and the others in this book, I feel an almost desperate yearning to be out there, to be Home, to be star stuff once again.
September 14, 2020
There is not much in the way of text in this book but that does not matter. With a brief section in the front giving us the fluctuating history of the conflicts and comradery between science and religion, the book next moves onto quotes from famous people about the universe. These quotes are accompanied by wonderful photos of objects in the universe. It gives the reader pause to reflect on both the words put forth and the grandeur of the cosmos.
July 7, 2019
Incredible book, featuring full page colour pictures of stars and other scenes, coupled with quotes from scientists, writers, etc.
August 21, 2016
Twentysome years ago my friend José and I were looking at some then recent images from the Hubble telescope, and one of us said to the other, "One day we will recognize that these photos of trillion-mile-high clouds of dust and gas are icons, contemporary images of God." Apparently the Templeton Foundation Press felt similarly, because a few years after that conversation they published this collection of beautiful astronomical photographs juxtaposed with quotations from scientists, philosophers, and theologians about awe, reverence, and mystery.
Twentysome years ago I would have given this book four or five stars, but something has changed in the intervening years. It is not that I have "lost my faith"—if anything I am more religious, in my own way, than I was then. Nor is it the hint of intelligent design that runs throughout the book—though I oppose the teaching of religious narrative as science (i.e., ID as a political movement), I don't summarily dismiss the ideas put forward by different intelligent design proponents, as I was not convinced in BIO 101 by the mantra that the universe is neither teleological nor anthropomorphic.
It is that the reverence in this book is a bit shallow, a bit glib, and the intelligence revealed in the universe a bit too humane and benevolent. I want a little more of the terrifying, cosmic, inhuman God that these photos reveal, the God of Robinson Jeffers, the God of exploding stars and colliding galaxies, if only for the sake of balance. As shit hits the fan in the age of the Anthropocene (i.e. the Anthropo-done), and life suddenly becomes a lot harder than we've gotten accustomed to, we're going to need to engage with that side a good deal more, in our faith and our science.
Twentysome years ago I would have given this book four or five stars, but something has changed in the intervening years. It is not that I have "lost my faith"—if anything I am more religious, in my own way, than I was then. Nor is it the hint of intelligent design that runs throughout the book—though I oppose the teaching of religious narrative as science (i.e., ID as a political movement), I don't summarily dismiss the ideas put forward by different intelligent design proponents, as I was not convinced in BIO 101 by the mantra that the universe is neither teleological nor anthropomorphic.
It is that the reverence in this book is a bit shallow, a bit glib, and the intelligence revealed in the universe a bit too humane and benevolent. I want a little more of the terrifying, cosmic, inhuman God that these photos reveal, the God of Robinson Jeffers, the God of exploding stars and colliding galaxies, if only for the sake of balance. As shit hits the fan in the age of the Anthropocene (i.e. the Anthropo-done), and life suddenly becomes a lot harder than we've gotten accustomed to, we're going to need to engage with that side a good deal more, in our faith and our science.
January 7, 2008
This book is full of beautiful images of the cosmos taken mostly by the Hubble Telescope. The images are accompanied by inspirational quotes from various writers, philosophers and scientists. When I was growing up, my dad had a telescope that he would set up occasionally in our backyard, and we would look at the moon and some of the planets and stars together. I look at the images in this book and wish that I had enjoyed science/physics more while I was in school so that I might have been motivated to become an astronomer. To discover things that God's creation holds beyond the confines of our solar system and galaxy, things that no one else has ever seen, things beyond our imagination...amazing. It is a very simple read and quite awe inspiring. I highly recommend it.
May 19, 2015
Stunningly beautiful Hubble telescope photography paired with quotes from Scientists and religious leaders exploring what is beyond our grasp of sight and knowledge. This where science meets spirituality and we all realize we are inspired to look for more. The title might be off putting to some who are adverse to labels, but this book is a treasure. I found this book as it was on Eckhart Tolle's favorite books list. I share that now with him and you.
October 1, 2008
I love inspirational quotes and pictures of the universe. Definitely a book that inspires, raises thinking.
June 4, 2009
Beautiful thoughts and insights along with photographs from Hubble make this an absolutely marvelous book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews