THE LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE BIBLE

A debut spiritual guidebook attempts to enlist the laws of physics in the cause of faith.

“God has made it easy for us to know what path to take, because He has put a hedge of thorns to mark our way,” Kostenuk writes in her manual. “We know we are on the right path when we are in harmony and flow.” By contrast, she continues, we know we’ve strayed from the path if we hit the hedge of thorns. This invites the usual problems with Christian claims of divine intervention (some skeptical readers may believe that if God wanted to make it easy, he would announce the path and remove the thorns). But the author’s emphasis here is on the nature of that harmony and flow. Toward this goal, she invokes, among other seemingly unlikely allies, the famed Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum physics—or at least, her elucidation of it, which starts with the assumption that “to know and understand the energy laws of the universe is to know and understand a little more of the mind of our Creator.” This, too, raises questions (humans have had thousands of religions, many with a different Creator/God), but Kostenuk is writing for her fellow devout and sign-seeking Christians. For those readers, she deftly provides anecdote after anecdote intended to illustrate her core contention that concerted belief can affect physical reality, that faithful Christians can gain access to power over the external realm by tapping into their inner worlds. This comes about, she claims, through the “law of faith,” which can transform strong belief, what she calls knowing, into reality. “If you make a thought as real as the experience in the external environment,” she writes, “then sooner or later you should find evidence in your body and brain.” Her prose is clear and accessible, and the many family stories she puts forward as examples of mentally directed energy should be captivating for readers who already believe their faith can move mountains.

An intriguing—if overreaching—attempt to align Christianity with subatomic particles.