A good-faith, if not completely scientific, effort to reconcile the book of Genesis with the Big Bang theory.
A scientist compares the biblical account of Creation with mainstream scientific theories in this Christian work.
Strauss (Physics/Univ. of Oklahoma; co-editor: Dictionary of Christianity and Science, 2017) is both a Christian and a physicist, which many people find to be a surprising combination, he says. After all, aren’t the Big Bang and the biblical Creation narrative incompatible? The author used to think so, but he says that he has “come to realize that the big bang is one of the most powerful and convincing evidences for God’s existence.” The assumption among Christians that their faith and science are mutually exclusive is a troubling development, argues Strauss, who says that it can lead young Christians to either abandon their faith, once they get to college, or reject the important discoveries of science. In order to mitigate this rivalry, the author examines the ways in which the two worldviews overlap and inform each other. He looks at the reasons why scientists think what they think and why people should believe them; he then goes on to propose biblical theories that take scientific thought into account—questioning whether the word “day” in Genesis meant a literal 24-hour period, for instance, or whether there really was no death in the world before Adam’s sin. Throughout the book, Strauss’ tone is accessible and calming. At times, it even seems as though he’s afraid that he’ll scare readers away if he says the wrong thing: “Scientists like me are sometimes known for being stubborn and skeptical. My wife would most likely agree that this is true.” The book does fall short of fully accepting mainstream scientific consensus—the author doesn’t believe in natural evolution, for example—but there’s still much here that may give pause to science-skeptical Christians. Even if they’re not convinced by Strauss’ arguments, his effort to bridge this cultural chasm is an admirable one.
A good-faith, if not completely scientific, effort to reconcile the book of Genesis with the Big Bang theory.Pub Date: June 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-973629-95-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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