This is an interesting book and very accessible to someone like myself having an interest in the relationship between science and Christianity but not by any means a scholar. In the ongoing ideological battle to win minds the strident new atheists (or perhaps more properly the new anti-theists) continually push the supposed divide between faith and science. Science is reality, faith is the fairy tale, so we are told. Science deals with facts and logic, faith deals with fancy and feeling at best and is irrational at worst or unscientific. People of faith do not justify their beliefs they just blindly believe the script. This is how faith is caricatured. Science is the salvation of our time so we are asked to believe, religion is what holds us back, and religion is a disease. Science is the way to find truth and reality and whatever science doesn’t prove, isn’t real. Faith is a leap in the dark.
There has been a big push by the "new atheist" movement especially the "four horsemen of the Apocalypse" to put distance between science and religion in general and Biblical religion in particular. The aim of this book which is to refute this perception of an ever widening gap between the rationality of science and the implausibility of Biblical accuracy succeeds admirably.
In a clear and forthright manner Schroeder points out that there is no antithesis between science and the Bible and even points to areas where scholars of the early traditions anticipated- sometimes by hundreds of years- what science has recently discovered. He makes clear what Christian Philosopher Alvin Plantinga has recently pointed out in his work, that the real point of difference lies not between science and religion but between scientific naturalism and Christianity.
While being respectful of the "young earth" creation movement we are left in no doubt as to where his position as a scientist leads him. One of the subjects gaining special significance and which is a bone of contention between Christians is the idea of a six day Creation. His treatment of cosmic time is especially helpful and the fact that time is not such a steady state system eternally fixed the way many perceive goes a long way to reconcile the difficulties. I personally have a much better grasp of Einstein's theory of relativity as a result of his book.
Another particularly important aspect of this book is that a God-inspired view of evolution is neither irreconcilable with the Bible nor is it incompatible with science. In other words the belief in evolution does not compel the scientist to discard the need for God in creation, or in sustaining the Universe.
Another area I was particularly pleased to see made manifest was the fact that many of the early scientists, and those philosophers from whom the empirical method developed into what we now see as the "scientific method" were inspired by their belief in a God of order, and thereby expected in nature what was seen in God through their theology. This belief in the uniformity and intelligibility of nature came about as a result of faith in a rational and benevolent Creator.
Although the subject of this review is the book "Genesis And The Big Bang" the author Gerald Schroeder has written another book along similar lines called "The Science of God: The convergence of scientific and Biblical wisdom".
To see an interesting summary of that book the reader is invited to visit an on-line slide show prepared by Sarah Salviander Phd.
Sarah is a research scientist in the field of astrophysics. Her research interests are quasars and supermassive black holes. She received a Bachelor’s in physics (minor in mathematics) from Eastern Oregon University and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from UT-Austin. A lifelong agnostic, Sarah became a theist as an undergraduate physics student, when she came to believe that the universe was rather too elegantly organized to be an accident. As a doctoral student, she discovered the works of Israeli physicist and applied theologian, Dr. Gerald Schroeder, which convinced her of the reliability of the Bible, and led to her conversion to Christianity. Her presentation can be accessed here:
SixDay Science:Faith in Science | Science in Faith
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