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alexmulligan's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
nbarrett17's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
5.0
In incredibly in-depth work that covers a multitude of subjects pertaining to science, history, philosophy, and cosmology.
sabbirbt1212's review against another edition
5.0
Being both a theist(a Muslim)and an engineer, i have rationalize my faith both in Allah and Science by compartmenalizing this two allegedy opposite concept/philosophy or whatever anybody names these two.The rational was soley because of my reading/watching of popular science books/sciene videos/science shows where it was implicit that God has no place in modern science cause of science's outstanding success in explaining the BIG QUESTIONS of the Origin of Universe and Life.(Though My Religious Text Quaran briefly mentioned these i am not an Expert in interprteing the Texts )
With that in my mind i started reading this and was waiting for some goobelydock explanations for the GOD.
But this book amazed me in the way the book constructed it's structure by setting up the background and relevant knowledge of the discussed subject,how to choose from the competing metapshysics/Hypothesis logically in explaining logically the Discussed subjects,the Counterarguments posed against the premise of the book and finally a philosophical rumination on the nature of Reality/Mind and GOD.
The Three topics on which the book focused all are related to Prime-Reality/Big Questions in Cosmology/Physics and Biology.They are
1. The Origing of the Universe
2. The Fine Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life and
3. The Origin of life.
Like an expert Teacher(He is though) whose prep time can be compared to THE BAT,Stephen. C. Meyer first showed that the Universe has a begining as evidenced by the Expansion of the universe and the existence of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)as predicted by Big Bang Theory.The current scientific data and their scientific/materialistic explanations all fail to account what caused the begining and even the dominant materiliastic view on this "The Eternal Chaotic Inflation Theory" can not get rid of the begining as proven by BGV theorem.(This Science part is the easiest for me cause of my familiarity with these topics)
Next the fine tuning of the fundamental constants and initial matter-energy configuration of the universe and the improbability and the specific pattern of their emergence made the scientific materialistic explanation non adequate.(Liked the part where he describes what nature's constans are,what natural laws are and what they can and can't do,this are important in realizing the inadequacy of Quantum Cosmology in the next part of the book)
Finally the emergence of the first digital specified information in life and the discontinuos emergence of new life forms which the dominant materialstic view new darwinism cant explain.(this is the most difficult part for me as i have rudimentary knowledge of biology and with that i always assumed Evolution to be true with some gaps.But reading it made me realized the gaps are rather big than small.The core idea -Digital Information encoding,the Improbability of DNA information with their spefic design pattern in regard to functionality, that i understood though through combinatoric)
With the presentation of these 3 topics,their present state, the currently dominating view in the circle,the lagging of the those materialistic views in fully explaining the phenomena, Stephen proceeds to show what's the logical way to choose among competing hypothesis in explaining the same phenomena and why the GOD Hypothesis is the apt choice if we coherently think about the competing hypothesese without any kind of preference.
Then he proceeds to show how far the scientists are willing to go just to avoid invoking the GOD hypothesis. Exhibit 1)String Theory 2)Multiverse and 3)Quantum Cosmology even though they postulate so many imaginary entities just to fail in the proper explanation.(Thus failing in the Ocum Razor's criteria and made me even professional scientists can misunderstood or apparently misunderstood what natural laws are,natural laws are mathematical description of natural intetactions but they cant be the cause of any event).Oh by the way Quantum Cosmology implicity gets back to the GOD hypothesis.A pity for the materialists.
Beautifully written and researched with so many sources included,this book made me think that the popular and dominant view that GOD has nothing to do with nature is nothing but a veil put over the general populace by the Academics just to hide their failed materialisic theories and their stubbornness in accepting any other alternative hypothesis.
This book did not prove the existence of GOD but asked the reader the question out of all the metaphysiscal theories : materialism or naturalism /deisim/theism which supported the current evidence in answering the BIG QUESTIONS in the most logically coherent way.The Answer : GOD.
Bold,concise, clear,informative but dense this book is a breath of fresh air among all the science book which never outlines the inadequacy of their theses.
Briliiant and a must read for all (The Theist,The Atheist and The Agnostic)
With that in my mind i started reading this and was waiting for some goobelydock explanations for the GOD.
But this book amazed me in the way the book constructed it's structure by setting up the background and relevant knowledge of the discussed subject,how to choose from the competing metapshysics/Hypothesis logically in explaining logically the Discussed subjects,the Counterarguments posed against the premise of the book and finally a philosophical rumination on the nature of Reality/Mind and GOD.
The Three topics on which the book focused all are related to Prime-Reality/Big Questions in Cosmology/Physics and Biology.They are
1. The Origing of the Universe
2. The Fine Tuning of the Universe for Intelligent Life and
3. The Origin of life.
Like an expert Teacher(He is though) whose prep time can be compared to THE BAT,Stephen. C. Meyer first showed that the Universe has a begining as evidenced by the Expansion of the universe and the existence of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR)as predicted by Big Bang Theory.The current scientific data and their scientific/materialistic explanations all fail to account what caused the begining and even the dominant materiliastic view on this "The Eternal Chaotic Inflation Theory" can not get rid of the begining as proven by BGV theorem.(This Science part is the easiest for me cause of my familiarity with these topics)
Next the fine tuning of the fundamental constants and initial matter-energy configuration of the universe and the improbability and the specific pattern of their emergence made the scientific materialistic explanation non adequate.(Liked the part where he describes what nature's constans are,what natural laws are and what they can and can't do,this are important in realizing the inadequacy of Quantum Cosmology in the next part of the book)
Finally the emergence of the first digital specified information in life and the discontinuos emergence of new life forms which the dominant materialstic view new darwinism cant explain.(this is the most difficult part for me as i have rudimentary knowledge of biology and with that i always assumed Evolution to be true with some gaps.But reading it made me realized the gaps are rather big than small.The core idea -Digital Information encoding,the Improbability of DNA information with their spefic design pattern in regard to functionality, that i understood though through combinatoric)
With the presentation of these 3 topics,their present state, the currently dominating view in the circle,the lagging of the those materialistic views in fully explaining the phenomena, Stephen proceeds to show what's the logical way to choose among competing hypothesis in explaining the same phenomena and why the GOD Hypothesis is the apt choice if we coherently think about the competing hypothesese without any kind of preference.
Then he proceeds to show how far the scientists are willing to go just to avoid invoking the GOD hypothesis. Exhibit 1)String Theory 2)Multiverse and 3)Quantum Cosmology even though they postulate so many imaginary entities just to fail in the proper explanation.(Thus failing in the Ocum Razor's criteria and made me even professional scientists can misunderstood or apparently misunderstood what natural laws are,natural laws are mathematical description of natural intetactions but they cant be the cause of any event).Oh by the way Quantum Cosmology implicity gets back to the GOD hypothesis.A pity for the materialists.
Beautifully written and researched with so many sources included,this book made me think that the popular and dominant view that GOD has nothing to do with nature is nothing but a veil put over the general populace by the Academics just to hide their failed materialisic theories and their stubbornness in accepting any other alternative hypothesis.
This book did not prove the existence of GOD but asked the reader the question out of all the metaphysiscal theories : materialism or naturalism /deisim/theism which supported the current evidence in answering the BIG QUESTIONS in the most logically coherent way.The Answer : GOD.
Bold,concise, clear,informative but dense this book is a breath of fresh air among all the science book which never outlines the inadequacy of their theses.
Briliiant and a must read for all (The Theist,The Atheist and The Agnostic)
carmenere's review against another edition
4.0
This was a most difficult book to read but I found the correlation between the creation of the universe and explanations of its existence through scientific explanations and faith based thought extremely interesting.
The book, though some will think slow and divisive, is actually something to ponder.
Even science itself has begun to believe that there's more to the creation than mathematical formulas.
Certainly, it is a book to be read and reread.
Thank you NetGalley, publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review the e-ARC. It took much longer than anticipated, it's quite deep.
#NetGalley #TheReturnoftheGodHypothesis
The book, though some will think slow and divisive, is actually something to ponder.
Even science itself has begun to believe that there's more to the creation than mathematical formulas.
Certainly, it is a book to be read and reread.
Thank you NetGalley, publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review the e-ARC. It took much longer than anticipated, it's quite deep.
#NetGalley #TheReturnoftheGodHypothesis
bvargo's review against another edition
1.0
I'm sorry, but none of his refutations are evidence for a "God," and further, why would he specifically limit his argument to the Judeo-Christian god? I mean Bayesian reasoning would suggest that you open your theist argument to any conception of an interventionist diety, nor for that matter does it imply monotheism as an infinite god is a being without a beginning or end then why only one? Why not 15 gods? Or 15000 infinite perfect beings, all who had a hand in creation and have one in ongoing temporal reality (but are somehow outside it)? Moreover, he is guilty of many of the charges he makes including that of straw man arguments.