Cover of God's Universe

God's Universe

We live in a universe with a very long history, a vast cosmos where things are being worked out over unimaginably long ages. Stars and galaxies have formed, and elements come forth from great stellar cauldrons. The necessary elements are present, the environment is fit for life, and slowly life forms have populated the earth. Are the creative forces purposeful, and in fact divine?

Read more

Owen Gingerich believes in a universe of intention and purpose. We can at least conjecture that we are part of that purpose and have just enough freedom that conscience and responsibility may be part of the mix. They may even be the reason that pain and suffering are present in the world. The universe might actually be comprehensible.

Taking Johannes Kepler as his guide, Gingerich argues that an individual can be both a creative scientist and a believer in divine design—that indeed the very motivation for scientific research can derive from a desire to trace God's handiwork. The scientist with theistic metaphysics will approach laboratory problems much the same as does his atheistic colleague across the hall. Both are likely to view the astonishing adaptations in nature with a sense of surprise, wonder, and mystery.

In God's UniverseGingerich carves out "a theistic space" from which it is possible to contemplate a universe where God plays an interactive role, unnoticed yet not excluded by science.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 139 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked God's Universe? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked God's Universe. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. God and the Astronomers Shares science, apologetics, religion
  2. Coming to Peace with Science: Bridging the Worlds Between Faith and Biology Shares science, nonfiction, religion
  3. Evolution 2.0: Breaking the Deadlock Between Darwin and Design Shares science, religion, apologetics
  4. Why Science Does Not Disprove God Shares science, nonfiction, religion

“People who read God's Universe tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Dawkins' God: Genes, Memes, and the Meaning of Life
  2. God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?
  3. Pollution & the Death of Man
  4. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism

“If you want more of the same (science about christian), start with these.”

  1. Starlight and Time: Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe
  2. Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design
  3. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design
  4. The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism

“If it was the religion that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. God's Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion
  2. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God
  3. Paradigms Lost
  4. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. God, Islam, and the Skeptic Mind: A Study on Faith, Religious Diversity, Ethics, and the Problem of Evil
  2. God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
  3. Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang
  4. Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life