The Hidden Face of God: Science Reveals the Ultimate Truth FROM OUR EDITORS
MIT-trained physicist Schroeder explains that when the puzzle of the universe snaps together, the face of God is revealed. His position is not vaguely mystical: He insists that cutting-edge cosmological theories depend upon an unexplainable source of energy that, according to Schroeder, must be a divine prime mover.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Gerald Schroeder, an MIT-trained scientist who has worked in both physics and biology, has emerged in recent years as one of the most popular and accessible apostles for the melding of science and religion. He first reconciled science and faith as different perspectives on a single whole in The Science of God. Now, in The Hidden Face of God, Schroeder takes a bold step forward, to show that science, properly understood, provides positive reasons for faith. From the wisdom encoded in DNA and analyzed by information science, to the wisdom unveiled in the fantastic complexity of cellular life, to the wisdom inherent in human consciousness, The Hidden Face of God offers a tour of the best of modern science. This fascinating volume will open a world of science to religious believers, and it will cause skeptics to rethink some of their deepest beliefs.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Israeli physicist Schroeder extends the approach taken in previous works (Genesis and the Big Bang; The Science of God) by reviewing biological phenomena whose intricate complexity hints at "wisdom within wisdom" in the design of the universe. "If we could see within as easily as we see without, every aspect of existence would be an unfolding encounter with awe; almost a religious experience even for a secular spectator," he writes. Although Schroeder can claim no special expertise in cell biology or neuroscience, his enthusiasm and sense of wonder are personally engaging, and his metaphysical speculations reflect a wry humility that cannot be taken for granted in this genre. Schroeder writes in two moods, sometimes discerning the transcendent unity of the divine wisdom with unequivocal clarity, sometimes tracing the pattern only faintly and accentuating the continuing hiddenness of God. Although he expresses obvious impatience with orthodox Darwinism and the "materialist superstition" of hard-core reductionists like Richard Dawkins and Steven Pinker, he is gracious toward religious skeptics and often addresses them as his primary audience. While many in the scientific community have been openly distrustful of the "intelligent design" movement and suspicious of its (generally Christian) religious associations, Schroeder's professional stature and his nonliteralistic approach to the Bible may help him connect with a wider readership. (May) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Physicist and Biblical scholar Schroeder (The Science of God, 1997, etc.) argues that the origins of life and the universe are God-driven. As in his earlier works, the author invokes God (generally characterized here as wisdom) as the omnipotent force (or energy or idea) infusing the universe with information that explains, for example, some of the more bizarre phenomena of quantum mechanics. Thus, the photon in the double-slit experiment behaves as if it "knows" whether the other slit is open. Evolution, too, is directed by wisdom/information toward greater and greater complexity, culminating in the wonders of the human mind-brain. These arguments are nothing more than an updated version of 19th-century anti-Darwinian sentiments that invoked a Divine Watchmaker, since no watch could ever come into existence by chance. Indeed, Schroeder cites the complexity of cell-to-cell communication, cell division, and gene-driven protein production as too marvelous and miraculous to have come about by purely physical, self-organizing, mechanical, or random events. Others would argue that the very lack of understanding of the hows and whys of phenomena is what drives science and leads to new knowledge, as for example in the recent excitement at the discovery that the human genome numbers only 30,000 genes, just twice the number in the fruit fly, with many of these genes shared. Schroeder is a sophisticated and original scholar, and his approach will undoubtedly find a wide audience. But his explanations are not without problems. Neurons are not nerves, as Schroeder calls them, and one wonders what students of animal behavior would make of statements like, "The chimp knows there is a limit to thatwhich a chimp can comprehend." For those seeking mystic union with the universe, Schroeder may provide some hints in the right direction—but he is not to everyone's taste.
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