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Loading... Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Orderby George Johnson
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.   FKarr | Apr 21, 2013 |   ) KennethWDavis | Sep 6, 2008 |  ) co_coyote | Mar 23, 2008 | ) robertg69 | Apr 20, 2007 |  agdturner | Aug 5, 2011 |
 Mr. Johnson shows admirable openness and agnosticism as he examines, chapter by chapter, a range of scientific frontiers furthest from the simple and deterministic physics and chemistry of objects operating at our scales and times. But he occasionally shows the hand of conventional bias, thus affirming by example (and perhaps unintentionally) the mental obstacles that stand against our restructuring of nature. He is particularly reluctant to view the history of life as undetermined in broad outline and not predictably driven to greater complexity (although he gives my own contrary views both a lucid explanation and a fair summary). And he honestly locates this reluctance in our social traditions and psychological preferences. He writes, "Most of us feel certain that the biological world inexorably increases in complexity." But why do you feel this way, Mr. Johnson, in a world that has been truly dominated by bacteria since life began?
Are there really laws governing the universe? Or is the order we see a mere artifact of the way evolution wired the brain? And is what we call science only a set of myths in which quarks, DNA, and information fill the role once occupied by gods? These questions lie at the heart of George Johnson's audacious exploration of the border between science and religion, cosmic accident and timeless law. Northern New Mexico is home both to the most provocative new enterprises in quantum physics, information science, and the evolution of complexity and to the cosmologies of the Tewa Indians and the Catholic Penitentes. As it draws the reader into this landscape, juxtaposing the systems of belief that have taken root there, Fire in the Mind into a gripping intellectual adventure story that compels us to ask where science ends and religion begins. "A must for all those seriously interested in the key ideas at the frontier of scientific discourse."--Paul Davies No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)215Religions Natural Theology and Secularism Religion and ScienceLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.97)
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