The Fire in the Equations - Softcover

Ferguson, Kitty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553405934 ISBN 13: 9780553405934

Publisher: Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group), 1995

Synopsis

Since the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species' in 1859, many have found science and belief in God irreconcible. Now, in the late 20th century, advances in physics, biology and the fields of chaos and complexity have brought the conflict to a crucial stage. Science attempts to discover the fundamental laws which underlie the beginning of the universe and its continuing evolution. Some scientists insist that belief in God can sit comfortably alongside scientific knowledge. For others that idea is anathema. But this is not a question confined to scientists, philosophers and intellectuals. Examining the full sweep of the latest discoveries, what can any of us know, and what remains unexplained, perhaps unexplainable? Can we find God - or a scientific theory that will erase once and for all the notion of God? This book is a review of modern science which allows the reader to question whether science will have the last word, either way.

About this title

Review:

"Ferguson is by turns whimsical, poetic, reverent, theological and authentically speculative in her study, which could be used as a wonderful text for any group or classroom wanting to think in a deeply interdisciplinary way about the body, the soul, the spirit and their relation to the laws of the universe."

From the Back Cover:

Since the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859, many have found science and belief in God irreconcilable. Now, in the final decade of the twentieth century, stunning advances in physics, biology, and the new fields of chaos and complexity have brought the conflict to a crucial stage. More and more, scientists have begun to look for a single fundamental law or truth that underlies the beginning of the universe and its continued existence. But can we truly find either God or a scientific theory that will erase once and for all the notion of God? This strikingly original book expertly yet clearly encapsulates the various cosmological arguments from science, religion, and philosophy for the nonspecialist. Called "a brilliant intermediary between the thinking of the physicist and the thinking of ordinary people" by a German radio commentator, Kitty Ferguson provides a tour de force review of the modern search for fundamental truth, writing in simple, readable prose and using relevant analogies. The result is a provocative, sometimes mind-bending challenge to reconsider the way we think about ourselves, our origin, and our destiny. Moving beyond Stephen Hawking's quest (in A Brief History of Time) "to know the mind of God", Ferguson takes us one step nearer the answer to science's ultimate question: What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Books (Transworld Publishers a division of the Random House Group)
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0553405934
• ISBN 13: 9780553405934
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336