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Library Journal Review
Schroeder (Genesis and the Big Bang, LJ 9/15/90) is an Israeli physicist and scholar of Genesis who maintains that a properly understood Bible and a properly understood science provide consistent sets of data. In recent decades, scientific discoveries in cosmology, paleontology, and quantum physics do not demonstrate or prove the activity of God, but they do remove conflict with that activity. Rapprochement occurs when believers read the Bible on the Bible's terms, avoiding literalism, and when scientists realize that science is powerless to pronounce on a purpose for life. Schroeder is very lucid in explaining difficult scientific concepts, such as the passage of time according to the theory of relativity, and religious data, such as the original Hebrew words. Schroeder's careful and responsible handling of the data on origins from science and Genesis 1, combined with a fresh, judicious correlation between the two, is compelling. Highly recommended.Eugene O. Bowser, Univ. of Northern Colorado, Greeley (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly Review
"The universe is tuned for life from its inception," writes physicist-turned-biblical scholar Schroeder (The Discovery of Harmony Between Modern Science and the Bible) in his latest book. Schroeder attempts to meld a critical reading of the Bible with a sophisticated understanding of modern science to yield new proof that spiritual and material views of reality can coexist and support one another. Discussing the idea stated in Genesis that "the earth brought forth" life, Schroeder emphasizes modern scientific awareness of the razor-edged precision that allowed the energy of the Big Bang to be just right to give rise to life. The author quotes the astrophysicist Michael Turner: "`The precision,' he said, `is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bullseye one millimeter in diameter on the other side.'" While hard-core materialists will bridle at an exegesis that inevitably depends on after-the-fact comparisons, spiritually inclined readers will find the material Schroeder presents provocative. The author, however, sometimes strains credibility by forcing connections. He uses numerology to establish meaningful links between biblical dates and significant modern events, for example. Building on the belief that Hebrew patriarch Abraham was born 1,948 years after Adam, Schroeder says, "In 1948, an event occurred that was destined to change the course of history and of humanity... The coincidence is intriguing: 1948 as the birth of the father of the people of Israel, and, from another perspective, 1948 as the rebirth of the State of Israel." Although it is impossible to weigh the true value of such nuggets of information, Schroeder offers fresh evidence for the eternal argument that science and religion, matter and spirit, need not be seen as conflicting or mutually exclusive. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
CHOICE Review
Ever since the rise of modern science, a number of scientific findings have been found to be blatantly contradictory to scriptural explanations of the universe and of natural phenomena; also, the methodology of modern science is very different from, not to say contradictory to, the religious approach to higher truths, which includes such elements as reverence for higher authority, infallibility of scriptures, etc. But there have also been a number of serious and well-meaning scientists who have tried to reconcile the sacred writings of their particular religious denominations with the scientific beliefs of their particular age. This book is the result of that attempt. Schroeder, a respected physicist, tries to convince the reader, e.g., that the six-day creation in the Book of Genesis can, by his ingenious transformation, be expanded to the 16 billion years of current cosmogony; that the Cambrian explosion is implicit in the Bible; that the doctrine of free will is substantiated by the wave-particle duality; that E=mc2 implies the Sabbath, etc. He is not the first to attempt to build bridges between relativity, cosmology, and quantum mechanics on the one hand, and Scriptural tenets and religious doctrines on the other. Nor will he be the last. But the book does contain many interesting reflections and meaningful insights; and for those who need scientific backing to accept the pronouncements of ancient seers, this book may be highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. V. V. Raman Rochester Institute of Technology
Booklist Review
Almost 75 years after the Scopes Trial, Schroeder takes up where William Jennings Bryan left off. But Schroeder defends the Bible against scientific skepticism with remarkable sophistication, not Bryan's fumbling literalism. Nothing in the latest research in paleontology, cosmology, quantum physics, or evolutionary biology disturbs Schroeder's faith. On the contrary, Schroeder repeatedly demonstrates that ancient biblical commentators anticipated many of the greatest breakthroughs of modern science--such as the now widely accepted theory that the universe began with a big bang and the discovery that evolution proceeds by abrupt spurts. No fundamentalist, Schroeder accepts human evolution, which he has studied carefully and with great profit. But he challenges a Darwinian orthodoxy that insists that the process produced sight, purpose, and intelligence through the gradual accumulation of random mutations. The latest fossil evidence, he argues, manifests the operation of divine purpose guiding evolution toward a foreordained end. He may not convert all agnostics, but Schroeder has forcefully reopened a debate Clarence Darrow thought he had won once and for all. --Bryce Christensen
