This will test your faith

I often read books on both sides of the religious debate. Those that try to support the existence of God in light of science and those that try to dispel a God in light of science. I find the arguements both interesting and entertaining on both sides of the debate.

I just finished The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science by Taner Edis. This book argues against God partially by science but primarily by exploring the origins of the major religions how they evolved to fit political and social needs of the times.

While this book gives ammunition to the non-believers it is the very type of book that believers should read. If your faith can stand up to such scrutiny then you do have a strong faith indeed. Edis is very well versed Christian, Jewish, and Muslim religions. A good read on the history and origin of religions for both sides of the debate.

Daryl

Thanks Daryl. I'll check at the library today. No one should be afraid of the truth.

After offering an "aniti" book selection above, I got to thinking I should suggest something for the opposite side of the debate so I went through my fairly extensive library and strongly suggest:

A Cast Against Accident and Self-Organization by Dean Overman.

This books brings together that collected thoughts of some of today's top molecular biologists and mathematicians in examining the odds against life forming by accident. This is NOT a book promoting God but rather an examination of the astronomical difficulties in creating self replicators by pure chance. This is the crux of what I was trying to get folks to debate a couple weeks ago; not God, but how can life get started. Mathematicians describe chance greater than 10^50 as impossible and the odds against life can run much much greater than that. So what's the deal?

It is a good read for both sides of the debate. It is non-technical and fairly easy to read. It doesn't attempt to offer an explanation but is a solid scientific examination of just how miraculous life is and just how improbable.

For the believers, this is some powerful argument for your case, for non-believers this will demonstrate how difficult it is to accept life as an easy product of chance. You will also be amazed at how many prominent scientists, while not suggesting an solution, agree that the odds are far greater than the number of subatomic particles in the universe, and they offer good logic and math to back it up in easy to understand language.

Whatever your position, you can't deny the odds against life.

As the ultimate fence sitter, I think it's important that people explore both sides of this issue. The two books I have recommended here are not books by sensationalists, but thoughtful academic researchers. I think anyone one reading these books would have a much better grasp of the issues on both sides. One to test your faith and another to test your lack of it.

Daryl

Hello Daryl,

I'll check out this book. Past interesting books that I have read is Brocka's Brain and the Dragon on Eden by Carl Sagan... These books were partially responsible for making me an atheist. Very interesting books but then again I never found God by using science. I have read some books that claim to have discovered God using Astronomy but I am not, even until now, convinced of their arguments...

Regards,

Chris

The unfortunate realization is that we feel that life must be life like us.

We are here because the planet had and has the conditions that allowed us evolved and continue to live. Change one very small item and we wouldn't exist.

How small a change would it take. Well, how about a very small one like ice doesn't float!

Think it through, what would happen to the lakes and oceans and therefore you.

Daryl, I requested this book from the library & it came in today. Looking forward to seeing what the author has to say. DR