The Future of the Universe: Chance, Chaos, God?
by Arnold Benz
Published by The Continuum Publishing Group, New York, NY, 2000
176 pages, $24.95
reviewed by
Dan Simon
Innovatia Software
dansimon@innovatia.com
This is a translation of a
book that was originally published in German in 1997 and has since been
translated into five other languages.
The author is a Professor of Astrophysics at the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in Zurich. He has
authored two textbooks and over 200 scholarly papers. Benz has a web site devoted to the book at http://helene.ethz.ch/papers/benz/zukunft/future.html.
The book is actually more
general than the title indicates.
Although Benz does emphasize the future of the universe, he also
presents his broad personal perspective (as a Christian and astrophysicist) of
the relationship between science and Christianity. He does not view the relationship as direct because science is
objective while Christianity is personal.
Science and faith are two partially exclusive approaches to the same
reality; they are two nonintersecting planes that both intersect the common
plane of human experience. So they
interact indirectly. For instance, the
two things that amaze humans the most are science and faith. Similarly, we encounter reality in both
science and faith that engenders experiences that cannot be completely
expressed by words. And finally,
religious faith allows us to hope in that which science cannot explain, such as
the resurrection.
We view the inevitable end
of the universe with the same discomfort that we contemplate our personal
deaths. But just as God promises a
personal resurrection (in spite of its scientific implausibility), so he also
promises a new creation (in spite of the second law of thermodynamics). The resurrection of Christ is a metaphor for
a new creation that will follow the passing away of the old creation. Benz interprets the scientific view of the
future of the universe in the language of Christianity. The hope of resurrection and new creation is
a gift that we can choose to receive.
Benz tries not to
presuppose specialized knowledge from his readers. Throughout the book he relates many fascinating personal
observations about how his involvement in science impinges upon his religious
experience. The book is full of solid
and interesting information about how physics arrives at its conclusions of how
the universe came to be and where it is going.
Benz notes that astronomical objects formed not only at the big bang,
but continue to form on a continual basis.
So God continues to create even today.
Benz purposely distances
himself from the intelligent design camp.
He states that “the creator has left no fingerprints behind.” God reveals himself not through nature but
through the “life of a human being who believes.” He says that we should not make too much of the fine tuning of
the universe because we do not yet understand it.
Benz’s integration of science and Christianity seems indirect, awkward, difficult to follow, and overly subjective. Although he is a Christian, there is nothing distinctively Christian about his approach. I can picture a similar book being written from the perspective of any other religion (Hinduism, Islam, etc.). I tentatively recommend this book to those who are interested in an original, metaphorical, and meditative integration of science and religion.
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