Religion in a scientific world - The Ghost in the Universe: God in the Light of Modern Science - Book Review

The Ghost in the Universe: God in the Light of Modern Science. By Taner Edis. Prometheus Books, New York, 2002. ISBN 1-57392-977-8. 330 pp., Hardcover, $29.

Biologist H. Mien Orr once noted that discussions of science and religion have a way of turning otherwise intelligent people, as if by magic, into idiots. Few other topics inspire so many simplistic judgments based on even more simplistic concepts, and so mortally wound attempts at serious analysis. Taner Edis, a physics professor at Truman State University, intrepidly enters this intellectual climate with his new book The Ghost in the Universe. Succeeding where so many others have failed, Edis examines religion in the spirit of honest inquiry, while simultaneously understanding the appeal of religion to believers. In the process, he cogently discusses topics as wide-ranging as theology, biblical criticism, the historical origins of Islam, and philosophy of science.

Edis uses a dialectical method similar to Karl Poppers "conjectures and refutations" to explore the strengths and weaknesses of theistic arguments. Ultimately, he finds many theologians occupying the contradictory position of claiming God is the ultimate ground of all being while retreating from claims about how this all-important God affects his creation. This approach is dishonest, because the God most people want to believe in must be more than an abstract concept. If God really exists, we should be able to find evidence that the world is his creation. The lack of any such evidence is the true reason for the vagueness in our modern talk of religion, and our maddening fondness for simplistic models. As Edis explains, "Serious religious belief and unbelief are both handicapped by their over-reliance on conceptual arguments.... Liberal theists say the fact of biological evolution has no significance for religion. Atheists say, 'Science can never lead us to God. It can't even try,' and concentrate on refuting the classical proofs. Neither are taking their fact claims seriously enough. ... However practical this arrangement may be, it does not help us take God seriously."

Intellectually sophisticated believers and atheists alike have rejected the old model of God as a "Great Boss" in the sky, but have not been able to replace it with anything meaningful.

The great strength of The Ghost in the Universe lies in Edis's lucid explanation of how and why we arrived in this predicament. As he demonstrates, scientific naturalism has gradually undermined theological explanations of the world. During the Middle Ages, theology was the "queen of the sciences," the organizing paradigm for philosophy, history, and the burgeoning natural sciences. Religious thinkers across the intellectual spectrum assumed that the sciences would testify to the glory and majesty of God, and confirm the traditional view of God as a benevolent creator who designed the universe for human happiness.

That is not what happened. Astronomical discoveries revealed that Earth was not the center of the universe, and there was no difference between the composition of elements in the "heavens" and those on Earth. Furthermore, much of the universe appeared hostile to life, and the overwhelming size and age of the universe challenged the notion that it exists primarily for our benefit. In fact, natural selection showed man is not the pinnacle of a great chain of being, but the contingent product of the struggle for existence, and modern physics reveals an eternal universe, with no need for a Creator to set things in motion. Knowledge of both psychology and the physical sciences refutes the concept of a spiritual reality beyond the empirical world--traditionally a main component of theistic worldviews. Finally, objective historical research showed religion to be a social institution with all of the contradictions of other human endeavors.

The overwhelming success of naturalism cannot help but have deep implications for the ways thoughtful people conceptualize, or fail to conceptualize, the nature of the divine. As Edis states, we no longer seem able to base our concept of God on anything real, and the entire spiritual worldview seems deeply mistaken. But if Edis is right, what attitude should we adopt toward religion? He rightly rejects the sentimental arguments that religion is philosophically necessary to find higher moral meaning in the world, but remains respectful of the role of religion as one possible way to express meaning.

Edis understands, as too few secular humanists do, that the value of religion is not reducible to its fact claims. In a concluding chapter called "The God of Song and Story," he points out that narratives effectively express an aesthetic and moral understanding of life, even if the narratives are not factually "true." He describes the sense of wonder that he and many other readers experience through the purely fictional work of writers like J.R.R. Tolkien. Drawing a perceptive analogy with sacred literature, Edis also argues that Tolkien's vast body of mythological lore, resulting partially from his many volumes of unfinished material, negates the possibility of carving a fully coherent worldview out of great author's work. Yet, against the claims of fundamentalists seeking simplistic and inflexible understandings of scripture, Edis asserts that this complexity is precisely what makes sacred stories so vitally resonant with human needs. As Edis concludes,