The Beginning of All Things
Science and Religion
By: Hans Kung, John Bowden (Translator)
Paperback | 1 June 2008
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220 Pages
22.2 x 15.2 x 1.9
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In an age when faith and science seem constantly to clash, can theologians and scientists come to a meeting of minds? Yes, maintains the intrepid Hans Küng, as he brilliantly argues here that religion and science are not mutually exclusive but complementary.
Focusing on beginnings -- beginnings of time, of the world, of man, of human will -- Küng deals with an array of scientific precepts and teachings. From a unified field theory to quantum physics to the Big Bang to the theory of relativity -- even superstring and chaos theories -- he examines all of the theories regarding the beginning of the universe and life (of all kinds) in that universe.
Küng seeks to reconcile theology with the latest scientific insights, holding that "a confrontational model for the relationship between science and theology is out of date, whether put forward by fundamentalist believers and theologians or by rationalistic scientists and philosophers." While accepting evolution as scientists generally describe it, he still maintains a role for God in founding the laws of nature by which life evolved and in facilitating the adventure of creation.
Exhibiting little patience for scientists who do not see beyond the limits of their discipline or for believers who try to tell experts how things must have been, Küng challenges readers to think more deeply about the beginnings in order to facilitate a new beginning in dialogue and understanding.
Industry Reviews
"Like all of K?ng's work, this is a learned book, full of interesting insights."
John Polkinghorne
-- Canon Theologian of Liverpool Cathedral
"Many will find it fascinating to see how a distinguished theologian offers his personal contribution to the dialogue between science and theology, writing in a bold and challenging manner and making good use of his wide reading and personal encounters."
Ted Peters
-- coeditor of Theology and Science
"The prolific and inquisitive Hans K?ng guides us through the conundrums of Big Bang cosmology, evolution, and brain science, showing how science raises questions it cannot answer. God is the answer. God is a rational answer, based on a faith that trusts. K?ng's is a grippingly lucid and insightfully thoughtful addition to the field of science and religion."
Word & World
"A highly accessible yet academically rigorous project concerning the dialogue between religion and science."
National Jewish Post & Opinion
"K?ng's brief on behalf of a reasonable accommodation between science and religion and his sensitive rendering of the legitimacy of the religious vocation in life are marvelous and compelling."
Worship
"K?ng's work is refreshingly intelligent, scientifically informed, respectful of science, self-critical and balanced."
Let There Be Light! | p. xi |
A Unified Theory of Everything? | p. 1 |
The Riddle of Reality | p. 1 |
A Twofold Riddle | p. 2 |
The New Model of the World: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo | p. 3 |
Church against Science | p. 5 |
The Victory of Science | p. 6 |
A Physical Description of the Beginning | p. 8 |
The New Physics: Einstein's Relativistic Space-Time | p. 8 |
An Expanding Universe | p. 9 |
The Big Bang and Its Consequences | p. 10 |
What Holds the World Together in Its Innermost Being? | p. 12 |
Heisenberg and Quantum Theory | p. 13 |
The World Formula-a Great Hope | p. 14 |
GUT instead of GOD? Hawking | p. 15 |
The World Formula-a Great Disappointment | p. 17 |
The Dispute about the Foundations of Mathematics | p. 19 |
Mathematics without Contradiction? Godel | p. 19 |
No Ultimate Theory of Everything | p. 21 |
Occasion for Self-Critical Reflection | p. 22 |
The Inadequacies of Positivism | p. 24 |
Rejection of the Meta-empirical? Popper | p. 25 |
Only Meaningless Pseudoproblems? | p. 26 |
The Impossibility of Proving All Statements True, Even in Science | p. 27 |
The Autonomy and Limits of Scientific Knowledge | p. 29 |
The Questionability of Reality | p. 31 |
Universe-Human Being-Self | p. 32 |
Multidimensional and Multilayered Reality | p. 33 |
Reason, but Not Reason Alone | p. 35 |
Science and Theology: Different Perspectives | p. 36 |
Science: The Foundation but Not the Totality | p. 36 |
Theology Too Needs Self-Criticism | p. 37 |
Physical Knowledge Cannot Transcend the World of Experience | p. 40 |
A Model of Complementarity instead of a Model of Confrontation or Integration | p. 41 |
God as Beginning? | p. 43 |
The Question of the Beginning of Beginnings | p. 44 |
The Singularity of the Beginning | p. 44 |
The "Copernican Shift" in Philosophy: Descartes | p. 46 |
Proofs of God-Doomed to Failure: Kant | p. 46 |
Counterproofs Also Fail | p. 47 |
Science Blocked by the Critique of Religion? | p. 48 |
The Rights and Wrongs of the Critique of Religion: Feuerbach, Marx, Freud | p. 49 |
The Death of God? Nietzsche | p. 50 |
Science Must Leave God Out of Account | p. 51 |
Atheism Is Understandable but Not Necessary | p. 52 |
Where Do the Constants in Nature Come From? | p. 54 |
A Universe Finite in Space and Time | p. 54 |
Intellectual Helplessness in the Face of the Question of Origins | p. 56 |
Where Do the Principles of Cosmic Order Come From? | p. 58 |
Instinctive Opposition | p. 60 |
Reactions to the Cosmic Fine-Tuning | p. 62 |
Cosmological Speculation: Alternative Universes | p. 62 |
Is Our Universe One among Many? | p. 64 |
A Cosmological Demonstration: A Designer Universe | p. 68 |
Can God Be Proved by Physics? | p. 69 |
A Questionable Basic Motivation | p. 70 |
Why Isn't There Nothing? | p. 72 |
A Solution to the Riddle of the World | p. 73 |
Ignorance Also Grows with Knowledge | p. 75 |
Approaching the Primal Mystery | p. 78 |
God as Hypothesis | p. 80 |
God as Reality | p. 81 |
An Archimedean Point | p. 82 |
Creation of the World or Evolution? | p. 85 |
The Beginning as the Beginning of a Becoming | p. 85 |
Evolution of the Biological Species: Darwin | p. 86 |
The Descent of Human Beings from the Animal Kingdom | p. 88 |
Theological Defense | p. 90 |
Anglican Perplexity | p. 90 |
A Second Galileo Case for the Catholic Church | p. 91 |
Protestant Creationism | p. 93 |
Evolution with or without God? | p. 95 |
Progress without God: Comte | p. 95 |
Evolution to God: Teilhard De Chardin | p. 97 |
God in Process: Whitehead | p. 100 |
How Are We to Think of God? | p. 103 |
An Alternative to the Word "God"? | p. 103 |
God-a Being above the Earth? | p. 105 |
Space-Time, Embraced by Eternity and Unfathomability | p. 106 |
Is God a Person? | p. 107 |
Bible and Creation | p. 110 |
Creation Myths of the World Religions | p. 110 |
A Need for Information? | p. 112 |
The Magna Carta of the Jewish-Christian Worldview | p. 114 |
A Metaphorical Language | p. 117 |
No Harmonization or Mixing | p. 118 |
The Testimony of Faith to the Ultimate Origin | p. 120 |
Creation of Space and Time from Nothing | p. 120 |
What Is the Meaning of Belief in Creation Today? | p. 122 |
"In Light Inaccessible" | p. 125 |
Life in the Cosmos? | p. 129 |
How Long Has There Been Life? | p. 129 |
What Is "Life"? | p. 130 |
Are We Alone in the Universe? | p. 131 |
A Vain Quest | p. 133 |
How Did Life Arise? | p. 136 |
The Vehicles of Life | p. 136 |
Matter Organizes Itself | p. 137 |
Chance or Necessity? | p. 139 |
The Primacy of Chance? | p. 140 |
Natural Laws Guide Chance | p. 141 |
Is God Superfluous? | p. 143 |
An Existential Alternative | p. 144 |
Why a Universe That Is Friendly to Life? | p. 145 |
Evolution toward Human Beings | p. 146 |
An Anthropic Principle? | p. 147 |
No Ultimate Foundation | p. 148 |
Miracle | p. 151 |
Breaking the Laws of Nature? | p. 151 |
Results of Biblical Criticism | p. 152 |
Pointers for Faith | p. 153 |
How Are We to Think of God's Activity? | p. 154 |
A Spiritualized Understanding of God | p. 155 |
The Infinite Has an Influence on the Finite | p. 156 |
No Competition between God and the World | p. 157 |
The Beginning of Humankind | p. 161 |
The Physical Development of Human Beings | p. 161 |
Phylogenesis | p. 162 |
Human Beings Come from Africa | p. 163 |
Earliest Traces of Religion | p. 165 |
The Psychological Development of Human Beings | p. 168 |
The Body-Soul Problem | p. 168 |
Psyche instead of Soul | p. 169 |
Conditioned Freedom | p. 171 |
Environmentally Conditioned and Preprogrammed | p. 172 |
Brain and Mind | p. 174 |
Determined by Physical-Chemical Brain Processes? | p. 174 |
Is Free Will an Illusion? | p. 175 |
The Trivialization of Responsibility and Guilt by the Neurosciences | p. 177 |
The Limits of Brain Research | p. 179 |
Ignorance about the Decisive Levels of the Brain | p. 180 |
The Big Questions of the Neurosciences | p. 181 |
Chemistry and Physics Do Not Explain the Self | p. 184 |
Experience of Freedom | p. 187 |
The Spiritual Cosmos | p. 189 |
The Beginnings of the Human Ethic | p. 191 |
Evolutionary Biological and Sociocultural Factors | p. 192 |
The Primal Ethic as the Basis for a Global Ethic | p. 193 |
Even the Biblical Ethic Has a History | p. 194 |
The One Light and the Many Lights | p. 195 |
Epilogue: The End of All Things | p. 199 |
Hypotheses of the End in Physics | p. 199 |
Apocalyptic Visions of the End | p. 201 |
The Significance of the Biblical Visions | p. 203 |
Dying into the Light | p. 205 |
A Word of Thanks | p. 207 |
Index | p. 209 |
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9780802863591
ISBN-10: 0802863590
Published: 1st June 2008
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 220
Audience: General Adult
Publisher: William B Eerdmans Publishing Co
Country of Publication: US
Dimensions (cm): 22.2 x 15.2 x 1.9
Weight (kg): 0.33
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- Non-FictionReligion & BeliefsReligionReligious Issues & DebatesReligion & Science
- Non-FictionReligion & BeliefsAspects of Religion for Non-ChristiansTheology
- Non-FictionBiographies & True Stories BiographiesReligious & Spiritual Biographies
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