The Wonder of the World: A Journey from Modern Science to the Mind of God

Guru is an exponent of the God-equation that underlies science and reason and Geek is an atheist scientist who holds that science leaves no room for religion. Guru seeks to show that we can "see" God here and now. Geek says, "show me." Guru offers to lead a pilgrimage from the invention of Nature to the Mind of God. Join them now as they journey through the Wonder of the World: space, time and motion; the quantum microverse; Big Bang and other cosmologies; the saga of life on planet Earth and the appearance of rational self-consciousness.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

A Thinking Person's Book, 2008-08-10
This book is a must read for any thinking person. While at times I found the formulaic approach a bit too pat, never-the-less, the underlying concepts that fundamentally sit in the background of all good science are invaluable. The broad perspective from multiple cultural and religious approaches was extremely helpful, as were the forthright responses to the many and varied scientific ideas being bandied about in current intellectual circles. Clearly the author was familiar with the many arguments, and their implications, and used this well in building the case.

I have often told my students that: "The most dangerous person in any field is the person who doesn't know what he or she doesn't know." For example, do you want an engineer building your bridges who does not know what he or she does not know about building bridges? Here, the author clearly points out that even some famous scientists show their own ignorance in demonstrating they do not know what they do not know. The danger for science in not understanding the very foundation of what makes the scientific method work, sets some down a dangerous pathway in pursuit of their antagonism to the religious foundations of science, and their wish to disassociate science from religion.

I am not so naïve as to suggest that to be a good scientist you must be religious, only that you must understand that the foundations of science are built on a religious understanding of the universe. Ultimate questions, are not in the purview of science, so must be left to the philosophers and theologians. At the same time the theologians must not interfere with the scientists doing good science. I believe this author lays this out in a very clear and forthright manner. This author says many of the things I have long thought, but not had the training or ability to put so nicely into words. I wish I could speak so coherently. Thank you for a great book!


3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Wonder of the World is a Wonder, 2008-05-06
If you're lookin for good, well thought out, arguments against the atheist world-view, this book is loaded with them. Varghese covers a lot of ground, here, and touches on almost every aspect of scientific and meta-scientific thought. In fact, one of my criticisms is that he may have tried to cover too much ground in one book. He almost could have used this material to write 3 books, here.

The book is based on written discourse between Professor Madhava Mitra - a.k.a. the Guru - founder of the Sakshi Hermitage in the Himalyas and Joseph Levin - a.k.a. the Geek - a post-doctoral research assistant at MIT. Levin's father died and, in consoling him, Mitra uses the opportunity to show how Levin's world-view falls far short of giving a reasonable explanation of our experiences.

I found myself getting lost in some of the logic but that didn't stop me from enjoying the book.


5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

The Wonder of the World, 2008-01-24
This author of this book asks questions about the existence of God that I have never thought of such as how do photons and electrons know what to do, how to bond and move, and have been doing so for hundreds of trillions of years. It provides a scientific way of understanding how the universe and life are based on intelligence that existed before the Big Bang. Presenting the information as a dialogue between the "Geek (the author)" and the "Guru (scientist, Madhva Mitra)" is the author's way of asking questions and responses from both sides of every issue in the book. It is fascinating and easy enough reading for the non-science person to understand and enjoy. I have come to more fully appreciate the wonder of the world and life more as result of reading Varghese's engaging and studied treatment of subject.


8 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

Disappointing, 2007-04-14
Sorry to have to be the first person to give this book a bad review, but I don't feel this book is anywhere near a five star work. Let me be clear I am not one of these atheists who go around ripping books they've never read because they hate anything that is not completely materialistic. I am very much open to the idea of intelligent design and believe, like the author, that science and faith can exist harmoniously. This book, however, presents very flimsy arguments and does so in a very incoherent way. The Guru-Geek dialogues also brought this book down considerably in my opinion. The author raised a few good points but for the most part this book was highly unreadble, jumped around, and didn't present a very good case.


5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

Makes you think, 2007-01-21
Great insight and a challenge to all belief systems assuming a premis of an open mind. I think it would be interesting to hear reviews of some atheists who may have read this book and how they solve "problems" such as conciousness, conceptual thought and the mind without explaining them away as by-products of unintelligible inert matter giving rise to such intelligent, living and wonderous phenomena.

I think atheists can build a strong case when using their intellect, reason and conceptual thought!

Again I hope for more reviews and discussion about The Wonder of The World.

I still have a few questions that I hope the author will touch upon in his future writings.

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