Creation Revisited [Hardcover]

P. W. Atkins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0716745003 | ISBN-13: 978-0716745006 | Publication Date: February 1993

When the author's first visit to the Creation appeared more than a decade ago, it caused an immediate storm, with reactions ranging from high admiration to contempt. Regarded as a classic, and widely quoted, it has continued to arouse interest. Here now is his Creation Revisited, which retains the unsettling mixture of reductionist attitude and poetic style of the earlier work. Written for a wide readership, it is an engrossing exploration of the truly great questions of existence, such as why there are three dimension of space, why there is only one direction of time, how matter can emerge from nothing , and - what many regard as beyond our grasp - whether it is possible to speculate scientifically on the events that preceded the creation. Peter Atkins approaches these and other fundamental questions on the nature of the universe, and how it came into being without external intervention, with the view that there is nothing that cannot be understood. The path to our understanding is to peel away appearances to expose a core, a core which is always of unsurpassed simplicity. This book is intended for all readers with an interest in the nature of the Universe and the other great questions of existence.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 132 pages
• Publisher: W H Freeman & Co (Sd) (February 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0716745003
• ISBN-13: 978-0716745006
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,061,218 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to know what's REALLY going on, buy it. Now., October 12, 2002

By 

Dr. David Bowman "davidbowman" (ANNANDALE, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creation Revisited (Hardcover)

WOW!

This review is biased, because for about ten years, I've considered this the best book I've ever read. In fact, I bought two copies for my friends and gave mine away. I'm here to find a used copy of this elegant masterpiece.

And that's not because it told me any *facts* about biological or cosmic evolution that I didn't already know, it's because Creation Revisited brings all the disparate elements together to gives the reader "the big AHA!".
Adkins starts off with "I'm going to take your mind on a journey". Well, he got THAT right.

He presents a tree of reasoning, beginning with the leaves and proceding to the shocking root.

The "leaves" are elephants. Adkins: "Our belief in elephants needs no explaination. We can see them lumbering across the plains".

But where did the elephants we observe come from? Adkins is (putatively) willing to believe that God made them. BUT... God didn't need to make ALL the living elephants. He only had to make the parents of the ones we see.

He goes on to suppose that God is a "lazy" God, who only bothers to create things which can't arise naturally (like the elephants we see
having come from their parents). He takes this back to the first mammals, to life per se, and to the big bang.

It turns out that God really didn't have to do ANYTHING AT ALL, and even HE can be eliminated. The "root" of the tree is exactly: nothing. Zero.

The final chapter, after that revelation, is about the mathematics of clouds of theoretical points. It alone is worth getting the book for.

=======

Since my writing pales in comparison to Dr. Adkins', I'm afraid that this simplistic summary of his book will induce you NOT to buy it.

Buy it.

Buy it and buy copies for any of your friends who want to understand what's REALLY going on.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deep, straightforward, perspicuous, exciting., June 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Creation Revisited: The Origin of Space, Time and the Universe (Penguin Science) (Paperback)

In this little book, the author takes us on a journey of mind to the view that nothing cannot be understood, and therefore, ultimately, there is nothing to explain. It is a delightful journey, given the simple and direct writing style of the author. I was attracted from the very beginning, and in the end, I was not disappointed.

At the outset, the author says that a great deal of the universe does not need an explanation by argument from design. It can be understood as natural results of evolution. Having thus left the vast majority of phenomena to the appropriate scientific disciplines, the author comes down to the essential fabric of the universe: Why is there space? Why is there time? Why is there matter? Why are there forces? Why are there physical laws? And even why is there mathematics? The author cogently leads us to imagine that all these can come into existence out of nothing. Not every detail is presented. The author admits that a comprehensive theory awaits future completion. But he does erect an entire conceptual framework with clear contour.

It is gratifying to know that the issue has been so well thought out. It is more gratifying that Atkins did such a good job in elucidating it and its possible answer for the general audience. It is most gratifying to suspect that his line of reasoning may be on the right track to a full account of that ultimate question of humanity: Why is there something rather than nothing?

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Creation?, November 25, 2000

By 

Howard Schneider (Thornhill, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creation Revisited (Hardcover)

'Creation' refers to creation of the Universe in this reference. Atkin writes, "...elephants, and things resembling elephants, will in due course be found roaming through the countryside...the details of the processes involved in evolution are fascinating, but they are unimportant: competing, replicating molecules with time on their hands will inevitably evolve." While this may be an overly simplistic view of the conditions necessary to evolve creatures as complex as elephants, the purpose of Atkin's book is to try to simplify everything as much as possible so that the creation of space, of dimensions, of time and of matter from nothing can be understood. Atkin indeed feels he has accomplished these goals, as is written on the last page, "...fundamental science may be almost at an end, and might be completed within a generation...that is not to say that science as a whole need ever sleep. There are extremely difficult and important questions, such as those concerning the details of biological function...when we have dealt with the values of the fundamental constants by seeing that they are unavoidably so, and have dismissed them as irrelevant, we shall have arrived at complete understanding. Fundamental science then can rest. We are almost there. Complete knowledge is just within our grasp. Comprehension is moving across the face of the Earth, like the sunrise." This reference is easy to read, and introduces the reader to complex subjects in cosmology and physics. While the reader may view Atkin's theory of creation with some speculation, the language of this reference is poetic and convincing.