Life, the Universe and Everything: Investigating God and the New Physics (Paperback)

by Andy Fletcher (Author)
Key Phrases: tiny little variations, patterned laws, quantum unpredictability, Denver Post, Albert Einstein, Second Law (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The science behind the debate raging in modern physics over the disconcerting and uncomfortable realization that just maybe there is, as astronomer Fred Hoyle put it, some sort of "superintellect that has monkeyed with the physics". Written with the non-scientist in mind, this exploration of Big Bang, Schroedinger's Cat, the Chaos of 9/11, the Complexity of the mimic octopus and the blister beetle, and the strong Anthropic Principle is accessible to anyone bright enough to be interested. Ultimately, tucked in here somewhere is a middle ground between evolution and creation that will leave nobody happy, but everyone intrigued.

Product Details

• Paperback: 209 pages
• Publisher: Lulu.com (February 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1411673697
• ISBN-13: 978-1411673694
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #648,231 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Difficult stuff in normal language..., August 16, 2007

By	L. Howard "reader" (Warwick, NY, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This was the first book on this particular topic that was written in language I could really understand! Andy Fletcher clearly is very smart but is still able to write for a normal intelligent person to understand. He knew how deep to go, but he also knew when to say "here's the gist of what you need to know, and if you don't understand the details of why that is, no problem!" which I found comforting and helpful. His sense of humor throughout also helped maintain a good tone in the book and got me chuckling a few times. If you are interested in this type of thing - why we are here, how everything is connected, searching for meaning etc etc - I highly recommend this book, especially as a starter to get yourself into it and prepare the way for some of the more difficult concepts out there.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun to Read, Great Information, Gives You a New Appreciation for How Things Work, July 25, 2007

By	Brett Clemmer "a Proverbial iron-man" (Orlando,FL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was incredibly good. It was easy to read, explained complex things with great examples from everyday life. It explains things like the Theory of Relativity and Quantum Physics in a way that makes you go, "Oh, so THAT'S what it means."
Great book for teenagers especially. Certainly argues for intelligent design at a minimum, and the involvement of God in the universe and the way it works. There's just way too much order out there to think it's all random.

1.0 out of 5 stars A misrepresentation of science, May 1, 2009

By	Joel (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

Mr. Fletcher takes some limited colloquial descriptions of phenomena and misrepresents them to support wholly unscientific conclusions. Through the book, Mr. Fletcher builds the perception in the reader the he must be an expert who has a deeper knowledge of areas he is discussing. However, he exploits the limitations embedded in his descriptions to support unscientific conclusions. A good example of this is his discussion of the infamous Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment. A quantum event is amplified to a level that we can perceive (dead cat) and for this event to have happened it must be "observed". Such treatments have driven Steven Hawking (in a nice piece of self-deprecating humor) to say, "When I hear about Schrodinger's cat, I reach for my gun." The meaning of "observation" in this context is interaction; interaction with ANYTHING. Obviously the cat interacts with many things around it, for example air. Not to mention that the decaying particle interacts with neighboring matter. Mr. Fletcher spins "observer" to mean some sort of conscious being, a classic misrepresentation that has been used and abused by many authors over years. He builds this and other misrepresentations out to support the usual and flawed Anthropic Principle (the Universe exists and is for human life because we are here to observe it) and that God is the prime observer. There is no raging debate to be found and much of the physics misrepresented is nearly 100 years old.