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The Limitations of Scientific Truth: Why Science Can't Answer Life's Ultimate Questions

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If you're looking for a book that proves science is bunk, this book is not it. Far from indicting science, the author, Nigel Brush, is himself a scientist-and a Christian. Nor is Limitations an attempt to reconcile science and religion. Such attempts, as Brush explains, have, in fact, failed.

Rather, Limitations is more like an invitation: "Come now. Let us reason together." The book lauds the accomplishments of science, but in logical, organized, and well-documented arguments, educates the reader about the six areas in which science faces obstacles in arriving at ultimate truth. Limitations informs the reader why science has failed to answer the ultimate question, "What is the purpose and meaning of life?"

Because this book assumes the existence of a Creator, some might assume it is anti-intellectual. Hardly. The text, while scaled to the lay-reader, at times offers weighty reading, especially in its discussion of the history of science as well as scientific concepts. Illustrations on pages 148 and 150 help to clarify the electromagnetic spectrum and Planck' quanta, but these terms alone give you a clue that this is not a book to breeze through over a few evenings before bedtime.

Limitations offers a serious investigation into what science has to say about topics from the birth of the universe to the elemental building blocks of life. I found a particular discussion starting about page 150 through155 to be startling. Science in its investigation of the microuniverse has discovered something quite amazing. The properties of subatomic particles may bring to some readers' minds, as it did to mine, the character and attributes of deity!

I haven't quite finished this book, but I've read enough to be excited about it, and I wanted to post my review before Christmas. If you're looking for the perfect gift for someone who is interested in both science and religion, this may be it.

As someone who has been in turns confused and frustrated by the often needlessly polarized debate between science and religion, I can barely express my gratitude to Dr. Nigel Brush for finally giving us a book that looks at both fields with objectivity and honesty. Christians are often deeply distressed when individuals in the scientific fields falsely claim that science has disproven the teaching of the Bible, and even the existence of God. Dr. Brush exposes why science is actually not qualified to make such pronouncements. Moreover, scientific truth is a moving target; the "facts" tend to change as more information is discovered and examined. But no more can religion replace or disprove the truths that science is uniquely qualified to explore, and any study of Christian history will reveal that certain supposed Scriptural truths have also turned out to be a manefestation of flawed interpretation.

Despite the profound biases and dogmatism that can be found on both sides of this debate, Dr. Brush proposes a detente of sorts, which would recognize the advantages and limitations of both religion and science. Ideally, we should be able to benefit from the truths that are found in each field without the fear and polarization that currently limit both sides. It's refreshing to encounter a thoughtful, well-written book that helps us to do just that.

This excellent book stands alone in that it neither attacks the genre of science nor does it resort to polemics of some in the religious field in considering the issue of ultimate truth. Instead this book is a rather perspicacious analysis which honestly ponders the great accomplishments of science together with the limitations of the methodology and the cultural nature of the interpretations which are used to give meaning to the observable facts.

Limitations of Scientific Truth is a thoughtful book that points out the detrimental nature of a far too common tendency towards excess and overstatement by some in both fields; that of science and of religion. As a Christian and a scientist, Dr. Brush encourages both extremes to tone down the rhetoric and to honestly consider the value that each body of knowledge has to offer. He could well be considered an apt apologist and faithful friend by each side of the debate.

As an educator, I took notice that Dr. Brush succintly points out that the constantly changing "truth" offered in science should at very least give us pause. In one class I took the textbook was updated every year with no buyback because the text used the previous year was already outdated and considered too flawed for the current course. The "science" I learned many years ago in high school is now considered an embarrassing chapter in ancient history by the science of today. Something that is in such a constant state of flux must be presented with the humbling realization that there are significant limitations to the "truth" discovered and presented by science, just as there are serious limitations to the "truth" presented in personal and cultural interpretations of religious truth.

In the area of my own expertise, Intercultural Studies, Dr. Brush makes an excellent point in calling attention to the cultural bias that have been formed in each person as part of his or her upbringing and academic formation. He makes an excellent point when he states that we even determine the answers we get by the very questions we ask or the means in which we structure an experiment; a fact which has humbled many in my field as the studied subject of today becomes the educated observer and emic commentator of tomorrow. Limitations of Scientific Truth is a "word to the wise" that any thoughtful individual would disregard at considerable risk, regardless of his or her field of study and interest.

In the end, Dr. Brush makes it clear that science, while having limitations, can enrich the study of religious truth, just as Biblical insight has for centuries enriched and guided the field of science. I recommend this book as a fascinating read that I am sure you will find as hard to put down as I did.

The Limitations Of Scientific Truth: Why Science Can't Answer Life's Ultimate Questions by Nigel Brush (Assistant Professor of Geology at Ashland University in Ohio) is an in-depth study of the limitation of the physical sciences and their ultimate inability to answer particular question which only the revealed truths and fundamental faith of Christianity can address. As a highly informed analysis of theological and scientific contemporary conflicts, The Limitations Of Scientific Truth is an extensively researched and ably presented discussion of solidification for Christian beliefs not liable to be compromised by the progressive discoveries of the scientific method. The Limitations Of Scientific Truth is very highly recommended reading for students and practitioners of the Christian faith regardless of denominational affiliation.

This book is a very good read for someone who does not have a doctorate's degree in science. Mr Brush has does a great job in breaking down the 3 main questions in life... what is the origin of the universe, what is my purpose, and where am I going after I die. He goes on to show why science though it has good points and has helped us understand the universe and nature still falls short in answering the three main questions in life. In order for science to answer these questions it must go into the arena in which religion and philosophy hang out. Science can not take the origin, the purpose and destiny of life and test it. If science stays true to what it suppose to do, it can not adequately answer the meanings in life. Science tries and as Mr. Brush points out philosophy is there to shut science down. It's a good read, but not one in which you want to speed read thru. it's a book you want to savor, and explore other books to see if Mr. Brush is on track.

The strength of this book is its questioning of the inductive method of reasoning. At the heart of science and the quest for certainty is the scientific method. However, the scientific method is itself a product of inductive reasoning. So the real question is: is there sufficient warrant to believe that inductive reasoning can achieve certainty? What Brush does is reveal that in the scientific method there exists certain assumptions that are not, and possibly cannot be proven. An example of this is the fact that the scientific method itself cannot be proven by the scientific method to be an accurate model for ascertaining truth.

The weakness of the book, is that it does not devote enough time to grappling with the epistemological problems of the inductive method. For this reason I say that it is a good introduction. However, the book has excellent footnotes that can direct the serious reader/student to further study.

I had to read this book twice to get the full effect .. But the title of the book is very befitting. There's a lot of things in this world that cannot be explained in a scientific logical way .. and this book proves it.