Customer Reviews

The Prophet and the Astronomer: A Scientific Journey to the End of Time

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Marcelo Gleiser has written an extremely compelling and accessible book on the science of "the end of the world" theories. It's exciting that science is taking a serious look at this, just as they have with the origins of our universe. It is especially exciting to me that this book is not the type of writing that seemingly only other scientists can understand.
-From someone who has never studied physics nor astronomy in a classroom yet wants to know the "real" science behind humanity's "big" questions.

I just finished reading this book, and I must say that it took much longer than usual to get through it. I tended to read it a bit at a time because, although interesting, it was quite hard to get through. The main reason for this, I think, is that it's filled to the brim with physics-related information - and I have little to no physics background with which to understand these concepts. It's because I believe that many others would be stumped by this information as well, that I have rated "The Prophet & the Astronomer" a 3.

Beyond the complicated physics theories, I found this book to provide quite an interesting look at cosmology through the ages. The author discusses how several hundred years ago, most people believed that such things as comets & shooting stars were actually meant to warn them of bad things to come - famine, war, death, etc... This is how cosmology began to influence, and be influenced by, theology/religion.

He then goes on to show how many cults of past & present still use this type of information to scare their followers into continued cult association, and how they also use such things as comets & shooting stars to then explain away why their predictions didn't come about as they said it would - for ex., they might say that they just saw a shooting star, and this means that God has changed his timing...

It's also shown how each culture tends to believe that the end of the world will occur in their lifetime - people have been preparing for this for thousands of years...

One can see through the progression of this book how some people today still believe much the same things as those in times past re: cosmology & the end. However, now more than ever, science has been at the forefront of this exciting field, as opposed to religion. However, the author believes that science & religion don't have to be on opposite sides of the fence on this issue - as both are essentially trying to answer the same questions.

Overall, I would recommend this book to those who have an interest & background in physics in general, and cosmology in particular. I think you will find it an interesting read.

I read this book primarily on the basis of the recommendation by Freeman Dyson who wrote that this book gives a clear picture of "science evolving within the culture of religion that gave it birth" At the risk of disagreeing with one of my favoritie science authors I would have to say that this book fails. I cannot think of a single book on the same subject, however, that succeeds. The author writes well but does not convince me that the science of today is motivated by the same instincts and attitudes that underlay the concerns of religion in anything more than a superficial sense. The only book to succeed in my memory was " tao of physics" which , unfortunately was simply wrong.

There is a brave attempt to explain inflation theory in an original way, but it too fails. The most interesting chapters are on comets and asteroids, but apart from introducing the subject by pointing out that people had always thought of comets as ill omens there is no real link between how people may have thought then and how or what they think now. The fact is there is a huge difference in our understanding of cosmology. We may want to know about the stars for many of the same reasons. But that is a trivial observation. Science is no longer a religious occupation.
In short I think it is another attempt to fill a market niche of "science-religion", but without any real ideas it fails. I wish Mr. Dyson would actually read the books that he recommends.

The Prophet and the Astronomer attempts as its goal to connect historically religious attitudes toward the heavens with the modern cosmological implications for spiritual identity. Both are different facets of the same quest for meaning that man has undertaken since ancient times.

Unfortunately, the thesis more-or-less devolves into "Ancients used to think that comets were harbingers of doom. Today we know they are balls of ice and rock hurtling around the solar system."

Not very illuminating.

What Gleiser does do well -- but not nearly as well as numerous other authors -- is describe principles and developments of modern cosmology to popular audiences. For this, however, the reader would do much better to turn to Brian Greene, Martin Rees, or Hawking (to name a few).

First the good news. The author knows his science very well. The bad news is he does a poor job of blending the theme of religion's effect on the science of astronomy. Religious persecution was, and still is, a great hinderence in the scientific community. The author's " I'm o.k. you're o.k." approach to this problem left me cold.

Cosmology is a contact sport. I learned this through watching the careers of my father, Ralph A. Alpher, now Emeritus Distinguished Research Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Union College of Union University (Schenectady, NY), and Robert A. Herman, former Professor of Physics and Engineering at the University of Texas.

This is an extremely competitive subject. One in which otherwise intellegent persons will lie, cheat and steal ideas to get ahead. I should know. That's my field, so to speak.

Dr. Marcelo Gleiser enters the field with this book, following his astoundingly successful 1997 "The Dancing Universe." If you go into the area of cosmology AND religion, you are going to butt heads!

I recently had the great opportunity to sit in the room while Dr. Gleiser interviewed my father, profiled recently in Discover 99 in an article entitled "The Last Big Bang Man Left Standing." He is the last of his generation of Cosmologists during the Golden Era of Physics--the 1930s-1960s. I coin that term here, for the record. I know that Dr. Gleiser, son of immigrants to Brazil from nearby regions of my grandfather--the Ukraine, is a Physicist who actually cares deeply about this connection--for he tried numerous approaches to delve into Dr. Ralph A. Alpher's thinking on the problem. My father has considered this, many times, of course, and written but not published some ideas.

Dr. Gleiser, on the other hand, has tackled it in print, the writing is readable to any not-technical person, and I highly recommend it for anyone--whatever side of the creationism controversy the reader has affinity for.

This is a well-written popularization of some very abstruse material, i.e., the creation of the universe and the nature of time. I could quibble with some of the choices he made. He leaves out some things which perhaps he should have included, and includes others which he should have left out. Also, like many modern-day scientists, he sometimes is a little condescending towards ancient philosophers, but in general he does a great job of integrating modern and anicent ideas.

My complaint is that the book is the wrong size. I have to admit I am not sure what size it should have been. It is a standard 250-page trade book, but it really should have either been a thin pamphlet or a thick tome-- or possibly a richly illustrated coffee table book a la Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Gleiser's book as it actually exists simultaneously feels like a thin pamphlet with extraneous anecdotes added to pad it out to "full" length and like an abridged synopsis of a magnum opus.