Quarks Chaos & Christianity: Questions to Science and Religion [Paperback]

John Polkinghorne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 1995

This book discusses the belief in God, chaos, evolution, miracles, and prayer,and gives an answer to the question:Can a scientist believe?

Product Details

• Paperback: 120 pages
• Publisher: Crossroad Classic (September 25, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0824515218
• ISBN-13: 978-0824515218
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #887,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honest, lucid, and persuasive., September 30, 2001

By 

David Marshall - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quarks Chaos & Christianity: Questions to Science and Religion (Paperback)

Simplistic and erroneous thinking about "religion" and "science" is rife in our era. John Polkinghorne sets himself the task of accurately describing the relationship between them. He refutes the usual lazy assumption that the two belong to completely unrelated categories, like walruses and carpenters. Polkinghorne is convinced that in fact science and religion (at least Christianity) both require a similiar method of truth-seeking. He believes that the search for truth in science was influenced by the Christian belief in God, and that the logical connection between believing in a Creator and studying the creation still holds. He thinks scientific metaphors shed light on theology, and vice-versa. Thus, not only is there no conflict between being a scientist and a follower of Christ, the two disciplines inform and supplement one another.

Polkinghorne's words seem to carry a special gravitus. Part of the reason for this, of course, is that he knows his stuff: he was a first-class scientist, physics prof at Cambridge, before getting into theology. Also, in this book, he writes with the kind of restrained simplicity that is good style for scientists writing for the masses, that strongly suggests great intellectual power, sheathed as it were. But probably what gives his argument greatest force is his honesty. The more I read Polkinghorne, the less believable it seems to me that his argument for Christianity might be given either in ignorance or in defiance of the evidence. He might concede too much at times, and he tends to be cautious, but he does not seem to put more weight on an argument than the evidence can bare.

I especially liked what Polkinghorne said about faith and reason. "Many people seem to think that faith involves shutting one's eyes, gritting one's teeth, and believing X impossible things before breakfast . . . Not at all! Faith may involve a leap, but it's a leap into the light, not the dark. THe aim of the religious quest, like that of the scientific quest, is to seek motivated belief about what is the case. . . " While a lot of people (both Christians and skeptics) seem to prefer to define faith as believing something contrary to the evidence, I don't think that is either the Biblical or the historically usual Christian point of view. Polkinghorne's argument on this point stakes out the mainstream of Christian thought, in my opinion.
Readers who would like to think through the relationship between faith and reason, and between various faiths, in more detail, might find my book, Jesus and the Religions of Man, worth a read as well.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "a leap into the light, not the dark", November 17, 2004

By 

Wesley L. Janssen (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Quarks Chaos & Christianity: Questions to Science and Religion (Paperback)

I'm guessing that Polkinghorne wrote this book around the same time he was preparing and presenting the Gifford Lectures (1994) as this book and the text of those lectures (published as "The Faith of a Physicist") cover some of the same themes rather closely. While that volume (FP) is broader in scope, this one sets its sights more narrowly. Neither book precludes the value of the other; both are interesting. QC&C is a rather quick read by comparison, so if theology and physics are not your usual cup of tea, this may be the right choice for you.

Sir John Polkinghorne, for those readers who might not be familiar with him, is acclaimed as both a quantum physicist and an Anglican priest/theologian (and he's been knighted [KBE], but isn't everybody on that side of the pond these days?). He has won the Templeton Prize and is a Fellow of the Royal Society. His theological thinking is, for the most part, quite classical, although he conspicuously also holds some process ideas regarding God's relationship to 'time' (this is an area in which many readers -- me, for example -- will respectfully disagree with him). His views are perhaps slightly different from the usual perceptions of the ID school of theistic scientists, which alone might be seen as recommending him as an interesting author.

My impression is that the target audience for this book is the Christian reader interested in the science-religion dialog and in questions of freedom and the 'problem of evil.' But I also think this might be a valuable book for agnostic scientists and anyone else interested in these topics. Polkinghorne says, "Many people seem to think that faith involves shutting one's eyes, gritting one's teeth, and believing X impossible things before breakfast . . . Not at all! Faith may involve a leap, but it's a leap into the light, not the dark. The aim of the religious quest, like that of the scientific quest, is to seek motivated belief about what is the case . . . "

Polkinhorne's style is both highly learned and gentle, balancing confidence with cognizance of humanity's unknowing. He is one of several important voices in the science-religion dialog.

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Yes, you can legitimately accept Christ and science., July 4, 1999

By 

Wayne Symes (Doha, Qatar) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quarks Chaos & Christianity: Questions to Science and Religion (Paperback)

Polkinghorne has written a clear and simple (but not simplistic) account of how you can be a scientist and still accept the central truths of Christianity. It is concise and straight to the point, but written so that even the non-scientific or non-theologically trained can follow the argument. This would be an ideal book for anyone who thinks that science has `disproved' God. Polkinghorne is one physicist who doesn't think so.