Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsWell worth the time.
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2018
Any college graduate should know there would be no life let alone intelligent life on earth if we were not located at a specific distance from a G2 star on a planet well endowed with water and the basic chemicals and timescale required for the evolution of carbon based life forms. The reason I bought this text was from several references with cited it as listing a host of other improbable cofactors related to the formation, physics, chemical properties and time lapse of the universe required for the evolution of mankind to a point that we can even attempt to understand the universe and the world in which we live. Those factors are very well elaborated and described. We are indeed fortunate to be alive.
This was a long difficult read for me requiring a great deal of thought and reference work. Some sections related to physics and math were simply beyond my understanding in spite of a strong postgraduate science base and attempts to keep abreast in advances in science. I could work through much of the math but quantum physics and cosmology have advanced well beyond my education and a fair amount of subsequent readings in these fields. This was the rare book I enjoyed in spite of having to pass over a few chapters and sections. My interest and knowledge in biology and chemistry made these chapters very rewarding and informative pulling together many issues I had never before considered. I was one of those rare college students who was fascinated by biochemistry and those sections alone were well worth the read. Frankly the extensive side work required to understand many of the arguments was also a positive. The knowledge base of the authors not only in the various science disciplines but also in history and philosophy is extraordinary. Recognize a great deal of advancement in science has occurred since the first edition of the book in 1986.
While I hesitated to share this book with my son who majored in the arts, philosophy and theology due to his lack of interest and education in science much beyond Newtonian physics and Mendel's genetics I will do so because an understanding of the limits of our personal knowledge base is critical as has been so throughly demonstrated since the 2016 elections in the USA.
Not sure I share the optimism of the authors with the advancement and potential of the human species, critical factors in accepting the conclusions of the authors. Nevertheless, anyone who fails to read the book based on their preconceived ideas of design, lack of design or purpose of the universe will be missing a major intellectual work of value.
