This book was published in 2003. The author is Stephen Barr, a physicist at the University of Delaware, who has written widely on the confluence of religious belief with modern scientific insights, especially from quantum mechanics and relativity theory.
I finished reading this book on the fourth of July, and Barr is very good. It is a defense of religious belief, with Barr holding the position that the scientific discoveries of last century strengthen the position of the theist, while blowing holes in the philosophical materialist. It is divided into five sections, with the first section presenting the materialist position as anti-religious mythology.
The second section is about "The Beginning", discussing the Big Bang and the "standard model" of the cosmos. He also touches on other models for the universe, which are not widely held, but always possible.
Part three asks the question "Is the Universe Designed" and leans very heavily on the order found in nature and the universe, as well as the fact that the universe can be described so elegantly with mathematical structures.
The fourth and fifth sections are "Man’s Place in the Cosmos" and "What is Man?", including chapters with titles like "Is the Human Mind just a Computer?" I found these not as well presented as the first three sections, but only because the first three sections were so outstanding.
The very last chapter is titled "Is a Pattern Emerging?" and Indeed there is one. Barr makes a convincing case that it is the materialist, who 100 years ago was proclaiming with authority that science proved the materialist creed, now forced more and more into irrationality in defending a pure materialist position.
There are three appendixes, the last one devoted to explaining the very difficult Godel’s Theorem – I am told the theorem is one of the great achievements of 20th century mathematics. I’m sure if I re-read this appendix two or three more times, I’ll start to twig on to it!
For other opinions on this book(one of which is a three sentence review with the title "There is still no reason to believe in a god!!), go here:Amazon.com: Reviews for Modern Physics and Ancient Faith: Books: Stephen M. Barr
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