A Review by Vladimir Rogachev (ITAR-TASS News Agency)
of
The Bible According to Einstein:
A
Scientific Complement to the Holy Bible for the Third Millennium
(Translated from the Russian with the help of Kirill Melnikov.)
Is it possible to collect
and present in a single book all the scientific and
spiritual knowledge that humankind has accumulated during thousands
of years of its development? Is it possible to do that
in accord with contemporary science and in a language that is clear to everyone?
Difficult, but doable was
the conclusion of the American publishing
house Jupiter Scientific. As a result, a unique book
has been born that describes the evolution
of our world from the first days of its creation
to the present time. However, neither
in form nor in language does it resemble
a usual popular scientific book
because, for its format, the Holy Bible with its unique language
and structure has been chosen.
Now on the shelves of American bookstores, this book
of six hundred pages entitled The Bible According
to Einstein: A Scientific Complement to the Holy Bible
for the Third Millennium is the result
of the collective work of a group
of anonymous authors. According to the publisher, their names
are not being made public so as to get
as close as possible to the real Bible both in form and in style.
Following the classical Bible, the new book
contains both old and new testaments
but the order of the two has been interchanged. The "Old Testament" of
the The Bible According to Einstein begins with
the chapters "Genesis One: The Planck Epoch"
and "Genesis Two: The Big Bang" in which "world creation" is
presented in a line with contemporary scientific knowledge. As
stated there, "In the beginning, there was no beginning".
The "New Testament", which
in the "new bible" precedes the "Old Testament", presents
the laws of Nature and the history of the intellectual, spiritual
and scientific development of humankind.
As stated in the Introduction
of the "new bible", "In view
of the scientific achievements of the last several millenniums, some
biblical explanations of physical phenomena
are now outdated; however, this does
not apply to the moral, historical and
literary aspects of the Holy Bible, which
have proved to be immortal".
According to New York based
physicist Stuart Samuel, who
is called the book’s spokesperson, the ultimate goal
of the book is to show the strength of science
and the might of the spirit: When we talk about studying
the Universe using our senses, then the science
is the best way to go. On the other hand, science
can say nothing about the sense of life, the moral
and the appropriate social behavior of a human being.
The authors
of "The Bible According to Einstein" believe that
this book contributes to the solution
of an old problem about the relation between
science and religion: "There is a border
between science’s and God’s domains. People
have draw the line quite some time ago, but they
have put it in a wrong place. Science and religion
can co-exist harmoniously, complementing each other."
According to critics, the experiment
has worked out nicely. Four Nobel Prize
Winners – Tsung-Dao Lee, Samuel Ting, Glenn Seaborg
and Sheldon Glashow – have praised
the "scientific bible". However, one
is still amazed by the courage of the authors
and the publisher of the book who have given it
the subtitle A Scientific Complement
to the Holy Bible for the Third Millennium.
Only time will show
if The Bible According to Einstein becomes
of comparable value for humankind
as the genuine Bible – an ancient collection
of human wisdom.
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