From Publishers Weekly
Varghese, an impresario of science-religion dialogues who is perhaps best known as co-editor of Cosmos, Bios, Theos, uses scientific insights to build a broad, if somewhat uneven, case for theistic belief. Although Varghese is obviously familiar with contemporary science and its interpreters, he highlights four thinkers of the premodern era: Avicenna (Ibn-Sina), Aquinas, Maimonides and Madhvacharya. Although each figure represents a different philosophical/religious tradition, their worldviews coincide at many essential points. But more importantly, Varghese argues, their vision of an orderly and intelligible universe was the "Matrix" required for the development of modern science. If theism provided the first foundations of science, then the naturalistic or skeptical perspective assumed in scientific circles today might be exposed as unnecessary or even self-defeating. These arguments have been made before, at least where the first three figures are concerned; but Varghese's discussion of Madhvacharya and the theistic school of Hinduism he represents adds a distinctive note. Unfortunately, readers interested in Varghese's distinctive insights must wade through the book's somewhat sprawling construction and competing organizational themes. Several sections of the book are set up as an online dialogue between "Geek" and "Guru," a device that succeeds at points but becomes somewhat stilted as the book unfolds. Geek poses a few hardball questions just where Guru has effective answers; but on the whole he is a soft opponent, never pressing an advantage and often too yielding to Guru's arguments to come across as a convincing skeptic. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Charles H. Townes - Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the laser
...a sensitive, profound and clear discussion of the important issues of our universe and our existence.

Arno Penzias - Nobel Prize winner; discovered Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation establishing the Big Bang theory
...helped me to challenge and refine my...answers to the ultimate questions that each one of us must ask.

Robert Jastrow - founder of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, Director of the Mount Wilson Observatory and author of God and the Astronomers
...a highly illuminating and thought-provoking discussion of all the important issues on the borderline between science and religion.

Antony Flew - the world's best-known atheist and a critic of theism for more than 50 years
I intend to reread The Wonder of the World at leisure. I was hugely impressed and substantially challenged by it.

Book Description
In The Wonder of the World, "Guru" (Madhva Mitra) and "Geek" (Joe Levin) debate the fundamental questions of existence. These are the starting points of their inquiry:

- What happened before the Big Bang?
- Does the universe have an IQ?
- How do electrons and photons, cells and proteins, "know" what to do and what keeps them ticking?
- How do thoughts "cause" brain events?
- Is there a supra-scientific Theory of Everything?
- What did the pioneers and prophets of science think of God?

Guru is an exponent of the God-equation that underlies science and reason and Geek is an atheist scientist who holds that science leaves no room for religion. Guru seeks to show that we can "see" God here and now. Geek says, "show me." Guru offers to lead a pilgrimage from the invention of Nature to the Mind of God. Join them now as they journey through the Wonder of the World: space, time and motion; the quantum microverse; Big Bang and other cosmologies; the saga of life on planet Earth and the appearance of rational self-consciousness.

About the Author
Roy Abraham Varghese is editor of the best-selling Cosmos, Bios, Theos, which included contributions from 24 Nobel Prize-winning scientists. Time Magazine called Cosmos "the year’s most intriguing book about God" and The Science Teacher recommended it as "a significant and thought-provoking contribution to the literature on the relationship of science and religion." Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends, a subsequent work, won a 1996 Templeton Book Prize for Outstanding Books in Science and Natural Theology. Varghese was a panelist at the science and religion forum in the Parliament of World Religions held in Chicago in 1993 and an invitee and participant in the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders held at the United Nations in August 2000.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In The Wonder of the World, "Guru" (Madhva Mitra) and "Geek" (Joe Levin) debate the fundamental questions of existence. These are the starting points of their inquiry:

- What happened before the Big Bang?
- Does the universe have an IQ?
- How do electrons and photons, cells and proteins, "know" what to do and what keeps them ticking?
- How do thoughts "cause" brain events?
- Is there a supra-scientific Theory of Everything?
- What did the pioneers and prophets of science think of God?

Guru is an exponent of the God-equation that underlies science and reason and Geek is an atheist scientist who holds that science leaves no room for religion. Guru seeks to show that we can "see" God here and now. Geek says, "show me." Guru offers to lead a pilgrimage from the invention of Nature to the Mind of God. Join them now as they journey through the Wonder of the World: space, time and motion; the quantum microverse; Big Bang and other cosmologies; the saga of life on planet Earth and the appearance of rational self-consciousness.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Varghese, an impresario of science-religion dialogues who is perhaps best known as co-editor of Cosmos, Bios, Theos, uses scientific insights to build a broad, if somewhat uneven, case for theistic belief. Although Varghese is obviously familiar with contemporary science and its interpreters, he highlights four thinkers of the premodern era: Avicenna (Ibn-Sina), Aquinas, Maimonides and Madhvacharya. Although each figure represents a different philosophical/religious tradition, their worldviews coincide at many essential points. But more importantly, Varghese argues, their vision of an orderly and intelligible universe was the "Matrix" required for the development of modern science. If theism provided the first foundations of science, then the naturalistic or skeptical perspective assumed in scientific circles today might be exposed as unnecessary or even self-defeating. These arguments have been made before, at least where the first three figures are concerned; but Varghese's discussion of Madhvacharya and the theistic school of Hinduism he represents adds a distinctive note. Unfortunately, readers interested in Varghese's distinctive insights must wade through the book's somewhat sprawling construction and competing organizational themes. Several sections of the book are set up as an online dialogue between "Geek" and "Guru," a device that succeeds at points but becomes somewhat stilted as the book unfolds. Geek poses a few hardball questions just where Guru has effective answers; but on the whole he is a soft opponent, never pressing an advantage and often too yielding to Guru's arguments to come across as a convincing skeptic. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Antony Flew

I intend to reread The Wonder of the World at leisure. I was hugely impressed and substantially challenged by it. — the world's best-known atheist and a critic of theism for more than 50 years

Robert Jastrow

..a highly illuminating and thought-provoking discussion of all the important issues on the borderline between science and religion. — founder of NASA￯﾿ﾽs Goddard Institute of Space Studies, Director of the Mount Wilson Observatory and author of God and the Astronomers

Charles H. Townes

a sensitive, profound and clear discussion of the important issues of our universe and our existence. — Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the laser

Arno Penzias

helped me to challenge and refine my...answers to the ultimate questions that each one of us must ask. — Nobel Prize winner; discovered Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation establishing the Big Bang theory

Gerald Schroeder