Revelation Through Science

by James G Martin

Overview

Revelation through Science is written for the educated non-scientist who may be troubled by apparent conflicts between science and religion. Are science and faith incompatible? Astronomers, physicists, and biologists have now shown that the more deeply science probes nature, the more it reveals evidence pointing us to God. After reviewing concepts from those fields, Revelation through Science adds new material from chemistry. It describes organic structures that are profoundly vital for life, yet too complex for self-assembly without some guiding principle. It should lift the burden from believers and seekers to realize that science is not the enemy of faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781524536091
Publisher:	Xlibris Corporation
Publication date:	11/09/2016
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	438
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

Jim Martin is a Princeton PhD organic chemist who taught at prestigious Davidson College, his alma mater. During that time, he played principal tuba in the Charlotte Symphony and officiated high school football. Drawn to politics as a precinct worker, he was elected three times as county commissioner, six times to the U.S. Congress, and twice as Governor of North Carolina. After twenty-six years of public service, he returned to his scientific roots in private life to serve as vice president of medical research at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. He and Dottie have three children and five grandchildren.

Editorial Reviews

2022-03-02
A nonfiction work offers an argument for a theoretical détente between religion and science.

Martin observes that many Americans complacently accept the idea that a belief in both science and religion is “intractably opposed”—the two domains of thought are so radically incompatible that any reconciliation, let alone a synthesis, is simply impossible. But he argues that the remarkable discoveries of modern science belie this divergence and that within them one can find a rationally defensible view of an intelligent creator. In order to render this plausible, the author treats readers to an intriguing tour of the major scientific disciplines, including astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and paleontology, each one visited with admirable lucidity given its technically prohibitive nature. Within each branch of science, he finds evidence of “ ‘anthropic’ fine-tuning”—ways in which extraordinary complexity emerged that was absolutely necessary for the creation of life, a host of “numerical improbabilities” and “physical constants and conditions” that seem unlikely to be the consequences of brute chance. Martin resists the label “intelligent design”—it’s been too thoroughly coopted by enemies of science—but he adopts a scientifically informed version of its core philosophical argument. The author also provides a “poetic or allegorical” account of the biblical teaching of Creation that can be made consistent with science. While Martin concedes that “science has aspects that can and may disrupt confidence in spiritual leanings,” he largely interprets science as a means to understanding God and creation: “My view is that science is a modern, valid means of revelation of God’s creation. Science observes and explains the nature of God’s work in His universe and in us.” This is a marvelously rigorous work of analysis written by a professed “theistic scientist” without a hint of aggressive polemics. Martin aims to produce a rational argument based on science but true to religion that is accessible to the “educated nonscientist,” and he roundly succeeds.

A thoughtful and captivating brew of science, theology, and philosophy.

Kirkus Reviews