Book Review: The God Theory

by Bernard Haisch

★★★★★

Haisch is an astrophysicist with a discomfort regarding the idea of a meaningless universe, and a gift for explaining scientific theory in simple terms. He was raised a strict Catholic, but lasted through only a year of Seminary, after which his interests turned to science.

Although he outgrew fundamentalist Christian beliefs, he’s never been able to embrace the impersonal universe pictured by most of his fellow scientists. Science today is based on the premises of materialism (the belief that reality consists solely of matter and energy), reductionism (the idea that complex things can be explained by breaking them down into constituent parts) and randomness (the conviction that all natural processes follow the laws of chance). Haisch begs to differ, arguing that the only logical conclusion of these assumptions is that an infinite number of universes exist, which he finds nonsensical and “morally repugnant.” He accepts current scientific theory as a given—such as the Big Bang, a 4.6 billion-year-old-earth, and evolution—but simply feels the evidence argues against random universes, and leans more toward an “infinite conscious intelligence.” This intelligence he labels God, for lack of a better name.

The God Theory, then, is Haish’s attempt to answer fundamental questions about human nature in the light of modern science. It’s based on the simple premise that we are, quite literally, one with God, and God is, quite literally, one with us. His discussion leads to some fascinating and important corollaries:

[1] The God of his theory cannot require anything from us for his own happiness.

[2] The God of his theory cannot dislike, and certainly cannot hate, anything that we do or are.

[3] The God of his theory will never punish us (forget about heaven and hell) because that would ultimately amount to self-punishment.

Haisch touches on cosmology and the inflation theory, the consciousness debate, the implications of quantum mechanics, the “zero-point field inertia hypothesis” (that one’s a mouthful) and more, but never treads where an inquisitive non-scientist can’t follow, as he lays out his argument for a purposeful universe.

I found the book thought-provoking and a lot of fun.