The Grand Design is the newest offering by Stephen Hawking and cowritten by Leonard Mlodinow.
This book has gotten a lot of press for its premise: We don't need a god for the universe to work.
The book spends a lot of time going back in time. It refers to how civilization after civilization has invented some sort of god to explain why things happen. Every time, science has proven that nature, not god, made this or that occur. Things like eclipses or tornadoes are easily explained by science.
He then carries this to today where science refutes the idea of Adam and Eve.
He covers, briefly, things like string theory and relativity. There is nothing new here and it feels like the science is just added to say, "See, this book couldn't have been written without me." In the end, it comes right down to a lot of guessing along with a fairly convincing argument that the laws of physics, not God, created the universe.
The book dragged in many places and since there was nothing new, basically wasted my time.
The argument against god is weak. So science can explain the origins of the universe. This is something I've know forever.
What it fails to take on is the soul. I know the basics of how my brain works. It's like a machine and cause/effect prevail. However, it does not explain free will or unassociated thought. How can people talk with the dead? How do miracles occur? What is love or fear?
I give this book a big thumbs down.
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