God According to God: A Physicist Proves We've Been Wrong About God All Along

• Publisher:   HarperOne
• Number Of Pages:   256
• Publication Date:   2009-06-01
• ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0061710156
• ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780061710155

In this groundbreaking exploration, a biblical scholar and M.I.T.-trained physicist combines decades of research to change the debate between religion and science, presenting a new paradigm of how to understand God.

Gerald Schroeder has spent his career revealing the hand of God in the intricate discoveries of physics. Now, for the first time, he turns his attention to this force, examining both the Bible and the physical world to discover the true nature of God—God according to God.

Schroeder argues that we have ignored those traits of God we find unappealing, replacing them with our personal desire for the all-knowing, all-loving, never-changing deity that so many worship today. This leads to the age-old problem: How can there be such a God when the world is filled with tragedy? Yet Schroeder reveals that this troubling juxtaposition is really smoke and mirrors. The God revealed in the Bible is 100 percent compatible with the world as we know it today. It is our misconception of God that causes the disparity. In fact, the concept of God that atheists rail against and that believers defend is inaccurate.

In God According to God, Schroeder presents a compelling case for the true God, a dynamic God who is still learning how to relate to creation. The key to God's action in the world, according to Schroeder, can be found in a well-known verse in Exodus that is typically translated "I am that which I am." Schroeder's correction that it should be translated "I will be that which I will be" reveals a God that changes to fit the ever-changing world.

This opens our eyes to other characteristics of God that we have long overlooked despite their being present in some of the most popular stories in the Bible—a God who regrets (the flood of Noah), a God who wants us to argue with Him (Jacob wrestling with God in the desert), and thus a God who changes His mind (Moses convinces God to spare the Israelite people), and a God who allowed nature, and the creation itself, from the very start, to rebel (Adam's and Eve's betrayal in Eden).

With riveting chapters on the origins of life, a scientist's view of creation, and the unique place of our planet in the galaxy, God According to God offers a radical paradigm shift that will forever change how we understand God.

Gerald Schroeder is a biblical scholar and physicist whose trilogy (Genesis and the Big Bang - 1990; The Science of God - 1997; The Hidden Face of God - 2001) explained how the Biblical description of creation in the Book of Genesis could be reconciled with modern scientific knowledge, including the almost 14 billion years age of the universe. His latest work, God According to God, goes one stage further and sets out to show how the God of the entire Old Testament can be reconciled with reality as we understand it today. As ambitious as that prospect might seem, Schroeder achieves it in an articulate and eminently readable fashion with some genuinely innovative insights along the way. I commend this book to anyone who is interested in the relationship between scientific knowledge and faith in God. Two extracts from the book that capture its main themes are found (1) at page 85: (Moses, having been confronted by God at the burning bush, asks God's name (3:13). In reply, "God said to Moses, 'I will be that which I will be' [ehe'ye (I will be) asher (that which) ehe'ye (I will be)] ... This is My name forever" (3:14-15). This meaning of the Hebrew text is vastly different from the King James rendering of that verse, "I am that I am.") and (2) at page 129: having designed and created our universe with all its magnificence and granted us the freedom of choice, God wants us, expects us, to interact with the Divine about how to run the universe. From these two themes, Schroeder develops his argument that God's intent for the universe was a journey of discovery not only for the created, but for the Creator. The book has something for the layman and the scientist alike. Moving at a brisk pace more along the lines of a Ludlam novel than an apologetic, it truly is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking books I have read in recent times.

When I read the first chapter of this book, "What god isn't" It really got my hopes up. I thought finally somebody would write a book that is a good counterweight to the "New Atheists". Instead, what I found was a book that was wonderful, amazing and great, assuming that you already agreed with it. Too many times while reading this book I had a counterpoint, or a "yeah but" moment. It was only through my own thoughts and research that I was able to take away what I must assume was the authors real unstated point. The examples of Genocide or the "cruel divine" that the author chose were the mild and less difficult versions of it. He appeared to only tackle the "low hanging fruit." However, I hope/assume that his book was more directly intended to be read by believing/semi-believing Christians as a means to help move the international dialogue into a more civil and sane direction. So I leave following summary of my thoughts of this book. If you are a religious person, this book is great. But please don't try to give it to your secular/atheistic friends thinking it will convince them of anything. If anything, it will only further make them believe that this side of the argument has nothing of merit to say. I do not believe that is the case, but this book isn't a good example of convincing counter weights. Though it is a great start.

Well, just another great book by this physicist/professor. I have read all his prior works. He is great at getting at the facts of why there must be an intelligence which created this universe. He intelligently shows us, that the belief most scientists have of random chance forming life from the lifeless matter of the Big Bang, is just not statistically probable.
Dr. Schroeder also gives his analysis of the Hebrew bible and how it basically agrees with scientific theory on the physical order of creation, but differs on what created it. What modern day scientist cannot understand is the metaphysical necessity of a creator to form the entire physical existence we are experiencing.
Dr. Schroeder has taken science and intelligent design to show that it takes more than luck to explain our being! This, and his other works, should be studied in great depth by the science community. The debate will continue, but I now think the skeptics will be the ones who need to defend their no creator existence.

I loved this book in spite of the fact that it wasn't what I was expecting. I've read all Schroeder's other books about the harmony between science and the Bible, and expected this to be yet another take on his increasingly well-honed arguments. The author's insights seem to grow and mature with each book, and although this book opens with the usual discussion on origins, it quickly becomes a book about theology and how we've all incorrectly defined God over the millennia. For anyone who's been paying attention, there has always been a big gap between the God of western culture, and the God of the Bible. In this wonderful book, Schroeder does a beautiful job of repairing this harmful breach of understanding. One of the single most important points he makes is showing that the God who's under attack from "The New Atheists" is the God we've invented, but the God of the Bible is far more consistent with the God we encounter on a daily basis, a God who is capable of omnipotence, but has chosen to give us far more control than many of us are prepared for. I think it's time that western theologians addressed this issue with much more force, and this book is a great place to begin the argument. This is more than an important book...it is also a very profound book and I hope it reaches a wide audience in the years to come.

Using undisputable scientific data the author makes a relevant case on this subject. He also uses religious dogma to further substantiate his belief. An excellent read,although at times somewhat difficult due the use of terms not commonly foundGod According to God: A Physicist Proves We've Been Wrong About God All Along in day to day reading.

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