 |
Cosmic Elegance
A Review of The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time,
|
|
Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, has done it again with The Fabric of the Cosmos. Building on the groundwork laid in his previous book, he delves into an exploration of the worlds of the very large and the very small. Readers who have not read The Elegant Universe needn't worry that they will be unprepared to grapple with the concepts in his book. Greene courteously summarizes the salient points of The Elegant Universe important to this latest work. Not to discourage anyone, but there may even be an advantage to wading into the deep water of The Fabric of the Cosmos without the accumulated conceptual baggage of The Elegant Universe. Maybe the best compromise is to watch the NOVA broadcast version either online or on DVD and then dive into Fabric head first. Greene uses a winsome style to lead readers through the murky, mystifying worlds of quantum mechanics, general and special relativity, and the nature of time. Using simple examples that illuminate complex, mind-bending concepts, he patiently weaves a tapestry of ideas that is at once amazing and baffling. People who find comfort in a world that is simple and easy to understand may find this book more than a little disturbing because it introduces so many challenges to our assumptions about the nature of reality. Those who are looking to envision a God who is bigger and more complex than anything we can imagine are going to be pleased with Fabric because it introduces us to whole new ways of seeing such "simple" things as time, space and reality. While Greene is no Biblicist and certainly not a creationist, he does introduce ideas that are not wholly incompatible with the Genesis account of creation. Theorists posit that the Big Bang had an initial explosion of expansion that quickly tapered off into a slower rate of expansion for our universe. This harmonizes in a general sense with Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. More importantly, however, are Greene's examinations of what makes time flow and whether time has an arrow of direction or whether it is an artifact of our perception. If you are looking for answers, this book isn't the place to find them. Instead you will find more sophisticated questions that will have you pondering the vastness of the universe, the nature of gravity and whether space is a "thing" or not. If you are ready to contemplate what "empty space" is made of, then this is the book for you. Readers who have read Edwin Abbott's Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions are already familiar with thinking in terms of dimensions that are greater or less than the three common dimensions with which we are familiar. Greene goes beyond Abbott in describing a universe of ten dimensions that is beyond even his power to visualize. This multidimensional universe is highly attractive to those who believe there are "more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" as Shakespeare put it in Hamlet. For those who want to argue the fine points of predestination, Fabric of the Cosmos gives us a tiny glimpse into a God who is far bigger than what we would expect. Our arguments of God "looking down through time" become meaningless when viewed from the perspective of a pan-dimensional God who is not restricted to our common time and space dimensions. The Fabric of the Cosmos is a wonderful invitation to view God as higher than the sometimes petty arguments we use to box him into manageability. by Rick Presley
|
© Copyright ill-legalism 2006. All rights reserved.