I misjudged this at first blush. Just goes to show you need to go beyond first impressions sometimes.

That said the book is a little deceiving in its concept and execution. Except for one of the chapters, Tippett is not really interested in discussing science and spirituality, she's interested in science and most of all how science has challenged religion in modern thinking. Most of the scientists and artists interviewed were either agnostic or atheist, whether they admitted it in the interview or not. Therefore, the conversation really revolved around the condescending notion that we really don't know everything and therefore our little fictions around faith should be tolerated because they are useful sometimes, in terms of health, for instance, and otherwise harmless. To me this is scientists, who think they know better, talking down to the masses. Call a spade a spade for heaven's sake (pun intended).

To me quantum uncertainty principles and limitations like the speed of light don't imply wiggle room for faith in something somehow outside the physical world. [a:Polkinghorne J. C.|5848212|Polkinghorne J. C.|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-d9f6a4a5badfda0f69e70cc94d962125.png] is the only interviewee that actually addresses the dichotomy of religion and science and the challenges science makes on a life that includes spirituality.

All that aside, the conversations were interesting and the science engaging. At times the thing was a little too touchy-feely for me. ( )

An ok read. Not particularly inspiring or memorable. ( )

Impulse buy at Tuesday Books in Williamston. Clearly the intersection between modern physics and religion is on my mind lately. This book is a collection of interviews by Tippett with leading scientists. Not all are physicists, there are also medical doctors, scientists studying revenge, stress, depression. Tippett asks these scientists on the cutting edge of their respective fields how their developing understanding affects their understanding of religion and the universe. So it serves as a sort of sampler of the current world of science.

There's a lot that I really liked about this book. I appreciated the variety even as I tended to be more interested in the physicists and the chapter on Darwin and evolution. I really loved the interview with V.V. Raman, whose Hindi beliefs appreciate multiple ways of knowing, asking, understanding.

At the same time, this book had me frequently grinding my teeth. If someone said something that Tippett found particularly insightful, you were going to know all about it. Certainly it would appear in the transcript of the interview, of course. But additionally, each interview was proceeded by an introduction. Not just an introduction of the person being interviewed, because that appeared in the chapter itself. But an introduction before the chapter, that summarized the work of the interviewee, the interview itself, and touched on individual points and sometimes quotes from the interview. Then also there was an introduction to the entire book that did the same things. By the time you're reading those engaging points within the interviews, you're (or at least I) was like, "Yes, Yes! I remember the time!"

As I complained to everyone within earshot, it was suggested to me multiple times that I just skip the introductions, but that's cheating, and I couldn't force myself to do it. Seriously. Did she write the book over many months and forget that she had already quoted exactly that excerpt before? Could Penguin, in this age of e-books and cost-cutting, just not be bothered to assign this book an editor?

All the repetition made me feel like I'd easily be able to find all the interesting ideas that sparked things in my brain, but now I can't. One of these days, I'll get over my aversion to marking books. (At least some books.)

Despite my frustration, and despite the occasional tripping of my woo-alarm, I highly recommend this book. Just maybe, you know, skip the introductions. ( )

Astounding. In order to get all of my feelings out, I am going to have to write a blog. I love Krista, and I love her mind. She asks excellent questions. It makes the person she's interviewing think hard. ( )

The battle between science and religion comes to a head in these interviews of cutting-edge scientists and researchers, and the winner is ... oh. The two sides are getting along a little better nowadays, it appears.

Words you'll read often in the book include "spirit" and "soul," as such concepts are explored by our deepest thinkers. Tippett interviews a theoretical physicist, a cosmologist, a clinical professor, an expert on the life of Darwin, a professor of astrophysics, and many more, as she poses the big questions about science and the human spirit. Most interesting of the interviews, in my opinion, was the first, with Freeman Dyson, where the conversation often turns to Einstein and his views about God. Hey, I'm an Einstein groupie.

Tippett packs her most interesting interviews at the front of the book; after a few dozen pages, I could hardly wait to finish the book so I could write a glowing review! But--and this may merely be personal preference--the interviews grow less interesting as the book goes on, and the topics turn from the merger of science and religion to revenge and forgiveness, stress, and depression. Yet, regardless of the slow denouement, this is a book worth reading. ( )