The God Theory
by Bernard Haisch
ISBN 1-57863-374-5
Weiser Books
reviewed by Michael Lohr
How does consciousness arise from matter? Is there a God? Is there a compatible bridge between faith and science? Can the multiverse and superstring theories of cosmology be rendered consistent with an infinite intelligence? Does our consciousness transcend physical matter? These are just some of the questions The God Theory attempts to answer.
An astrophysicist by trade, Dr Haisch is also a spiritual man (he entered the seminary for a brief time). He approaches both disciplines with an open mind. It is through this open mindedness that he arrived at his controversial theory; light is consciousness from which everything is created, including us. Light is God. And we are consciousness, therefore we are a filtered aspect of God brought into the physical world. This seems to give a whole new meaning to the term “Let there be light.”
According to Dr Haisch “somewhere between the hardcore scientific reductionists who explain all things as the sum of their parts and sneer at the mere mention of spirituality and the unquestioning faithful who receive their beliefs full-blown from prophets and preachers, there is a group of philosophical centrists, well-intentioned, open-minded, free spirits eager to investigate their own nature.”
Haisch believes in a metaphysical deity who can only experience material reality through living beings. He believes that the purposeful ideas of God somehow manifested into the laws of nature underlying the universe. He sees a God who initiated the Big Bang 14 billion years ago, and whose ideas support the astrophysical inflation theory of multiverses. He combines science and religion into a rational kind of uplifting spirituality that is geared at providing a more tolerant and enriching metaphysical path. Gathering upon the findings of his government-funded, published physics research focusing on the demesne of zero-point electromagnetic fields, Haisch concludes that traditional esoteric beliefs of light and consciousness form the basis of the material world. That consciousness is far more than some evolutionary misadventure or cerebrally generated epiphenomenon.
And Haisch has the credentials to back up his theories. In addition to his PhD from the University of Wisconsin he did postdoctoral research at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado and the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. He also held scientist positions at the Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics at the University of California, Berkeley and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany. He is the perfect individual to debate the topics of science and spirituality. His views cannot be easily dismissed by the scientific establishment, because he is the scientific establishment! And as a devout Christian, who almost became a priest, his faith is vibrant.
The God Theory may just be the most important book you read this year. Prepare yourself for a paradigm shift.