The Beginning of All Things

by Kung, Hans

• ISBN13: 9780802863591
• ISBN10: 0802863590
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-06
• Publisher: Eerdmans Pub Co

Summary

In an age when faith and science seem constantly to clash, can theologians and scientists come to a meeting of minds? Yes, maintains the intrepid Hans KA¼ng, as he brilliantly argues here that religion and science are not mutually exclusive but complementary.

Focusing on beginnings -- beginnings of time, of the world, of man, of human will -- KA¼ng deals with an array of scientific precepts and teachings. From a unified field theory to quantum physics to the Big Bang to the theory of relativity -- even superstring and chaos theories -- he examines all of the theories regarding the beginning of the universe and life (of all kinds) in that universe.

KA¼ng seeks to reconcile theology with the latest scientific insights, holding that "a confrontational model for the relationship between science and theology is out of date, whether put forward by fundamentalist believers and theologians or by rationalistic scientists and philosophers." While accepting evolution as scientists generally describe it, he still maintains a role for God in founding the laws of nature by which life evolved and in facilitating the adventure of creation.

Exhibiting little patience for scientists who do not see beyond the limits of their discipline or for believers who try to tell experts how things must have been, KA¼ng challenges readers to think more deeply about the beginnings in order to facilitate a new beginning in dialogue and understanding.

Author Biography

Hans Kung is president of the Global Ethic Foundation, Germany/Switzerland

Table of Contents

Let There Be Light!	p. xi
A Unified Theory of Everything?	p. 1
The Riddle of Reality	p. 1
A Twofold Riddle	p. 2
The New Model of the World: Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo	p. 3
Church against Science	p. 5
The Victory of Science	p. 6
A Physical Description of the Beginning	p. 8
The New Physics: Einstein's Relativistic Space-Time	p. 8
An Expanding Universe	p. 9
The Big Bang and Its Consequences	p. 10
What Holds the World Together in Its Innermost Being?	p. 12
Heisenberg and Quantum Theory	p. 13
The World Formula-a Great Hope	p. 14
GUT instead of GOD? Hawking	p. 15
The World Formula-a Great Disappointment	p. 17
The Dispute about the Foundations of Mathematics	p. 19
Mathematics without Contradiction? Godel	p. 19
No Ultimate Theory of Everything	p. 21
Occasion for Self-Critical Reflection	p. 22
The Inadequacies of Positivism	p. 24
Rejection of the Meta-empirical? Popper	p. 25
Only Meaningless Pseudoproblems?	p. 26
The Impossibility of Proving All Statements True, Even in Science	p. 27
The Autonomy and Limits of Scientific Knowledge	p. 29
The Questionability of Reality	p. 31
Universe-Human Being-Self	p. 32
Multidimensional and Multilayered Reality	p. 33
Reason, but Not Reason Alone	p. 35
Science and Theology: Different Perspectives	p. 36
Science: The Foundation but Not the Totality	p. 36
Theology Too Needs Self-Criticism	p. 37
Physical Knowledge Cannot Transcend the World of Experience	p. 40
A Model of Complementarity instead of a Model of Confrontation or Integration	p. 41
God as Beginning?	p. 43
The Question of the Beginning of Beginnings	p. 44
The Singularity of the Beginning	p. 44
The "Copernican Shift" in Philosophy: Descartes	p. 46
Proofs of God-Doomed to Failure: Kant	p. 46
Counterproofs Also Fail	p. 47
Science Blocked by the Critique of Religion?	p. 48
The Rights and Wrongs of the Critique of Religion: Feuerbach, Marx, Freud	p. 49
The Death of God? Nietzsche	p. 50
Science Must Leave God Out of Account	p. 51
Atheism Is Understandable but Not Necessary	p. 52
Where Do the Constants in Nature Come From?	p. 54
A Universe Finite in Space and Time	p. 54
Intellectual Helplessness in the Face of the Question of Origins	p. 56
Where Do the Principles of Cosmic Order Come From?	p. 58
Instinctive Opposition	p. 60
Reactions to the Cosmic Fine-Tuning	p. 62
Cosmological Speculation: Alternative Universes	p. 62
Is Our Universe One among Many?	p. 64
A Cosmological Demonstration: A Designer Universe	p. 68
Can God Be Proved by Physics?	p. 69
A Questionable Basic Motivation	p. 70
Why Isn't There Nothing?	p. 72
A Solution to the Riddle of the World	p. 73
Ignorance Also Grows with Knowledge	p. 75
Approaching the Primal Mystery	p. 78
God as Hypothesis	p. 80
God as Reality	p. 81
An Archimedean Point	p. 82
Creation of the World or Evolution?	p. 85
The Beginning as the Beginning of a Becoming	p. 85
Evolution of the Biological Species: Darwin	p. 86
The Descent of Human Beings from the Animal Kingdom	p. 88
Theological Defense	p. 90
Anglican Perplexity	p. 90
A Second Galileo Case for the Catholic Church	p. 91
Protestant Creationism	p. 93
Evolution with or without God?	p. 95
Progress without God: Comte	p. 95
Evolution to God: Teilhard De Chardin	p. 97
God in Process: Whitehead	p. 100
How Are We to Think of God?	p. 103
An Alternative to the Word "God"?	p. 103
God-a Being above the Earth?	p. 105
Space-Time, Embraced by Eternity and Unfathomability	p. 106
Is God a Person?	p. 107
Bible and Creation	p. 110
Creation Myths of the World Religions	p. 110
A Need for Information?	p. 112
The Magna Carta of the Jewish-Christian Worldview	p. 114
A Metaphorical Language	p. 117
No Harmonization or Mixing	p. 118
The Testimony of Faith to the Ultimate Origin	p. 120
Creation of Space and Time from Nothing	p. 120
What Is the Meaning of Belief in Creation Today?	p. 122
"In Light Inaccessible"	p. 125
Life in the Cosmos?	p. 129
How Long Has There Been Life?	p. 129
What Is "Life"?	p. 130
Are We Alone in the Universe?	p. 131
A Vain Quest	p. 133
How Did Life Arise?	p. 136
The Vehicles of Life	p. 136
Matter Organizes Itself	p. 137
Chance or Necessity?	p. 139
The Primacy of Chance?	p. 140
Natural Laws Guide Chance	p. 141
Is God Superfluous?	p. 143
An Existential Alternative	p. 144
Why a Universe That Is Friendly to Life?	p. 145
Evolution toward Human Beings	p. 146
An Anthropic Principle?	p. 147
No Ultimate Foundation	p. 148
Miracle	p. 151
Breaking the Laws of Nature?	p. 151
Results of Biblical Criticism	p. 152
Pointers for Faith	p. 153
How Are We to Think of God's Activity?	p. 154
A Spiritualized Understanding of God	p. 155
The Infinite Has an Influence on the Finite	p. 156
No Competition between God and the World	p. 157
The Beginning of Humankind	p. 161
The Physical Development of Human Beings	p. 161
Phylogenesis	p. 162
Human Beings Come from Africa	p. 163
Earliest Traces of Religion	p. 165
The Psychological Development of Human Beings	p. 168
The Body-Soul Problem	p. 168
Psyche instead of Soul	p. 169
Conditioned Freedom	p. 171
Environmentally Conditioned and Preprogrammed	p. 172
Brain and Mind	p. 174
Determined by Physical-Chemical Brain Processes?	p. 174
Is Free Will an Illusion?	p. 175
The Trivialization of Responsibility and Guilt by the Neurosciences	p. 177
The Limits of Brain Research	p. 179
Ignorance about the Decisive Levels of the Brain	p. 180
The Big Questions of the Neurosciences	p. 181
Chemistry and Physics Do Not Explain the Self	p. 184
Experience of Freedom	p. 187
The Spiritual Cosmos	p. 189
The Beginnings of the Human Ethic	p. 191
Evolutionary Biological and Sociocultural Factors	p. 192
The Primal Ethic as the Basis for a Global Ethic	p. 193
Even the Biblical Ethic Has a History	p. 194
The One Light and the Many Lights	p. 195
Epilogue: The End of All Things	p. 199
Hypotheses of the End in Physics	p. 199
Apocalyptic Visions of the End	p. 201
The Significance of the Biblical Visions	p. 203
Dying into the Light	p. 205
A Word of Thanks	p. 207
Index	p. 209
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