Reviews for Fingerprints on the Universe: Searching for Belief and Meaning in Today's Turbulent World

The average rating for Fingerprints on the Universe: Searching for Belief and Meaning in Today's Turbulent World based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-12-05 00:00:00 William Bengston Interesting book that covers the vast spectrum of scientific and cultural developments and juxtaposes them with Judaism and explains how Judaism fills a crucial aspect of living and understanding life.

Review # 2 was written on 2015-08-27 00:00:00 Myzelle Tisdale In this survey exploring the relationship between science and Judaism, the author, the mysterious Mr. Pollack, shows an adeptness for explaining scientific principles simply and for outlining arguments that lead to very interesting conclusions... mostly. He does make a number of logical points that support his thesis that science and Judaism are compatible, and which I had never pondered before. I particularly enjoyed the quantum mechanics and free will section. However, I found several arguments to be problematic and more guided by wishful thinking rather than a logical stream of thought. In particular, I felt the evidence from the psychology chapter paradoxically could serve as evidence both for Gd and for the human creation of the idea of a god, a negation that underwhelms. Toward the end of the book, Pollack makes very intriguing arguments regarding conservatism, liberalism, rationalism, and humanism with many valid points that had never crossed my mind and really provoked me to think. But in the end I found these arguments only to be overly defensive, self-aggrandizing, and ultimately tautological (in more ways than one), rendering them kind of useless. To his credit, Pollack does mention that the book "Closing of the American Mind," from which he takes some arguments, can seem harsh and overwrought...although it's not too clear where the two philosophies differ. Somewhere between the middle and the end, there is an insightful passage about Dr. Arno Penzias, one of the co-discoverers of cosmic microwave background radiation (the signature of the Big Bang). He said, even if this background radiation was never discovered, he would still believe Gd created the world. A wonderful conviction to be sure, but it almost negates the whole point of the book! However, to me it offers a truer glimpse of what it means to believe, rather than in the seeking of Gd in science. Yet, at the end of it all, I do believe in the author's conclusion- that Gd does indeed leave his fingerprints on the universe.