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The
Bible According to Einstein
Published
by Jupiter Scientific Publishing
634 pages,
1998
ISBN:
0965517683
 
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Waiting for the
Punchline
Reviewed
by Brad
Murray
Misguided but clever is the most generous I
can be. The Bible According to Einstein is an attempt
to collect a significant body of scientific theory in a
biblical format. What is not entirely clear is why
one would want to do that. It is well executed and amusing
as a fact, but not a particularly interesting book to read
once you get the gag. It could be considered a work of
humor, in which case it is clever, dry, and fun in concept,
but not funny enough to read through. There is no
punchline.
If it is intended as a serious format for the presentation
of scientific principles, it is misguided. The presentation
of scientific theory in the same biblical tones as those of
God speaking to Moses is inappropriate for the discussion of
science as it pretends that scientific work is unalterable
fact delivered from God, when not all of it is. By example,
most of the beginning of the book -- the New Testament,
where the evolution of humanity is discussed -- is only
speculation without support. This would, therefore, be an
extremely poor place to start teaching about science, as it
does no more than to enumerate some scientific principles,
while it completely denies scientific method by its very
approach.
If it is intended as a reference book, it fails dismally.
There is plenty of very good information in it, but the
organization of a religious tome is not one that leads to
the rapid location of useful information. The
God-delivering-commandments tone also misrepresents the
level of confidence in those facts, and is therefore
misleading.
The Bible According to Einstein is not bad, per se,
it's just odd and inappropriate. It is well executed and the
biblical tone is very consistently applied. Some of the
re-tellings of biblical stories in natural, scientifically
explained terms are actually quite fun to read. But it
misrepresents the very philosophy of science, and as such it
is valuable only as a novelty to science fans. It's fun to
have on your shelf and explain to people. It's fun to read
some parts out loud so your science-minded friends can share
the joke. But it is a book without a niche. It serves no
purpose except as a novelty. | September 1998
Brad Murray is a
self-taught geek and school-taught philosopher. His loves
include science, philosophy, philosophy of science, computer
tinkering, and sweet manic depressives. He is an explorer of
operating systems and programming languages and other
computer esoterica, and a large French company pays him to
design complex control systems. He views the planet as
something here for his amusement, and therefore tries to
skip the unamusing bits whenever possible. No degree, lots
of school. He can be reached at bjm@paralynx.com
but rarely reads his e-mail.
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