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The Beginning of All Things: Science and Religion
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 Küng, 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 -- Küng 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. Küng 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latest scientific insights, holding that "a confrontational model for the relationship between science and theology is out of date, whether put forward by fundamentalist believers and theologians or by rationalistic scientists and philosophers."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, Küng challenges readers to think more deeply about the beginnings in order to facilitate a new beginning in dialogue and understanding.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
35 people are currently reading
266 people want to read
About the author
Hans Küng
338 books146 followersHans Küng was a Swiss Catholic priest, controversial theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he had been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic (Stiftung Weltethos). Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing," but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology. Though he had to leave the Catholic faculty, he remained at the University of Tübingen as a professor of Ecumenical Theology and served as Emeritus Professor since 1996. In spite of not being allowed to teach Catholic theology, neither his bishop nor the Holy See had revoked his priestly faculties.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 24, 2023
Blaise Pascal, the seventeenth century mathematician and philosopher, reasoned that the decision to believe in God, or not, is a sort of wager. If you chose not to believe, and you're wrong, then consequence is loss of eternal life and potentially eternal damnation. But if you chose to believe, and your wrong, then the consequence is merely a life lived by the Christian moral code. Thus, the rational human will chose to believe.
This is the fourth book by Hans Kung that I've read, and each has deepened for me the sense that Kung was, all his life, attempting to validate and justify the choice to take Pascal's wager. In *Does God Exist?* he works through all the metaphysical arguments for and against God's existence and demonstrates that, despite the powerful arguments against God--by Marx, Freud, Hegel, Nietsche--no one had yet compellingly proved God's non-existence. In this book, Kung seems to be undertaking the identical task--to prove there is still room for a rational and informed human to chose to believe in God in the face of all the wondrous discoveries of modern science--to take Pascal's wager.
And so, The Beginning of All Things is a work in dialogue with modern science. Kung does the hard work of understanding what has and has not yet been explained by scientific method, and identifying residual problems that simply cannot fall in the purview of science. Primarily, these are: What "existed" before the Big Bang? Why is there something and not nothing? How did life arise and how is it we have consciousness? Do we have free will? If so, how? Kung's dialogue with the sciences allows him to point out and correct errors of religious doctrine that can no longer stand in the face of clear evidences. However, he does this gently with the intent to show how these corrections can be supportive of a clearer and deeper belief rather than a devastating blow. He is always quick to point out when the Church has gone toe-to-toe with the sciences and lost the fight (Galileo anyone?) and models a more gracious attitude toward truth-seekers who may, or may not, begin from faith.
This book does what it sets out to do. It gives the rational reader a reason to hold on to the wager, if it suits them to do so. What it doesn't do, what it can't do, is take the wager off the table. In the absence of mystical revelations, Pascal's wager remains. Kung himself, a priest and intellection who was 100% all in on God for his whole life, nevertheless falls back on this simple logic for belief. In the end, it may be all we have.
This is the fourth book by Hans Kung that I've read, and each has deepened for me the sense that Kung was, all his life, attempting to validate and justify the choice to take Pascal's wager. In *Does God Exist?* he works through all the metaphysical arguments for and against God's existence and demonstrates that, despite the powerful arguments against God--by Marx, Freud, Hegel, Nietsche--no one had yet compellingly proved God's non-existence. In this book, Kung seems to be undertaking the identical task--to prove there is still room for a rational and informed human to chose to believe in God in the face of all the wondrous discoveries of modern science--to take Pascal's wager.
And so, The Beginning of All Things is a work in dialogue with modern science. Kung does the hard work of understanding what has and has not yet been explained by scientific method, and identifying residual problems that simply cannot fall in the purview of science. Primarily, these are: What "existed" before the Big Bang? Why is there something and not nothing? How did life arise and how is it we have consciousness? Do we have free will? If so, how? Kung's dialogue with the sciences allows him to point out and correct errors of religious doctrine that can no longer stand in the face of clear evidences. However, he does this gently with the intent to show how these corrections can be supportive of a clearer and deeper belief rather than a devastating blow. He is always quick to point out when the Church has gone toe-to-toe with the sciences and lost the fight (Galileo anyone?) and models a more gracious attitude toward truth-seekers who may, or may not, begin from faith.
This book does what it sets out to do. It gives the rational reader a reason to hold on to the wager, if it suits them to do so. What it doesn't do, what it can't do, is take the wager off the table. In the absence of mystical revelations, Pascal's wager remains. Kung himself, a priest and intellection who was 100% all in on God for his whole life, nevertheless falls back on this simple logic for belief. In the end, it may be all we have.
May 4, 2024
I have been reading Hans Kung since the mid-70s. He is one of the few "theologians" in all of the history of Western religion that I have any respect for. While I completely disagree with his conclusions, his arguments for religion are the clearest, most science-influenced and most thoughtful I have ever heard. This particular work does a nice job describing what the relationship between science and religion ought to be if religion truly had anything to offer humanity. For the non-believer, this is good description of what religion believes itself to be; for the believer, Kung offers the closest things to actual rational arguments for belief.
May 25, 2018
Outstanding profound summary of the interaction between science and religion
Hans Küng examines different aspects of the interaction between science and religion in the basis of a western Christian worldview without fanatic positions. Complex reading for layman as myself but very enriching for the mind!
Hans Küng examines different aspects of the interaction between science and religion in the basis of a western Christian worldview without fanatic positions. Complex reading for layman as myself but very enriching for the mind!
April 7, 2008
essential to understand how science and faith compliment one another. hans kung is the foremost catholic theologian alive
July 12, 2020
امتياز واقعي 3.5 ستاره مي باشد. تنوع مطالب خوبي دارد ولي به همان اندازه تفصيل وعمق كمتري دارد
May 12, 2021
A beautiful book that reveals a brilliant mind at work. Kung's grasp and synthesis of a wide variety of disciplines, combined with his own rich insights, is a delight to experience.
September 8, 2015
For centuries, science and religion have been compared and contrasted by representatives from each side. In “The Beginning of All Things: Science and Religion”, Dr. Hans Küng, a Swiss Catholic priest, controversial theologian, and prolific author, continues this so-called controversy using his own unique approach. He presents a very good summary of the development of the physical and natural sciences, quoting a number of well-known scientists.
Beginning with the “Big Bang” the book proceeds to discuss various theories of how the universe began and how it might end. Dr. Küng expresses an appreciation for the constants of nature: “the charge of the electron e, Planck's constant h, Boltzmann's constant k, the speed of light c… All had to balance precisely in the cosmos (and by no means always symmetrically) for life to be able to arise after billions of years.”
Dr. Küng appears to accept evolution, but keeps God in the picture. In his view, God did not intervene or guide the evolutionary processes that led to the beginnings of the cosmos or the development of humans. However, God established the constants of nature that made that evolution possible.
Galileo, the founder of modern science, had major issues with the church, who, “instead of being concerned for intellectual understanding, effort, and acceptance, called for censorship, index, and inquisition”. Galileo wrote to Benedictine B. Castelli in 1613 stating “… if scientific knowledge is certain and contradicts what the Bible says, a new interpretation of the Bible is due”. As a scientist, I cannot disagree with this.
Dr. Küng also points out that science and religion have their limitations. “There are questions science cannot answer and questions that religion cannot answer.” It has been pointed out that the more we learn about the cosmos, the less we understand. Biologists generally understand the science of the brain, but know less about the human mind. Many philosophers, theologians, scholars, and scientists fall into a “professional blindness”, no longer seeing reality, but only what they want to see. Kant stated, “…a religion that unthinkably declares war on reason will not hold out against it in the long run”. Our own John Wesley held a similar position regarding reason. However, Dr. Küng also feels that, “science and religion both have their justification, independence, and autonomy”.
Finally, Dr. Küng comments on how religion sometimes interferes with the teaching of science. “Another thing we don't have in Europe is, as in America, teachers who are afraid to teach these biological facts because some parents could make a big fuss.” We in American need to learn that God is accepted by Faith and cannot be established by science. Moreover, we should take the Bible very seriously, but not literally.
Beginning with the “Big Bang” the book proceeds to discuss various theories of how the universe began and how it might end. Dr. Küng expresses an appreciation for the constants of nature: “the charge of the electron e, Planck's constant h, Boltzmann's constant k, the speed of light c… All had to balance precisely in the cosmos (and by no means always symmetrically) for life to be able to arise after billions of years.”
Dr. Küng appears to accept evolution, but keeps God in the picture. In his view, God did not intervene or guide the evolutionary processes that led to the beginnings of the cosmos or the development of humans. However, God established the constants of nature that made that evolution possible.
Galileo, the founder of modern science, had major issues with the church, who, “instead of being concerned for intellectual understanding, effort, and acceptance, called for censorship, index, and inquisition”. Galileo wrote to Benedictine B. Castelli in 1613 stating “… if scientific knowledge is certain and contradicts what the Bible says, a new interpretation of the Bible is due”. As a scientist, I cannot disagree with this.
Dr. Küng also points out that science and religion have their limitations. “There are questions science cannot answer and questions that religion cannot answer.” It has been pointed out that the more we learn about the cosmos, the less we understand. Biologists generally understand the science of the brain, but know less about the human mind. Many philosophers, theologians, scholars, and scientists fall into a “professional blindness”, no longer seeing reality, but only what they want to see. Kant stated, “…a religion that unthinkably declares war on reason will not hold out against it in the long run”. Our own John Wesley held a similar position regarding reason. However, Dr. Küng also feels that, “science and religion both have their justification, independence, and autonomy”.
Finally, Dr. Küng comments on how religion sometimes interferes with the teaching of science. “Another thing we don't have in Europe is, as in America, teachers who are afraid to teach these biological facts because some parents could make a big fuss.” We in American need to learn that God is accepted by Faith and cannot be established by science. Moreover, we should take the Bible very seriously, but not literally.
January 12, 2012
Sono sicuro che qualcuno si lamenterà perché un teologo ha deciso di scrivere un libro dove si parla di scienza. Non credo che questi qualcuno si siano lamentati degli scienziati come Fritjof Capra che hanno scritto libri "teologici", ma poco mi importa: preferisco per quanto possibile partire senza pre-giudizi. E in effetti questo libro di Küng, che racconta dell'inizio dell'universo, con una postilla sulla sua fine, merita la lettura. Innanzitutto Küng ha una prosa molto chiara e nemmeno troppo arzigogolata, anche se la sua formazione si sente chiaramente nello scrivere alcune parole con un trattino per farne risaltare l'etimologia e nel suddividere minuziosamente il libro in una gerarchia di sezioni e sottosezioni. Ma soprattutto, lavorando a Tubinga, ha avuto la possibilità di chiedere lumi ai suoi colleghi: e questa sinergia ha fatto sì che le parti in cui spiega il modello standard della fisica e la crisi dei fondamenti della matematica siano delle eccellenti introduzioni per chi non ha una formazione specialistica.
(anche sul mio blog, http://xmau.com/notiziole/arch/200809... )
February 10, 2012
The Beginning of All Things is another dense read about science and faith, this time from a renowned Catholic theologian with an interest in science. Hans Kung shares his thoughts by organizing the structure of the book according to the following: the beginning of the universe, the beginning of life, and the beginning of humanity.
April 7, 2021
On the one hand, this was a very thoughtful book that explored the relationship between science and religion.
On the other hand, this was a very heretical book that rejected basic Christian doctrines such as original sin, the Virgin Birth, and the two natures of Christ.
I think 3/5 respects its scholarship but also acknowledges its issues.
On the other hand, this was a very heretical book that rejected basic Christian doctrines such as original sin, the Virgin Birth, and the two natures of Christ.
I think 3/5 respects its scholarship but also acknowledges its issues.
March 8, 2009
Kung is an amazingly straightforward and articulate writer, even in tackling such heavy subjects. A great read of important questions and historical background from the Big Bang onward from the scientific, religious, or lay view.
January 1, 2008
Excellent discussion of the science/religious divide -- as well as providing his perspective on the existence of God. He's no lightweight but you should be able to struggle through this one. :)
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews