A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The title of the book, “A Short History of Nearly Everything“, is semi-deceptive - it does not cover recorded history but rather the history of ‘life, the universe, and everything’. Bryson writes in such a way as to make what is normally very incomprehensible not only understandable but entertaining as well. He provides answers to fundamental scientific questions but more importantly how those answers came into being.
What really amazed me was that even from this pro-evolution book you find how much must be taken by faith. The author clearly shows how much of our current understanding of ‘everything’ is based on conjecture. As more and more is ‘learned’ this conjecture is tweaked - but it is all conjecture none the less. Evolution is truly the science of how to explain things if there were no God. It is a false premise but allows one to look for plausible explanations to things without resorting to blaming/crediting God for everything we cannot (yet) explain.
This book definitely makes my ‘recommend’ list and my ‘worth a 2nd reading’ list.
I picked up the audio version of it this spring to listen to on a car trip. I found it really interesting, and very educational, although like you, I found it disappointing that he didn’t really talk about the history of civilization or anything like that.
For some reason, I find the theory of evolution really fascinating. I think there’s actually some truth to it, but I’m not sure how much. I think it is too bad that atheists have to rely on it to explain everything. And what’s worse is that many seem to think you have to have an atheistic attitude to even be scientific! (A lot of atheists think of theistic evolution as being no different from any form of creationism. They’re simply anti-God.)
Comment by Pat — November 3, 2005 @ 8:38 am
A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition by Bill Bryson
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