God in the Equation - by Corey Powell (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

He wanted to know where our world comes from and where it was going.
He wanted to understand how the remote stillness of the heavens relates to the erratic, ever-changing events here on earth.
Above all, he wanted to know if the answers to these questions would bring him closer to a higher authority.
So Einstein put God in the Equation
"Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science," Albert Einstein once said, "becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the universe -- a spirit vastly superior to that of man." This mysterious component, which Einstein called a "cosmological constant," would eventually work its way into his world-shattering theory of relativity. In this way, explains acclaimed science writer Corey S. Powell, Einstein was creating a formula for a new kind of "sci/religion," one in which God was a factor, denoted by the Greek letter Lambda, and one that would pave the way for an entirely new gnostic era in the history of human spirituality.

Review Quotes

Kirkus Reviews Provocative, securely grounded in contemporary theories of physics, and worth pondering.

Scientific American A delight to read....Provides an unusually graceful account of the history of cosmology.

Carl Zimmer author of Evolution and Parasite Rex Powell is one of our finest science reporters....This is a book of eloquence and passion.

John Horgan author of The End of Science and The Undiscovered Mind A splendid, startling argument that the greatest religious issue of our time is actually a 'scientific' problem -- the quest to discover the mysterious energy that sparked cosmic creation and that may control our ultimate destiny.

About the Author

Corey Powell is the News Editor at Discover magazine and a regular contributor. He has written for a variety of other publications including Scientific American and Newsday. He is an adjunct professor at New York University teaching a course on science writing. He graduated from Harvard in history and science.