[.ca] Inside the Mind of God: Images and Words of Inner Space (ISBN 1890151971)

Stunning photography! Thought provoking!:
Page after page, the photographs compiled by Michael Reagan are a microscopic tour of the universe within us all. Beautifully colored photos of almost every part of the human body are here: synapses, DNA, the human embryo during early cell division, cancer cells, and AIDS. There is also a small section of substances used during religious ceremonies of each major religion. Certainly this book may never convince everyone of God's amazing work or the existence of God at all. But the book leads the reader to acknowledge that beneath the simplest substance, the most mundane aspect of ourselves, is a huge, intricate and orderly universe which, although invisible to the naked eye, exists just as surely as we do. Strongly recommended.

Beautiful pictures, lovely words, but . . .:
The idea of this book, if I understand it, is "to suggest the profound link between the scientific and the spiritual" through the juxtaposition of beautiful pictures of "inner space"--in this case of cells, organs, and crystals--with quotes about faith, mystery and belief. The book starts with a fine essay by Sharon Begley, science editor of the Wall Street Journal. She discusses the thesis that God must exist because of the perfection of the workings of nature--the famous argument from design. She presents some of the arguments for and against it with considerable balance. She also writes about the concept of "biological evil"--the implications of the existence of "evil" things such as disease-causing organisms and cancer cells. She goes on to describe brain-scanning experiments that may help explain how the brain of a meditator or Sufi dancer might create a sense of loss of self and unity with the universe. She concludes by inviting the reader to "see the sacred in the science of life," hoping that the book's microphotographs will bring life's "sacred depths ... to the surface for everyone to appreciate." The photographs, of neurons and sperm cells, DNA molecules and chromosmes, stem cells and embryos, are remarkable and beautiful. To me they made many of the scientific findings I read about far more real. And the quotes, from spiritually minded scientists like Einstein, poets, philosophers, writers and mystics, were also beautiful. I particularly liked one from Annie Dillard. "The extravagent gesture is the very stuff of creation... The whole show has been on fire since the word go!" I consider myself to be fascinated with science, and more than casually interested in the great questions that religion addresses as well. I'm as prone to feeling awe at the night sky, the grandeur of the Sierra Nevada or the inner workings of a cell as the next person. Still, for reasons I can't quite figure out, this book didn't bring those two areas any closer for me. I almost feel apologetic, as if I should have felt the awe and mystery that Begley and editor Michael Reagan set out to evoke. In the end, I found the book more puzzling than enlightening, more frustrating than inspiring. It seems like such a good idea, however, that I hope it will work better for other readers than it did for me. Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation (Wiley, 2002).

Beautiful and poetic ... and that's just the pictures:
Pairing startlingly beautiful photographs of the most minute aspects of life -- neurons, cancer cells, adrenaline, anthrax bacillus, embryonic stem cells, sperm and egg, DNA and more -- with great thoughts of scientists, clergy, philosophers, writers, political leaders and artists is utterly ingenious in this book. For example, a gentle blue photograph of a breast cancer cell appears beside a quote from Mother Teresa: "I know God won't give me anything I can't handle. I just wish He didn't trust me so much." This book not only offers a glimpse inside the human body and related "landscapes," but also a glimpse of great thinking. I found myself marveling at the photographs and mulling the ideas that appear with them.