Overview

Is the matrix (i.e., womb) of modern science a religious view of the world
formulated most clearly by the four greatest thinkers of Judaism, theistic Hinduism,
Christianity and Islam? What did the pioneers and prophets of science think
of God? And what does science tell us about the origins of energy, autonomous
intelligent agents (life-forms), consciousness, language, reproduction and the
laws of nature? What happened “before” the Big Bang? Does the universe have
an IQ measured by the progressive manifestation of intelligence in its history?
Who holds the patent on quantum fields and the genetic code? How do electrons
and photons, cells and proteins, “know” what to do and what keeps them ticking?
How do thoughts “cause” brain events? Is there a supra-scientific Theory of
Everything?

These are the questions that drive The Wonder of the World: A Journey
from Modern Science to the Mind of God, a dialogue on the existence
of God and the message of modern science. Dr. Madhva Mitra (“Guru”), founder
of the Sakshi hermitage in the Himalayas, holds that modern science is the most
powerful witness to a religious view of reality and that, in fact, the God-equation
underlies the scientific enterprise as a whole. Dr. Joseph Levin (“Geek”), a
computer scientist and a convinced atheist, holds that religion is an obstacle
to science that is demonstrably false. Mitra and Levin had reached a deadlock
in their initial round of discussions held at the United Nations-organized Millennium
World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders. Levin re-initiates the
discussion after the death of his father and here they embark on a momentous
pilgrimage to the origin of all things.

Drawing on the four religious thinkers who created the Matrix of science as
well as the greatest scientists of all time (the “Prophets of the Matrix”),
Mitra introduces a new paradigm centered on the intelligence that pervades the
universe at all levels. This paradigm is the big picture that unifies both the
latest data of modern science and the hard facts of human experience. Join Guru
and Geek now as they journey from the Matrix of Science to the Mind of God.

The author of The Wonder of the World previously edited Cosmos,
Bios, Theos, a book described in Time magazine as “the year’s most
intriguing book about God” and Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends,
winner of the 1995 Templeton Book Prize for Outstanding Books in Science and
Natural Theology. Cosmos, Bios, Theos included contributions
from 24 Nobel Prize winners. Numerous scientists and philosophers, atheists
and theists, have provided invaluable input in the creation of The Wonder
of the World.