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.