The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew

Over the years, I have read many of Professor Lightman’s books. For me, his work is a mixed bag—sometimes great, sometimes no more than adequate. It is with great pleasure, therefore, that I can report The Accidental Universe to belong in the former category. This is a wonderful book.Most readers are likely familiar with Lightman because of his fiction: Einstein’s Dreams, Good Benito, Reunion (a personal favorite), and others. This book, however, is a work of nonfiction. It is essentially a series of short meditations on the universe by this author who is, after all, both a professor of physics and the humanities.Meditations is the right word, I think. These brief essays each have the universe as their topic but approach it from a different aspect. Most of the titles give you a clue. “The Temporary Universe” discusses entropy and change, “The Gargantuan Universe” discusses its size with we as a speck in the vastness, and “The Symmetrical Universe” talks about—what else?—symmetry and its intellectual attractiveness (as well as the importance of the Higgs particle).The two best sections, though, are “The Lawful Universe” and “The Spiritual Universe”. In a sense, they give the underlying themes of the book as a whole. First, there are things about the universe that are intellectually understandable. Over the centuries, the scope of the things that we understand—that we have laws about—has widened considerably, as our conception of the universe itself has grown. (How many of us realize that it was only a hundred years ago that the brightest minds on earth considered the “universe” to consist of a static Milky Way galaxy?) Lightman’s scientific bent enables him to grasp our need for scientific laws quite clearly. On the other hand, Lightman’s also has another side, a contrarian side that looks at the universe differently, and this also comes through.For lack of a better term, this is his “spiritual” side which is the second strong undercurrent in these pages. Though he remains basically atheist himself, he realizes the importance and the power of faith. I try to strike this balance myself and I find his thinking runs very close to mine. He certainly has the best words to say to the militant atheists I’ve read so far: “As a scientist, I find Dawkins’s efforts to rebut these two arguments for the existence of God—Intelligent Design and morality—completely convincing. However, as I think he would acknowledge, falsifying the arguments put forward to support a proposition does not falsify the proposition. Science can never know what created our universe…The belief or disbelief in such a Being is a matter of faith.” He goes on to say (after more kind words about Dawkins and his accomplishments): “What troubles me about Dawkins’s pronouncements is his wholesale dismissal of religion and religious sensibility…In my opinion, Dawkins has a narrow view of faith and of people. I would be the first to challenge any belief that contradicts the findings of science. But, as I have said earlier, there are things we believe in that do not submit to the methods of science” (p. 49 – 51). I have quoted this rather extensively but, as one who follows these arguments rather closely, I think Lightman has hit it on the head here. (Others, I know, will disagree.)In the end, I was impressed by Lightman’s thinking here. He expounds easily on matters of science both historical and current. He also obviously considers the meanings of things deeply and speaks well on the subject. I recommend this highly to anyone interested in science and faith.

I'm not a physicist and although I enjoy reading about some of the concepts, there is a mystery involved if you don't speak the language.The strength of this book is the author's excellent way of making these theories / observations accessible. Some I still don't understand, like string theory. I understand the words he uses to describe string theory and I don't think they could be simplified to any greater extent. The concept is just hard to wrap one's mind about if you don't live in that universe.Lightman offers and excellent discussion of physics, belief in God and how they intersect. He's respectful of those of us who have faith that the almighty is behind all of this even while presenting the logical arguments and points of view of those who see only science behind theory.This is a short book that I highly recommend if you want to get a good glimpse of what it all is at the massive as well as minuscule levels.

Terrific examination of how we view the world as human beings, and ways in which we may or may not be right. Also a really helpful endeavor to ground it all philosophically. Includes a brief overview of the history of science, including modern physics, in a format non-scientists can actually grasp, making concepts accessible and even entertaining. And Hh does it all within the dual framework of our everyday experience and a deep grounding in philosophy. Challenges the reader to consider the big and very orderly symmetry of the cosmos alongside our human penchant for variety and deviations from the norm, questioning our everyday understanding of things each step of the way. I’m not explaining it near as well as he does. Read the book.

Mostly a set of essays on scientific concepts about the universe. Mr Lightman truly has a gift for communication and the ability to convey a tremendous amount of information in most every well articulated sentence. He also has a thorough understanding (scientifically speaking) of the subject matter and presents it in a way that is easily understood.However, his attempts to present theological viewpoints/counter viewpoints fall utterly flat, as you might expect from a self confessed atheist, and would have better off been entirely omitted from the book. After having read another book he wrote, “Einstein’s Dreams,” where he explores a plethora of possible ways in which the movements of time could be experienced, I was amazed to see how strictly linearly (time wise) he speaks about God in this book. In my humble opinion, this book is VERY limited in scope (theologically speaking) and demonstrates a complete lack of comprehension of an all knowing, all powerful and ever present (in all locations and in ALL time periods at the same time) being.Also, it’s mainly in the first few essays that he speaks of things worthy of deep consideration, after that it seems like filler used to complete a book sized publication instead of a magazine article. I read the book twice just to make sure I didn’t miss anything and because, after the first read, I knew that I intended to write this review.

Excellent, and thought provoking at every turn. The artfulness with which science is communicated by Mr Lightman is unparalleled. Science is brought alongside life and compared and experienced in these pages. Incredibly, the author manages to do this in a relatively short amount of pages across various essays. I especially appreciate his simple explanation of quantum physics, in one paragraph, he manages to explain it better than I've ever heard it described before. Bravo Alan Lightman, I look forward to reading more of your works.

The James Webb telescope has opened up new vistas of understanding our universe. This understanding has made even more rewarding and deep and rich by reading the Accidental Universe by Dr. Alan Lightman. It adds to my understanding of what is coming through the news wires every day from the new telescope.I am a spiritual person, and I find the book to be very spiritual, but not religious. This is fine by me. God talk can be very tribal and toxic. The Universe and knowledge about it must. be given and understood inclusively. This work does exactly that.Dr. Lightman, who is a good teacher about the universe in which we live. I recommend this book to any person who is adventurous and curious about the universe within which we find ourselves.

Not what I expected. Nothing new and much to say , jumps about a great deal. Nothing of value in astronomy.

Me encanto! Sencillo, conciso y educativo. Toda una forma de ver el mundo, equilibrio perfecto entre filosofía y ciencia. Lo recomiendo completamente.

Brilliant narratation..

This is a good book and a great mix of what we 'know' scientifically and 'feel' philosophically. Just one thing that could have made it better and that would be a chapter entitled The Living Universe. The book, The Self-Aware Universe by Goswami, gives some better clues as to what is really going one. I hope one day materialistic scientists discover that all that 'dark stuff' is only dark when you look in the wrong direction and that everything is 'alive' but perhaps not-as-we-know-it.That said, there are some real gems of wisdom here and the author makes some big concepts easily digestible.