- The Mind of God
Infobox Book
name = The Mind of God
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author =Paul Davies
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language = English
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publisher = Simon & Schuster UK
release_date =1992
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isbn = 0-671-71069-9
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followed_by ="The Mind of God" is a 1992 non-fiction book by
Paul Davies . Subtitled "The Scientific Basis for a Rational World", it is a whirlwind tour and explanation of theories, both physical and metaphysical, regarding ultimate causes. Its title comes from a quotation fromStephen Hawking : "If we do discover atheory of everything ...it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would truly know the mind ofGod ."In the preface, Davies explains that he has been interested in ultimate causes since childhood, having annoyed his parents with unending "why's" about everything, with each answer demanding another "why," and usually ending with the reply, "Because God made it that way, and "that's that!" In the book proper, Davies briefly explores: the nature of
reason ,belief , and metaphysics; theories of the origin of theuniverse ; the laws of nature; the relationship of mathematics to physics; a fewarguments for the existence of God ; the possibility that the universe shows evidence ofintelligent design ; and his opinion of the implications ofGödel's incompleteness theorem , that "the search for a closed logical scheme that provides a complete and self-consistent explanation is doomed to failure."He concludes with a statement of his belief that, even though we may never attain a theory of everything, "the existence of mind in some organism on some planet in the universe is surely a fact of fundamental significance. Through conscious beings the universe has generated self-awareness. This can be no trivial detail, no minor byproduct of mindless, purposeless forces. We are truly meant to be here."
External links
* [http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=404185 The publisher's webpage for "The Mind of God"]
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