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The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew (2014)

by Alan Lightman(Favorite Author)

3.82 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0307908585 (ISBN13: 9780307908582)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Pantheon

review 1: This is the book that would make you think deeper. Alan Lightman is so lucid in his explaining things, even the most esoteric knowledge in theoretical physics. The book is full of deep knowledge about the nature of the world, but the more important thing is how those knowledge is discussed and brought into a bigger picture about the meaning of life, of the connection between human beings with the accidental, symmetrical, spiritual, temporary, gargantuan and disembodied universe. My favorite chapter in the books are the symmetrical and temporary universe. Nature is beautiful because the universe "favors" symmetry or beauty when it makes thing. Symmetry or beauty is favored because of it allows the making of things with minimal input, minimal energy but maximum effectiveness... more, as in the case of beehive or snowflakes, or . Human perception is shaped with the same mechanism. We are not separated with the rest of the world, we are not mere observers of beauty, we are the world being aware of its own beauty. This is deeply spiritual and inspiring for me. I have a soft spot for time and temporariness. It is sad not to be able to hold on to anything in this world, but as Alan points out that fact allows us to feel more deeply connected with the world, and value our life more. But this is the same sadness and melancholy that I think will give life its meaning. Our time is so brief and we are ultimately bound to decay and becoming nothingness. This is not to say our limited time is meaningless, it makes our time more precious and worth treasuring. A good movie doesn't have to go on forever to be a good movie. Death and impermanence is real, and we should live this awareness, to realize we are bounded and connected by the same laws, and principles, have only limited time to do what we hope. Given that all people or things we are ever going to know are going to die, it should be clear for us to to live our life surrender to gratitude and love. I enjoy everything except for his unfair attack on Richard Dawkins, of course, I would grand Dawkins can sound really barbed and dismissive when dealing with people of faith. But it is NOT the kind of faith Alan defended in the book that Dawkins has a problem with. Faith that is understood only as one's in awe with the enormous and mysterious universe, as Alan defined in the book, is not the kind of thing Dawkins is after when he was being condescending toward the faithful. Dawkins is after the kind of beliefs and religious dogmas that has caused enormous harm in the world because they are inherently divisive, the kind of beliefs that could be used to justified people doing atrocious things to others, the kind of beliefs that make people claim they know things they don't know about with 100% certainty. People like Richard Dawkins, by virtue of talking honestly about the problems in the world caused or catalyzed by religious dogmas: the hindrance of promising stem cells research, or the killing of innocent people who help with abortion, or the beliefs in martyrdom, or the beliefs in hell that caused needless suffering,...are important to this world, if we ever want to make progress and better lives for humanity. Alan defined faith narrowly, as something very inspiring, it is good that this is his view, however, many people who are using their faiths as a justification for their stupid conduct in the world is not thinking along the same line. That's why I think it is unfair in his attack to Dawkins and other blatant atheists. I have read many account on the anthropic principle, but Alan Lightman with his elucidating writing, has made me understand much better the contingent, blissful accidental nature of our universe and existence. From the existence of water in Earth, to the fine-tuning of the masses and forces in nature, to the fine-tuning of dark energy, everything points seems to conspired to give our existence a chance. But we do not need a designer for that, the laws and principles of our universe alone dictate the possibility of a multiverses, and we only happen to be in one of them. As in Alan's words, the sets of laws and principles in our universes do not only give rise to only one universe alone, but also to many other self-coherent universes, and we are only one of them. We are here by the virtue of a grand accident. Though the future of the platonic dream of physicists is black, and it might be true that we must one day accept that there are other universes we have no way of testing or observing, we only have to believe in them without direct evidences, I feel awe-struck for the glorious time I am in. The time when we come to understand the world so deep and to know for certain the world is much stranger than we can ever supposed or imagined.
review 2: I like these short thoughtful books on big subjects written by scientists who try to explain the world to science dummies like me. Physics is especially weird to me - I'll never really comprehend the Big Bang and how everything in the universe could start from almost nothing! - so I appreciate a superb writer like Mr Lightman helping me get my head around it all. I am keen to read his other works. I especially like how he attempts to place our human perception of reality into the mix. less

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