A Concealed God: Religion, Science, and the Search for Truth - Hardcover

Einhorn, Stefan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1890151939 ISBN 13: 9781890151935

Publisher: Templeton Press, 2002

Synopsis

Highly acclaimed in Sweden where it was first published in both hardcover and paperback editions, A Concealed God poses two intriguing questions:

ˇDoes God truly exist?
ˇIf so, is the concept of God logical and in agreement with the knowledge of the world that science has provided to date?

The God presented by most religions doesn't make sense in today's world; we have little room for miracles. Furthermore, there are irreconcilable aspects in the world's religions. Must we abandon our faith or belief in God? Perhaps not, says popular Swedish thinker Stefan Einhorn. We can behave as scientists do when they run experiments only to obtain contradictory results. They ask themselves whether there might not be a logical conclusion that binds all the results together and leads to the most probable explanation.

Einhorn hypothesizes that if God truly exists, then many different religions would have discovered this. He finds a common denominator in the concept of a hidden God in seven major religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. But even with this shared belief, can we know if God exists? Did humankind create the idea of God to answer the unexplainable? What about evil and suffering, the absence of meaning in life, loneliness and insecurity? And most importantly, how do we search for a concealed God?

Most religions share common principles for the search for "that which is concealed," including meditation, contemplation, and prayer. Whatever route is chosen, the search for God may bring us some answers. Einhorn concludes that two themes are central to the search: one is that God is both concealed and simultaneously omnipresent; the other is that only with utter humility and an awareness of our inability to fully understand may we approach the divine.

In the end, there are no definite answers. But the search sheds light on the many paths to enlightenment offered by the world's religions.

About this title

About the Author:

Stefan Einhorn, MD, PhD, is a professor of molecular oncology and chairman of the Department of Oncology-Pathology at the Karolinska Institute. The author of several popular science books in the field of medicine, he is also a prominent lecturer in both Sweden and the United States.

From Publishers Weekly:

Is there a "concealed God" that operates as the hidden power behind human existence and the creation of the natural laws that govern the universe? Could it be that this force, this concealed God, can be experienced but not described and provide meaning to life? Swedish molecular oncologist Einhorn addresses these and other questions in this sophomoric exercise in the philosophy of religion. Einhorn examines the similarities in religions by listing five characteristics that all religious systems share: ritual and myth, moral values, comfort and caring, social systems and spiritual content. He finds that every religion seeks to discover a concealed God that provides purpose and power for the religion. Examining the relationship of religion to physics, chemistry and biology, Einhorn then asks whether or not science can provide a path toward insight into the divine. He concludes that the strongest scientific argument for an unexplained divine force is the fact that our world offers all the physical and biological requirements that enable life to exist in it. In the end, he says, neither science nor religion can aid in the search for the concealed God; the only meaningful path to the divine is meditation, contemplation and prayer. His conclusion that it is up to the individual to search for answers to the question of God's existence negates much of what went before. Einhorn's definitions of religions, arguments for the existence of God, and discussions of the relationship of science to religion are left in the end without a raison d'Etree.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Templeton Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1890151939
• ISBN 13: 9781890151935
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192