The Cosmic Blueprint

by Paul Davies,
Templeton Foundation Press,
ISBN 1-932031-66-9, ©2004

When you read the title of this book, you automatically assume that it has something to do with design. Blueprints are designs that precede the construction of something when you use it in the affairs of humans, and the notion of a blueprint for the cosmos would suggest that there is a design to the cosmos that was designed by a designer. Paul Davies is an acclaimed philosopher from Australia and was awarded the Templeton prize in 1995 for progress in religion. His writings are usually very deep and aimed at college graduate level readers, and this book is no exception.

What Davies basically challenges in this book is the atheist notion that the cosmos is a meaningless collection of particles. He does this by looking for purpose in all the new methodologies of science. The book explores the second law, chaos theory, evolution, quantum mechanics, and the self organization that is seen in the laws of science. The book is complex, but shows clearly the complexities of life and the conditions that support life. The impossibility of blind chance is shown, but answered by looking at things built into nature that tend to organize matter into life and the parameters that affect it.

The conclusion of the book is that there is a blueprint, but Davies leaves it at that. There is no proof of God or reference to a personal relationship to God. The last sentence of the book says it well: "The impression of design is overwhelming. Science may explain all the processes whereby the universe evolves its own destiny, but that still leaves room for there to be a meaning beyond existence." Believers in a personal God will not find the book to be too convincing, and atheists and agnostics will probably not like the book at all. We recommend it to people with advanced training in cosmology and philosophy. It is interesting, challenging, and gives some interesting insights on things going on in cosmology and philosophy today. We would not recommend it to general readers.

Back to Contents Does God Exist?, NovDec05.