God, Albert Einstein famously observed, does not play dice with the universe. Much of quantum physics, a field of study that Einstein helped initiate and that has extended his theories into the oddest of corners, is so materialistic that it can find little room for speculation about the role of chance in the universe — and, indeed, for a supreme being at all.
Shimon Malin, a professor of physics at Colgate University, notes that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our thinking about the universe and our place in it. With its "principle of objectivation" and its positing of a mysterious "collapse of quantum states" and multiple realities, among other theses, the new physics suggests that "nature is an organism whose functioning cannot be reduced to a set of mechanisms." The resultant uncertainty has undermined traditional views of religion and human purpose, and philosophy has only begun to account for it. But, Malin suggests, that uncertainty need not lead to meaninglessness or nihilism. If we consider the universe to be alive and intelligent, and if we nurture "conscious attention" to it, then we become witnesses to and participants in its order and completion, even if we do not completely understand it.
Confused? It's easy to be confounded, for lines of thought in modern science and philosophy alike can be difficult to follow. Malin writes lucidly about the new physics, the quest for an overarching "theory of everything," and the search for meaning in an apparently inanimate creation. If his discussions sometimes get a little tangled, well, that's the nature of the subject itself. Whatever the case, there is much to ponder in his well-written book, and much to learn. — Gregory McNamee