Prophet and the Astronomer: Apocalyptic Science and the End of the World by Gleiser, Marcelo - 2003

W W Norton & Company, 2003. Paperback / softcover book is in new, never been read condition. Inside of book pages are crisp and clean. No creasing on edges, no stains, no dog ears. Minor shelf wear on outside edge of paperback cover. Publisher: W W Norton & Company. ISBN 0393324311. 2003 edition. 304 pages. Size: 7 x 5.5 x 1. Additional pictures of condition are always available. BOOK DESCRIPTION: As in his popular The Dancing Universe, Gleiser (physics and astronomy, Dartmouth Coll.) argues that science and religion spring from a single challenge to the human spirit: anxiety over our mortality, which defines us and gives our life meaning. Thus, the different narratives used by science (the Big Crunch) and religion (the apocalypse) to reconcile our finite existence with an apparently infinite universe are not mutually exclusive; they share an awareness of our limited time on Earth, which motivates us to understand the universe and our place in it. A rare astrophysicist as comfortable quoting Scripture as explaining formulas, Gleiser ponders the dark parallels between the apocalyptic visions of ancient seers and the cosmic predictions of modern scientists. In refreshing contrast to theorists who dismiss all prescientific cosmology as mere superstition, Gleiser recognizes the imaginative authenticity of humanity's earliest astral terrors. Eclectic scholarship clarifies how fully a cosmic collision could fulfill the grimmest ancient prophecy--how, in fact, such a collision probably wiped out the dinosaurs and how such a collision occasion nearly occurred again in 1996 when a stray asteroid unexpectedly brushed by the earth. But from the conjunction between the oldest religions and the newest science, Gleiser draws more than reasons for terror. In the profound human craving for unity that monotheism has nurtured, he locates the impulse now spurring researchers toward new models of the universe that will finally reveal the beginning and end of galactic time. . Soft Cover. New/None. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.