Book Review: A Physicist’s Perspective on God 

I first meet Alan Tai at my local RTB (Reasons to Believe) monthly group in Phoenix, Arizona, on our Zoom meeting a month ago.

Reasons to Believe is a progressive creationist group that promotes day-age forms of old-Earth creationism.

Alan Tai received his Ph.D. in physics, specializing in quantum well research, from Boston College, and a graduate certificate of completion in biblical foundations from Grand Canyon University.

Alan has worked at various medical ultrasound technology companies, including Philips as an engineer and GE, and recently joined our local RTB science group. 

He has been a welcome addition to our local organization, which is an offshoot of the larger Reasons to Believe group, headed by Hugh Ross, an astrophysicist, creationist and Christian Apologist in Covina, California.

Alan and I connected after or meeting about upgrading his website (I am a website designer and graphic artist by trade). I soon found out he recently wrote a book about God coming from a scientist’s point of view.

I write blogs for many different businesses and groups, so I decided to do a book report on it for my Christian Apologetic website that I share with a couple of other authors.

Sorry, I could not help myself but to harken back to my school days and call it a book report, but it is really a book review that I, and our local group, find very interesting.

We like to dig deep into finding God, what makes him tick, and how He has designed this universe the way He did.

He is an Intelligent Designer to the very highest degree and is behind everything with meticulous planning from the very smallest to the largest with precise detail.

I think it’s a form of worship to research God this way.

I found out Alan was born and raised in Hong Kong where he experienced and learned many different cultures and beliefs as he was growing up.

Alan says he is a “scientist and not a politician” and tries to stay away from political topics, which I find refreshing considering our political climate today.

The book itself is not very big and to tackle the subjects that he did, he had to be somewhat brief while at the same time writing it into layman’s terms so someone like me, not in the field of science could understand.

A Physicist’s Perspective on God

The book’s subtitle is “Roadmaps to Wisdom Through Science and Life” is very interesting, to say the least.

He broke down different sections of the book to easily find topics for reference. The table of contents attracted me to where I wanted to go first. I did go back and read the rest of the book, by the way.

I did comments on some of the chapters but left some open because the titles were somewhat explanatory and you need to read for yourself. 

Part One: ‘Introduction’  

1.) ‘My background to Realize the Wisdom in Science’

This is Alan’s way of explaining who he is and why he should be listened to as a scientist.

2.) ‘My Path to the purpose the Wisdom in Science and Life’

3.) Communication through the Scientist and their Lives’

I enjoyed these three chapters because I felt I had a chance to meet Alan and a unique view on how scientists grow up and what he has gone through in his life.

Part Two: ‘The Wisdom Communicating Through Invisible Qualities’

4.) ’Unseen Things’

5.) ’Law of Physics’

 Interesting take on how a scientist can look at the same data and come away with different points of view of the results especially on how it relates to God. This is also how most humans think and absorb information.

6.) ’Universal Order’

I like how he used diagrams to explain things. I am a visual learner, so this helps someone like me.

Part Three: ‘The Wisdom Communicated Through Eternal Power’

7.) In the Beginning. 

Interesting Alan started this out as the Bible.

a.) There was a beginning in time in the universe.

b.) God existed as He was before the beginning of time.

c.) God has the power to create material things.

d.) Before the beginning of time, there were no material things (nothing) apart from God.

e.) The earth existed at the first in chaos.

f.) The Spirit of God was preparing to bring order.

g.) When God said there should be light in a certain time and space, light shone.

8.) ’The Vastness of the Universe’

Alan explained it this way “Reducing the scale of our entire solar system to the size of a quarter gives us perspective about the size of the Milky Way with respect to our solar system. On this scale, the overall size of our Milky Way galaxy would be close to the size of the United States!” 

How does one wrap his head around that?? 

He also gave more models to give understanding, but I had to stop and contemplate what he was saying in each instance. 

Book Review: A Physicist’s Perspective on God

A size meme I designed to give the illustration of the quarter (our solar system) and the United States (Milky Way).

9.) ‘The Uniqueness of the Earth and Humans’

Alan goes into great detail on how our planet earth is unique in the cosmos and how we, as humans, are even more so.  

Part Four: ‘The Wisdom Communicated Through Divine Nature’

10.) ‘Love and Light’

He explains this way at the beginning of the chapter, ‘The general revelation of nature shows us the power of the creator.’

11.) ‘Spirit and Wisdom’

God is not limited by physical space and time.

Part 5: ‘The Wisdom Communicated Through Special Revelation’

12.) ‘The Bible’

Alan said the turning point for him in appreciating the Bible came after he encountered Jesus through the four gospels in the New Testament and opening his spiritual eyes.

13.) ‘Jesus Christ’.

God’s salvation plan centers around His son, Jesus Christ.

Part 6: ‘Conclusion’

14.) ‘The Combined Roadmap’

15.) Triune God and You’

I found Alan’s book informative especially for individuals that did not have much of a science background. He explained things very well in layman’s language so anyone can understand. 

It’s not a large book, but I do not think he meant it to be. It was enough to whet your appetite to find out more about each subject.

If you were an atheist, the book would give you things to think about and if you were a believer in evolution, it would also give you a different point a view from a scientist that believes in God.

You can find Alan’s book here on Amazon

His website is here Science and Life

We have written many interesting articles on Christian Apologetics here Two Measures Foolish Blogs

Book Review: A Physicist’s Perspective on God

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