Press Release

Fire in the Equations, The Science, Religion, and the Search for God Kitty Ferguson For Immediate Release Contact: Sharon Kelly Tel. (484) 531-8380 Email: publicity@templetonpress.org Thursday, April 01, 2004

Kitty Ferguson's Acclaimed The Fire in the Equations
Back in Print, First Paperback Edition

Stephen Hawking was one of many who acclaimed Kitty Ferguson's book on the ways science and religion challenge and enrich each other. When The Fire in the Equations: Science, Religion, and the Search for God was first published in 1994, Hawking heralded it as, "A clear account of the ultimate question." Other commendations included:

"Ferguson weaves together science, philosophy, and theology with verve and clarity.--John Polkinghorne, Queen's College, Cambridge

"In this beautifully and intelligently written book, Ferguson not only reports on some of the intellectual tremors jolting the world of thinking women and men, but also considers the basic questions with penetrating analysis, yet at a very readable level…An excellent book." --Choice

"An enlightened and readable exploration of the theological questions that inevitably arise out of reflection on this century's physics and astronomy."
–The Washington Times

The Fire in the Equations, back in print and available for the first time in a paperback edition (Templeton Foundation Press, $16.95), invites readers to join in an exploration of paradoxes and improbabilities. The journey begins with a review of quantum physics. It proceeds to embrace cosmology, the nature of time, the Big Bang, the "unreasonable effectiveness" of mathematics, laws of nature and their possible relation to God, chaos theory, black holes, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, particle physics, and Darwin's theory of evolution. Kitty Ferguson explores the role of God in all these equations and raises such questions as "how God might answer prayers" from the point of view of physics.

While she gives no absolute answers, she examines a world of paradoxes and improbabilities and explains how it is possible to believe both in a pre-determined universe and in free will as a theory of human behavior. She concludes that what we know about science doesn't necessarily make God inevitable, but also doesn't rule out God, and that the main "difference between science and religion is that science believes humanity is all on its own; religion believes that the truth we are looking for is also seeking us."

The title of the book is derived from Dr. Stephen Hawking, who, in pondering the "why" of the universe, asks, what is it that "breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?" Ferguson, who is "by turns whimsical, poetic, reverent, theological and authentically speculative in her study" (San Antonio Express-News), challenges and excites thinking about the complexity of scientific discovery and its impact on our beliefs, as she seeks to establish a dialogue between people of faith and people of science.

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