The Bible was the first scientific textbook of all; and it got some things right (and plenty more wrong). Steve Jones’ new book rewrites it in the light of modern science. Are we all descended from a single couple, a real-life Adam and Eve? Was the Bible’s great flood really a memory of the end of the Ice Age? Will we ever get back to Methuselah given that British life expectancy is still rising by six hours a day, every day?
Many people deny the power of faith, many more the power of science. In this ground-breaking work, geneticist Steve Jones explores their shared mysteries – from the origins of life and humankind to sex, age, death and the end of the universe. He steps aside from the noisy debate between believers and unbelievers to show how the same questions preoccupy us today as in biblical times – and that science offers many of the answers.
Erudite and accessible, The Serpent’s Promise is a witty and thoughtful account of the ability and the limits of science to tell us what we are.
Many people deny the power of faith, many more the power of science. In this ground-breaking work, geneticist Steve Jones explores their shared mysteries – from the origins of life and humankind to sex, age, death and the end of the universe. He steps aside from the noisy debate between believers and unbelievers to show how the same questions preoccupy us today as in biblical times – and that science offers many of the answers.
Erudite and accessible, The Serpent’s Promise is a witty and thoughtful account of the ability and the limits of science to tell us what we are.
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Reviews
Erudite and accessible, The Serpent's Promise is a witty and thoughtful account of the ability and the limits of science to tell us what we are
Jones is always lively and often wickedly funny
a good natured, supremely well-informed guide ... beautifully written, stuffed with big ideas and sprinkled with fabulous anecdotes
Brilliantly told . . . highly entertaining and informative . . . one of the best books I have read
With sensitivity towards religion and sardonic wit, geneticist Steve Jones delivers a masterful scientific take on biblical events
enthralling, in the best, most bracing way
Witty, urbane and erudite