Ira Mark Egdall 
COSMIC ROOTS 
The Conflict Between Science and Religion and How it Led to the Secular Age

Cosmic Roots traces the five-thousand-year conflict between science and religion — and how it has shaped our modern secular worldview.

Told with rare clarity and striking insight, this fascinating and thought-provoking book focuses on the history of cosmology and its sister science astronomy. For it was discoveries within these great disciplines which first led to the conflict between science and religion. The story begins with the cosmological beliefs of the ancients — from the flat Earth models of the Sumerians and Hebrews to the Greek notion of the orbits of planets as divine circles. Topics progress from Aristotle and Ptolemy’s integrated planetary models to the Sun-centered cosmologies of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and the great Isaac Newton. Their combined scientific achievements stand as testimony to the power and imagination of the human mind.

This meticulously researched narrative also traces the roots of Western religion, based on historical events and archeological evidence. It takes us on a captivating journey through Western religious history — from ancient paganism to the ethical monotheism of the Hebrews, Christians, and Moslems. Along the way, we follow the rise and fall of civilizations, of empires, cycles of war and peace, unification and division.

The book concludes with how Darwin came up with his theory of evolution and the impact of modern physics on religious beliefs. The cumulative effect of the scientific discoveries presented in Cosmic Roots has, for better or for worse, led to the separation of science and religion we see in Western culture today.

Contents:

• Gods and the One God:
  
  
  
  • The Sag-giga
  
  
  • From Priests to Kings
  
  
  • In the Beginning
  
  
  • One Nation Under God
  
  


• Lovers of Wisdom:
  
  
  
  • The Greeks
  
  
  • The Great Natural Philosopher
  
  
  • The City of the Mind
  
  
  • The Great Astronomer
  
  


• Fall and Rise:
  
  
  
  • Zeus Versus YHWY
  
  
  • Found and Lost
  
  
  • He Has Risen
  
  
  • Jerusalem in Flames
  
  
  • The Thirteenth Apostle
  
  
  • The Blossoming
  
  
  • The Age of Martyrs
  
  
  • By Their Conquer
  
  


• Rebirth:
  
  
  
  • The Prophet
  
  
  • The Medieval Universe
  
  
  • The Reluctant Revolutionary
  
  
  • The Observer
  
  
  • The Visionary
  
  
  • The Michelangelo of Science
  
  
  • The Two Chief World Systems
  
  


• Enlightenment:
  
  
  
  • The Great One
  
  
  • The Heavens and the Earth
  
  
  • Reason
  
  
  • Two Giants
  
  


• Life:
  
  
  
  • Reluctant Revolutionary Redux
  
  
  • The Origin of Species
  
  
  • The Law of Evolution
  
  
  • The Secular Universe
  
  

Readership: Anyone who is interested in the history of science and religion, as well as the development of astronomy, cosmology, and evolution.

Key Features:

• Cosmic Roots is unique in that it presents the history of both the development of Western cosmology/astronomy and the history of the religions of Abraham in the same book


• The book includes fascinating biographies of great scientists and religious figures


• Written for the general reader, the book presents evidence-based views known to historical scholars but rarely found in popular accounts. They include: Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Rise of Christianity, Copernicus, The Renaissance, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Galileo, Isaac Newton, Modern Physics