God's Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion

Sidestepping the acrimony of recent science vs. religion debates, Consolmagno, a Vatican astronomer and self-described techie, intends that demonstrating the existence of a lot of people like me, who flourish as scientists while practicing a religion, should be proof enough that science and religion can be perfectly compatible. Combining personal memoir with conversations within the techie world, Consolmagno describes questions about the universe and the meaning of life that attract techies into religious belief and practice, concluding that techies are not looking for proof. Theyre looking for confidence. When he tests his initial hypotheses with a survey project, Consolmagno finds that for many religiously-involved techie types, the value of community and moral support may actually be more important than the search for religious answers. As one atheist interviewee puts it, You think you are selling truth, but your audience has already brought their own truth with them to church. All you are selling them is tech support. Is this all there is to religion? Certainly not for Brother Guy, who defends a specifically Christian and Catholic version of religious truth. Yet Consolmagnos adroit and self-effacing style defuses any suggestion of theological point-scoring, as in his dryly Dilbertian defense of papal infallibility: Unlike some of the other bosses Ive worked for in my life, this one admits that hes only infallible under certain extremely limited conditions.