A Hole in Science: An Opening for an Alternative Understanding of Life

This debut from Christopher opens with an explanation of the “material-only hypothesis,” the premise that all human and animal behaviors can be explained by DNA. Rejecting the notion that living beings are mere “bio-robots” with desires and capabilities dictated only by genetic makeup, Christopher points to phenomena that DNA research has been unable to reconcile with this materialist view, including prodigies, savants, transgender individuals, unexplainable differences between identical twins, and children with seemingly vivid accounts of their past lives. Christopher offers an alternative hypothesis to explain the “missing heritability problem,” calling his interpretation the “common premodern transcendental understanding”: people do have souls, and seemingly impossible knowledge and talents are the result of reincarnation. In support of this view, Christopher connects some of the “holes” in the materialist view to excerpts from The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Written with academic language, occasionally clunky syntax, and dry metadiscourse, the book’s presentation and main argument feel somewhat at odds with each other—yet the open minded may be swayed by Christopher’s parallels between today’s undisputed faith in scientific materialism and yesterday’s undisputed faith in religion. (BookLife)