Finished reading “The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew” by Alan Lightman. The first 3/4s of the book was tainted and confused by his trial to blend religion and science. I so much wanted to see his argument but there was no substance to it. An interesting look at the accidental, temporary, spiritual, symmetrical, gargantuan, lawful and disembodied universes we live in simultaneously. 

The last part “The Disembodied Universe” really showed him to be a old curmudgeon. Surprising for a theoretical physicist. The world is changing and has always been in a state of flux. Some have absorbed the changes as if they were natural and some have resisted by erecting barriers or ignoring them. He gives this away by reminiscing about “authentic” times. As if we somehow became ‘unauthentic’. The one nugget I got from the book was that idea that our discovery of the ‘invisible world’ of quantum  and the vastness of the astrophysical world may be leading us to a place where things that are not “physical” (as in right in front of our senses) are becoming more and more normal. Indeed a surprising proposal. Some of the consequences of this are positive and some will turn  out to be negative. Only time will tell which is which, no matter how much we reminisce for the good old day of authentic and natural.