In his new book, Faith and Science in Harmony: Contemplation on a Distilled Doxology, Sy Garte makes the following statement:
“[Science] cannot be used to demonstrate the existence of God beyond doubt since it lacks the appropriate methodology and conceptual framework to investigate the divine. But if God exists, we would expect to find things about our universe outside of what we’d expect if there was no God – things that point to a Creator – and that is exactly what we find.”
Science in Harmony: Contemplation on a Distilled Doxology, p. 110
This statement is a good summary of the content of the book.
Sy Garte was a third generation atheist for decades, well into middle age. He is a retired scientist whose upbringing, education, and worldview was defined by materialistic and naturalistic assumptions. He was educated and trained to follow the science, and the science led him to him edges where science could not go.
The penumbra of a reality that was eclipsed to him in those materialistic assumptions emanated from behind those dark edges. He recognized the limits of those assumptions, and his curiosity led him explore the strange light at their edges.
Sy Garte tells his story in the book, The Works of His Hands: A Scientist’s Journey from Atheism to Faith. He followed the science where it led him. When it led him to dead ends where science could not go, he explored where science pointed. The journey took years. His story may not be your story, but it is well worth the read. It may even illuminate your own journey.
His most recent book, Faith and Science in Harmony: Contemplation on a Distilled Doxology, explores “the things that point to a Creator” in snippets of insightful science, poetry and story. He takes the reader to the penumbra and explores the light that shines out from behind it with snippets of science, stories, and unique insights.
Each chapter is short, packed full of a lifetime of insight, science, and faith that emanates from the science to which he devoted his life. The book illuminates a reality that was not accessible by that science alone, but to which that science leads. The book is as readable and accessible as it is intriguing and insightful.
The weaves science into a tapestry of personal stories, anecdotes, examples, quotations, Bible verses, and citations that explore the strange light that emanates from the edges where science meets faith.
Dr. Sy Garte is a biochemist and has been a professor at New York University, University of Pittsburgh, and Rutgers University. He has authored over two hundred scientific publications and four previous books.
Sy Garte has served as division director at the National Institutes of Health and Vice President for Research (acting) at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He has also served on the Board of Advisors for the John Templeton Foundation. Sy is the Editor-in-Chief of “God and Nature” magazine and vice president of the Washington, DC, chapter of the American Scientific Affiliation (ASA). He is a Fellow of the ASA.
Sy is now a lay leader and certified Lay Servant in the United Methodist Church. Although retired from active employment, Sy keeps busy writing and evangelizing online and in the church. He also contributes to science and faith journals such as Perspectives in Science and Christian Faith, and keeps a blog “The Book of Works”.
Navigating by Faith 