Acts of God: Weighing Biblical Events with Natural Science

'Acts of God' explores the dialogue that is possible between Biblical interpretation and natural science, using concrete examples rather than in esoteric philosophical terms. It counters the widespread polarization between a general public that is in the grip of a militant atheism and a two-thirds world where religious belief is expanding. There are a large number of biblical accounts that provide fertile ground for the enquiries of natural science. In the examples chosen, all but one of which are taken from the first 5 books of the Bible, the Torah, a rational, scientific approach broadly supports their historical authenticity. After an introduction to the general topic of how we read the Bible and how particular ways of reading the Bible have provoked an apparent conflict between scientific discovery and religious orthodoxy, seven topics are taken in turn. The first example is the Creation, followed chronologically by Noah's Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Egyptian famines in the time of Joseph, the plagues that precipitated the flight from Egypt of the Israelites known as the Exodus, the parting of the Sea and finally the crossing of the River Jericho and the conquest of Canaan in which the walls of Jericho came tumbling down.

Philip Allen was born in Bath, Somerset, England in 1953, and graduated in geology from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1974. After two years in the oil industry he studied for a doctorate at Cambridge University supervised by Dr Peter Friend, then moved to a postdoctoral position in the University of Bern, Switzerland where he worked with Professor Albert Matter. He held lectureships in Cardiff University and Oxford University before taking the Chair of Geology and Mineralogy at Trinity College Dublin, followed by professorships at ETH Zürich and Imperial College London. He is the author of three editions of Basin Analysis: Principles and Applications (1990, 2005 and 2013) with his twin brother John, Earth Surface Processes published in 1997, and Earth Dramas: Ancient Mysteries and Modern Controversies published in 2014. He has published over 100 scientific papers in the fields of sedimentology, stratigraphy, basin analysis and Earth surface processes. Philip Allen served as Senior Proctor of Oxford University in 2004. He was given a Royal Society-Wolfson research merit award for 2006-2011 held at Imperial College, and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London in 2007. He served as Science secretary of the Geological Society 2009-2012.