Calculating God

By: Robert J. Sawyer

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Robert J. Sawyer

Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

In this Hugo-nominated novel, an alien walks into a museum and asks if he can see a paleontologist. But the arachnid ET hasn't come aboard a rowboat with the Pope and Stephen Hawking (although His Holiness does request an audience later). Landing at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, the spacefarer, Hollus, asks to compare notes on mass extinctions with resident dino-scientist Thomas Jericho. A shocked Jericho finds that not only does life exist on other planets, but that every civilization in the galaxy has experienced extinction events at precisely the same time. Armed with that disconcerting information (and a little help from a grand unifying theory), the alien informs Jericho, almost dismissively, that the primary goal of modern science is to discover why God has behaved as he has and to determine his methods.

BONUS AUDIO: Author Robert J. Sawyer explains how the creationism vs. evolution debate informed the writing of Calculating God.

• 2009 Audie Award Winner, Science Fiction/Fantasy

©2000 by Robert J. Sawyer (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Is Sawyer Canada's answer to Michael Crichton? Very possibly yes." ( Montreal Gazette)
"Jonathan Davis...is one of our very best narrators and this is a fine performance. I was rapt the entire time, and even near tears at one moment in the book." (sffaudio.com; named an SFFaudio Essential)
"Jonathan Davis portrays a thoughtful and quietly introspective Jericho....As the conversation with Hollus continues, Davis keeps a steady pace and reflects the intellectual engagement of both characters. He presents the alien's speech as lightly studied, a fitting style for a non-English speaker who coordinates his speech between two mouths." ( AudioFile)

Good

Reminds me a little of Out Of The Silent Planet.

I enjoyed the writing style and overall topic.

a facile understanding of many sciences

if you can overlook the extremely superficial understanding of physics and biolgy, and you want to use these to justify your belief in a god (or gods for that matter), then you'll possibly enjoy this book. I would note that he hasn't even invented a particularly believable alien (especially since he insists on parallel evolution). About halfway through the narratve, I found myself hoping the protagonist/narrator would just go ahead and die. And on the topic of intelligent design, Sawyer, like so many others, never even mentions the problem of what created god. So if you love stick figure caricatures of both atheists and fundamentalists, you'll LOVE this book. The actual narration was done decently.

Fascinating twist for a scifi story

Excellent presentation. The storyline was well thought out and is an interesting departure from the usual ET encounter. I would recommend it.

Depressing

This was an incredibly depressing book. It had a somewhat fractured plot, with no resolution. No plot twists just jumps. The main characters were fully developed and intriguing. The premise was good. But the story was jumbled and the conclusion was totally dissatisfying. So much more could've been done with this story. Mostly it left me depressed and unfulfilled.

judgment of a title

Definitely not what you would expect from the title. Good read for sure. Different perspective gives light.

Good thought provoking read.

Would you consider the audio edition of Calculating God to be better than the print version?

Have not read the print....really enjoyed the audio.

What other book might you compare Calculating God to and why?

It's a very unique book...science, religion, aliens, and a touch of human insanity combine to create an original view of the origins of the universe. It's not a science vs religion as much as it is a science proves religion book. If you like Sci FI and are not Agnostic you'll like the book! (or maybe if you are Agnostic you'll still enjoy the banter)

What does Jonathan Davis and Robert J. Sawyer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Good readers...loved the Alien voices. The readers had good pace. The emotion of the readers trumped the idea of just reading it yourself!

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I almost did! And then just started it over for a second read!!!!

Any additional comments?

The book is such a unique story that it's worth the listen! Many of the books "scientific proofs" of why there must be a God figure in the universe, hold with or without Aliens. It'll make you think no matter how deeply you feel there is or isn't a God. The Alien species were imaginative. It was fun trying to understand how each species evolved their own methods of communication. These methods were the key to understanding each species' beliefs. Insight into the language piece alone can develop a respect for the various cultures and languages on Earth.

Books that prompt insights are always worth the read!

like a freshman theology class on steroids

There was so much to like about this book, I hardly know where to start.

Might as well begin with the basic concept of the novel. In his intro to the Audible edition, author Robert J. Sawyer explains that he wanted to reverse the typical scifi scenario, where the aliens arrive bringing All Scientific Knowledge with them. Instead, he wondered, what if the knowledge the aliens brought with them was confirmation of God’s existence? How would a modern-day, non-religious, atheistic scientist react? It’s a brilliant premise and watching Sawyer’s plot play out was a lot like watching a man on a tightrope . . . would he be able to hold onto a balanced portrayal of the two camps, creationism vs. evolution?

This is extremely tricky territory, but Sawyer handles it superbly. Every cogent argument that can be made for or against the existence of God, and every one for or against evolution, is examined via extended dialogues between the alien creationist-scientist and the human evolutionary-scientist.

At first, like many other readers, I was confused and disappointed that the alien’s “proof” of God’s existence was so “deux ex machina” (pun intended). But then I realized, that was exactly Sawyer’s intent. He was setting up a situation so that he could examine it. If an alien came with incontrovertible evidence that God existed, would we believe it? How would a person who had based his whole life on the idea that God does not exist handle this “evidence?” Readers who berate Sawyer for not having “real” proof of God’s existence have missed the point.

Backing up this dialog on creationism vs. evolution was a cast of characters that I found very compelling. It’s strange to me how often accomplished scifi authors seem to be incapable of creating aliens that are, well, ALIEN. But in Calculating God, Sawyer creates two alien races. Both are very different physically from humans, and indeed the book has some funny moments in it where the human tries to explain to the aliens why all the aliens in movies look like humans. But more importantly, one of the alien races THINKS very differently from humans; they “often speak in rhetorical questions, but have no sense of sarcasm.” They reminded me a bit of the aliens in my favorite ST:TNG episode, “Darmok,” who speak in metaphors. Since no one outside their race understands the basis of the metaphors, it is extremely difficult to understand the meaning behind what the aliens are saying. So it is in Calculating God. In one of its more cogent moments, and one of the most profound moments in the book, this alien explains its understanding of God:

“God observes . . . wave fronts collapse . . . God’s chosen people are those whose existence he/she/it validates by observing.” The human character, and many readers along with him, recognize this as a basic tenet of quantum physics: events don’t become real until they are observed by a conscious entity. Which leads inevitably to the question, Has there been a conscious observer since the beginning of time?

The alien goes on to state “Many possibly futures, from all that are possible, he/she/it chooses one to observe,” prompting the human to question whether God simultaneously sees all the possible moves of everything in the universe? Does He “calculate the game,” the way chess-playing computers can calculate ALL the possible chess moves in advance?

This book was like my freshman theology class on steroids, with side readings on Darwin, gaps in the fossil record and how DNA works for extra credit. Judging from the wide variety of reactions here on Goodreads, it would make an excellent book for a book club, since it seems to bring out pretty strong reactions from readers.

[I listened to this as an audiobook performed by Jonathan Davis. His reading was excellent, if a bit on the slow side. After I followed the advice of another listener and turned up the book to 1.5 speed, I was much happier.]

Sad story of triumph

I can't imagine ever leaving my son, even to meet god, but the biblical God asks for just that...

Interesting book, very enjoyable narration

This book had a lot of interesting ideas, but I think some reviewers have misrepresented it significantly.

Firstly -- SPOILER ALERT -- this book does NOT argue against evolution. It doesn't even argue for the existence of an omnipotent or omniscient God. In fact, the aliens specifically believe that "God" is neither all-powerful nor all-knowing. So the book is almost as likely to annoy the religious as the non-religious, assuming that they are paying attention.

I don't agree with all the arguments in the book, but it does discuss interesting questions. For instance -- if there is a God, what is his/her nature? If God did design the universe, then WHY did he/she do so? Why does God allow evil (disease, death, etc.) to occur? And so on. You don't have to believe the same things as the characters in order to enjoy thinking about the questions.

IMHO the narration and tone of the book were excellent -- light enough to not be maudlin, serious enough to feel the suffering, humorous enough to avoid taking itself too seriously. The book isn't perfect, but it is quite an enjoyable listen.

Thought-provoking

I am a fan of Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax, so I went into this with an open mind, but also high expectations.

I will not admit to being swayed from my personal belief that there is no God. However, Sawyer makes a really interesting case for the possibility -- with a lot of math/science backing him up. He also helped me to understand how science and faith might find common ground.

I doubt believers will be satisfied with Sawyer's logic, but I think it could make the non-believers think twice. I suspect many more of us will read this book anyway.

Sawyer takes care to wrap personal human/alien drama around these complex ideas to make them easier to understand. And, if you overlook the simplicity of the plot, the concepts discussed in this book are definitely worth hearing if not study.