Dramatic recent discoveries in cosmology and physics challenge our conventional views of nature and the human condition, and offer new insights into science, religion and mysticism.

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Galsig11-009-SJune 2026:  Secrets of Creation: Mysticism Meets Science and Art, my new book with theologian Art Green and artist Debra Band, is an illustrated guide to the mystical Biblical creation with my modern scientific perspective explaining some of the remarkable results in the past few decades in physics and astronomy and why they are relevant. These include quantum discoveries relating the nature of reality, free-will, the impact of gravitational wave and black hole studies, dark matter, entropy and time, and not least the measurements of now over seven thousand exoplanets – planets around other stars.  The book will be ready to ship in August, and can be advanced-ordered from this link.   See below for some excerpts.

May 2026:  FBI releases nonsense about UFOs. 

Fantasizing about aliens (ETI, extraterrestrial intelligence) is fun and distracting but hazardous. While I agree with Tyson (NYT May 6) that “nothing prevents any of us from imagining a universe teeming with life,” what we do know about the universe argues against our ever encountering any ETI.  This week’s Pentagon release of classified FBI illustrations of fantastical spaceships based on “eye-witness” descriptions just emphasizes the hype. In this era of distrust of science, diminished support for research, and the widespread acceptance of outright falsehoods, we need to acknowledge clearly that – at least as far as humanity is likely to know for eons – the Earth is rare and we are precious beings. And we have responsibilities.

One hundred years ago Percival Lowell, famous for claiming Mars had canals, wrote that life is “inevitable” because it is just chemistry. Today, every child knows there are no canals on Mars – and no Martians either.  Lowell’s egregious imagining resulted from mixing meager evidence with his preconceptions.  We should avoid his hubris. As for more distant aliens, the vast size of the cosmos simultaneously permits speculations about ETI but means that nearly all are too distant to confirm or rebut. Astronomers have already discovered and partially characterized over 7000 exoplanets, an important achievement that includes some planetary atmospheres.  But in this sample none are like Earth; most are hostile to life.  In the lab, there is no evidence that chemistry alone guarantees the origin or evolution of ETI either on Mars, exoplanets, or even from a test tube.  Having enough time, for example, is a critical ingredient but most known exoplanets are in unstable environments.   As a result, even if the cosmos were fertile, we are almost surely alone. 

2025:  What do we really know about the world?  Here is my new essay on the state of our scientific knowledge of the universe and the natural world.  It concludes, “Modern discoveries in science have assembled an increasingly detailed and convincing picture of the nature of our world, but simultaneously uncovered features of reality that complicate or even challenge that picture.”  The full essay, which is also included in my new book, Secrets of Creation, can be read here.

ABOUT THE BOOKS

Secrets of Creation

Are we really alone in the universe? Do we have free-will? How was the universe formed? What is the quantum reality? My new book (August 2026), magnificently illustrated by Debra Band, is based on the Kabbalistic classic by Meir Ibn  Gabbai translated and commented by Art Green.  My accompanying essays discuss dramatic new discoveries in astronomy, cosmology and physics, and delve into the scientific and mystical descriptions of the world we live in.

Let There Be Light

THE UNIVERSE BEGAN out of nothing 13.7 billion years ago and has expanded in an evolving process that resembles one that Jewish mystics envisioned centuries ago. In my first book, Let There Be Light (2006), I explain simply and clearly the modern scientific understanding of the cosmos and its origin, and explore how it complements Judaism’s ancient mystical theology, Kabbalah.

Reviews of the Books

“A profound and perceptive discussion of science and religion by a thoughtful and knowledgeable scholar of both, written with depth but in a style understandable to the general public.”

— Charles H. Townes, PhD, Nobel laureate in physics, winner of the Templeton Prize, and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Read this book if you want to discover how religion and science can interact harmoniously, how ancient Kabbalah and modern cosmology intersect, and how both of these approaches together can enlighten us”

— Daniel C. Matt, author of God and the Big Bang , and The Zohar: Pritzker Edition.

“Mind-bending and spiritually illuminating in every sense! The symbolic vocabularies of kabbalah, astrophysics, and art converge in most wondrous ways. What a gift!”

 

— Michael Fishbane, author, Fragile Finitude: A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology

Read an excerpt from Secrets

Read an excerpt from LTBT

“Is intelligence somehow linked to the quantum-mechanical puzzles described earlier about human observation and reality (and in this chapter, about how the universe seems to be suited to nurture it)? Many increasingly precise experiments have unequivocally proven the certainty of one feature of quantum mechanics: pairs of objects, even those that become remotely separated from one another, have instantaneous, mutual connections.

“Most physicists and philosophers have reached the following conclusion: The only way to obtain these strange results is if one of the following three statements about the nature of the world is wrong:    (1) There is an external reality (i.e., an external world independent of observers); (2) faster-than-light communication is impossible (“locality,” at the heart of relativity and our notions of space and time); (3) there is causality (somehow even in quantum processes and measurement). If you are uncomfortable with the mysterious, all-powerful role of the observer to collapse a wavefunction, then all the experiments so far force you to decide which of these three ideas you want to give up: Reality? Locality? Causality?

“If you are comfortable with the Copenhagen Interpretation of wavefunction collapse (it posits that collapse occurs when an observation is made by an intelligent, aware being), then the question becomes whether other intelligent life forms, if they exist, also have this ability. Whether or not any exist is considered next.”

“This is a book for people wondering about modern science and religion, and what each has to say to the other, if anything…. The creation of the universe, quantum physics, and Jewish mysticism are profound and intricate subjects. My strategy is to hold your interest as we navigate among them. While I will not be able to teach you the subtleties of these topics in this small volume, I do hope to explain their essential ideas clearly and painlessly, and I even hope to persuade you that such exploration can intensify your appreciation of this world.

“Modern science and kabbalistic mysticism have provided us with joint insights about our wondrous universe. We on Earth live at the perceived center of the cosmos. All other places share this property, as we saw in the discussion of general relativity, but ours is, nevertheless, a special kind of condition. The Creation itself took place here, as everywhere, ex nihilo from the basic laws of physics. The event occurred 13.7 billion years ago although, paradoxically, it is possible that there was never a time when the universe did not exist.

“We seem to be the purpose of the Creation. Our universe is the way it is, perfect for life, perhaps for our sake. We may be but an infinitesimal speck in the vastness of the cosmos, but the laws of physics and nature that guide the universe established the extraordinary conditions necessary for our existence. We do not know for certain if this circumstance is due to necessity or luck, but we are surely blessed.”

UPCOMING and RECENT APPEARANCES

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