The Serpent's Promise

The Bible Retold as Science

By Steve Jones

2013

First Published

3.33

Average Rating

448

Number of Pages

13H40M

Audio Length

In The Serpent's Promise, Steve Jones retells many of the Biblical tales in the light of modern science. Are we all descended from a real-life Adam and Eve? Are some—or all—of us marked with the molecular equivalent of original sin, and if so what can we do about it? Was the Bible's great flood a memory of the end of the Ice Age? And what can science tell us of the mystical experiences reported by the faithful, or of the origin of faith itself?Some people deny the power of religious belief, others the findings of science. In this groundbreaking work from one of our great science writers, Steve Jones explores how these mysteries often overlap. He steps aside from the noisy debate between believers and non-believers to show how the questions that preoccupy us today are those of biblical times—and that science offers many of the answers.At once brilliantly erudite and highly readable, The Serpent's Promise is a witty and thoughtful account of the greatest scientific story ever told.

Avg Rating

3.33

Number of Ratings

252

5 STARS

17%

4 STARS

28%

3 STARS

34%

2 STARS

15%

1 STARS

goodreads

Author

Steve Jones

Author · 15 books

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. John Stephen Jones is a Welsh geneticist and from 1995 to 1999 and 2008 to June 2010 was Head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London. His studies are conducted in the Galton Laboratory. He is also a television presenter and a prize-winning author on the subject of biology, especially evolution. He is one of the contemporary popular writers on evolution. In 1996 his writing won him the Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize "for his numerous, wide ranging contributions to the public understanding of science in areas such as human evolution and variation, race, sex, inherited disease and genetic manipulation through his many broadcasts on radio and television, his lectures, popular science books, and his regular science column in The Daily Telegraph and contributions to other newspaper media".