Matt McAvoy Book Review

As a person who lost his faith at a young age, Aeternus Costin could have decided to remain happy in atheism; the fact that he did not, I think, is actually credit to his character; rather than simply admitting that there is no God, he set out to do quite the opposite – and prove that there is… in a way.  It also suggests to me, and I do hope he does not pull me up on this fact, that Aeternus was actually rather more agnostic than he may care to admit.  In fairness to him, the epiphany he had which set him on this path happened quite by chance, in an unexpected moment, but became one of those moments you simply must follow up.  To summarize his revelation, and the premise of this book, it is that God is Gravity – no more or less.  Unlike God in the respect that many of us assume Him to be, gravity is provable with empirical and scientific evidence.  Aeternus then goes on to provide this evidence and correlate it to all we believe God to be – and he leaves no stone unturned, from a philosophical, scientific and transcendental point of view.

Before dismissing out of hand the message in this book – and the author is sure that he will receive some quite aggressive resistance, due in no small part to his assertion that God as we “know” Him is a human construct, based on our own traits, and even with cynical motives for some – just bear in mind that I consider myself to be an outright atheist who has never had any religious inclination whatsoever, yet even I found myself leaning toward considering his theory.  Of course, as far as I am concerned, “God” is just the word of choice Aeternus employs to label what he considers to be the overall force responsible for the universe and all in it.  It is a compelling argument; gravity exists outside of the universe and precedes it; indeed, it is the very basis of the universe’s creation and will certainly be the cause of its end.  He also suggests that gravity has no other scientific explanation – in that respect, I suppose there are many who would disagree, and I am sure he is not in possession of all the information there is to have.  What he does have, though, is extensive research and a holistic approach to his study, from all schools of science and humanities.  It is a tremendously ambitious, brave and exceptionally hard-worked project.  It is also articulated excellently, in simple thematic chapters, by a very, very good writer.  Aeternus presents all sides of his argument, though I did feel perhaps he was a little too disdainful of atheists; he is absolutely convinced of his argument – and in fairness I can see where he is coming from.  That said, I’m not about to start calling gravity “God”, or copying the author’s tendency to refer to gravity in the upper case.  What it will do, though, is get you thinking, which is exactly what a book of this nature should aspire to – and it is a huge recommendation from me, particularly for actively-searching agnostics.  I wasn’t looking for the answers purportedly in this book, but I came away from it as thoughtful as I’m sure Aeternus wants us to be.