In this short book Peter Atkins considers the universal questions to which religions have claimed answers. With economy, wit, and elegance, unswerving before awkward realities, Atkins presents what science has to say. While acknowledging the comfort some find in belief, he declares his own faith in science's capacity to reveal the deepest truths.

A personal statement of belief from renowned author Peter Atkins about the ability of science Each chapter explores a grand theme, such as Origins or Death, to show what science has revealed about the topic Written with wit, irony, elegance, and a rigorous exposition of science Explores issues such as the significance of evolution, our personal origins, the physiology of death, and the far ends of the Universe

Peter Atkins is Fellow of Lincoln College, University of Oxford. He is the author of almost 60 books, which include the world-renowned textbook Physical Chemistry (published in its ninth edition in November 2009). His other textbooks include Inorganic Chemistry: Chemical Principles and Molecular Quantum Mechanics. He has also written a number of books for a general readership, including Galileo's finger: The Ten Great Ideas of Science, The Periodic Kingdom, Molecules, and The Laws of Thermodynamics: A Very Short Introduction. He has been a visiting professor in France, Israel, New Zealand, and China, and continues to lecture widely throughout the world.

A personal statement of belief from renowned author Peter Atkins about the ability of science Each chapter explores a grand theme, such as Origins or Death, to show what science has revealed about the topic Written with wit, irony, elegance, and a rigorous exposition of science Explores issues such as the significance of evolution, our personal origins, the physiology of death, and the far ends of the Universe