Look at the creation
Science
Twenty episodes on physics, chemistry, life, the Earth and the human body: the best of what science shows, set beside what Jews, Christians and Muslims say about the Creator.
All three Abrahamic faiths tell people to look at the world. The Qur'an says: 'In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and in the alternation of night and day, there are signs for people of understanding: those who remember God standing, sitting and lying down, and reflect on the creation of the heavens and the earth: "Our Lord, You did not create all this in vain"' (3:190-191, our rendering). It asks its first listeners, 'Do they not look at the camels, how they were created? And at the sky, how it was raised? And at the mountains, how they were set firm? And at the earth, how it was spread out?' (88:17-20, our rendering). The Psalms say the same in their own words: 'When I behold Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast established; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him?' (Psalm 8:4-5, JPS 1917), and 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork' (Psalm 19:2, JPS 1917).
Believers in all three traditions have answered that call with science. Al-Biruni measured the size of the Earth from a mountaintop. Ibn al-Haytham, in Cairo, tested by experiment how light and sight work, a thousand years ago. Maimonides, rabbi and physician, taught that studying the wisdom of creation leads to love and awe of God. Isaac Newton saw his laws of gravity as describing the work of 'an intelligent and powerful Being'. Gregor Mendel, a friar, founded genetics in a monastery garden. Georges Lemaître, a Catholic priest, first proposed that the universe had a hot, dense beginning, and warned against using it as proof of God.
That is the spirit of this section: wonder, not proof. Each episode explains what scientists actually know, plainly and with sources, including where they disagree. Then it lets Judaism, Christianity and Islam each speak in their own words, and leaves room for you to think. We never say a scripture 'predicted' a scientific discovery. We think the universe is astonishing enough as it is, and that looking closely at the creation is one of the oldest ways people have found to think about the Creator.
Cosmos and physics
How big everything is, what light and gravity are, the puzzle of time, a universe set just so, and the beginning.
Chemistry and the elements
The 118 building blocks, the stars that forged them, and two ordinary substances that make life possible.
Life
The book inside every cell, the cell itself, plants that eat sunlight, the eye and the mystery of the mind.
Earth
The thin sky we breathe, the unexplored deep, mountains on the move and rain that has been round before.
Us
The heart, the immune system and the body that heals itself.
