Has anyone heard of Henry (Fritz) Schaefer or read his book?

[Scoobmaster]

My co-worker (A Christian fundamentalist) and I have constant debates "over the office partition". His latest volley came from a blurb on his Christian radio station by Chuck Swindoll (cheating in my book - he did no research or thinking - he just heard this on the radio and parroted it over to me - but I digress)

Anyway, Dr Henry (Fritz) Schaefer is a world-renowned quantum research chemist and apparently also a Christian apologist. My co-worker is trying to use Schaefer as another example of "Science proves the Christian bible-god exists" I did some digging and Schaefer's chemistry credentials are sound (and he appears to be a well-liked professor and generally a good man). I found his book at amazon:

Science and Christianity: Conflict or Coherence? (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/097429750X/qid=1078862294/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9377429-2455022?v=glance&s=books#product-details)

All the reviews seem to be from Christian believers so I didn't get a "fair and balanced" look at his views. Has anyone read his works or heard him speak? I know, I know - "buy the book and read it!...." I would if time permitted, but unfortunatly it does not permit. I turn to the JREF and the fountain of wisdom of the posters here.

Anyone have info or opinions?

[pgwenthold]

I know the guy. From about 1970 to 1990, HF Schaefer was at the forefront of computational chemistry. There was a lot of talk at the time of the Nobel Prize for his work, which was at a level with which few could compete. Great methods, good insight, and they attacked really interesting problems, and usually did it pretty well. He hasn't kept up in the last 5 - 10 years, though (IMO), and as computational methods became more readily available, others started tackling the problems that used to be reserved for Schaefer and his co-workers, and he hasn't been able to find the new great advance. Some of their recent work, in fact, has been embarassingly weak.

I haven't read his book, but if it is anything like his lecture on the subject, which I have seen, it isn't worth much aside from a "know thine enemy" type of thing. IIRC, he basically fell into a "god of the gaps" argument, with "Hawking has stated that we don't know the origin of the big bang, so it must have been God."

I do remember very clearly the first two points of his conclusion:

1) God exsts
2) He is a loving God, and sent his son Jesus to save us from our sins.

These were especially memorable because I remember thinking, whoa, where did that come from (especially #2)? Nothing in his talk had anything to do with Jesus, or whether God is a loving god or not. Heck, I don't even remember him mentioning Jesus before the conclusion. One big non-sequitor.

BTW, I can also say that he doesn't give very interesting science talks, either. His work is best presented as reference material in a publication.

[Scoobmaster]

Thanks for the detailed reply, pgwenthold!

Your experience echoes what I was discovering as I did some more research. I can understand how one can convince themselves of "evidence of design - hence a designer (Deist)". I once felt that way myself. However, to say that you believe the evidence points to some kind of cosmic architect and immediately jump to the conclusion that this creator is in fact the Christian God of the Bible is quite a giant leap (for which the proverbial dots do not logically connect in my mind).

Of course the Christian radio broadcast put the spin on the story to the effect of "Nobel candidate and world renowned scientist's work is proof of God's existence" much to my co-workers glee.
I really should read the book to be fair (although my co-worker refuses to read any of MY recommendations like Sagan or Asimov on the Bible, etc). I just don't have a lot of free time on my hands (and a more important book is on my reading list - Randi's Flim Flam is on its way!)

Thanks again for your insightful reply.