Undoubtedly, science has one of the most impressive track records in human history. It is a success story that keeps persistently adding new achievements to the list, with no end in sight. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that science has given us reason, not only for high hopes, but also for extravagant claims. To find out what those hopes and claims are worth, this book begins with an explanation of what science can indeed do for us and how. Most people don't need to be convinced, though, that the power of science is enormous. Just look around to see the achievements we owe to science: the Big Bang theory, space exploration, the human genome project, antibiotics, vaccines, cancer treatment, and the list goes on and on. We could not live the way we do nowadays without the fruits of science. But this book is also about what science is not able to do for us.

I don't mean those things that science is still searching for, but rather those things that science has no access to whatsoever-things such as thoughts, values, beliefs, hopes, dreams, and ideals. Are all of these merely the result of material, molecular interactions? Isn't love more than a chemical reaction, and aren't thoughts more than brain waves? And most of all, what about religion? People who think that science has no limitations whatsoever-it's just a matter of time, in their view-should think a bit longer and a bit deeper. This book will help them to do so and will come up with some startling conclusions.