The God Code by Gregg Braden

Last night I finished reading Gregg Braden's The God Code skimming lightly over the last chapter where he discusses all the problems in the world. I was in that peculiar place where I agree with the author's conclusions but absolutely reject the way he got there.

Braden invents his own number system (using atomic mass) for the elements that make up our DNA (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen). He then finds that the Kabbalah numbers for the letters of God's name (YHWH) are the same as his manipulated data. Voila! This proves that God's name is written in our genes.

I believe that all of existence is God, so I would never argue that God (or his "name") is not in our genes. However Braden's approach is so contrived and convoluted that I laughed when he actually mentioned Occam's Razor -- his is far from the simplest answer to questions of God and the Universe. Indeed, it had me thinking I should be searching my cereal boxes for a secret de-coder ring.

I kept thinking "Does God have a name? Aren't names an invention of the human mind? Isn't 'I am that I am' an expression of simple existence? Why would God favor the Hebrew language over others?"

Still, I am totally with Braden when he writes that quantum physics suggests that the "laws of science" and the "God" of spiritual traditions may actually be references to precisely the same force.