Review
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Title: Mormon Scientist - The Life and Faith of Henry Eyring
Author: Henry J. Eyring
Publisher: Deseret Book
Genre: Biography
Year Published: 2008
Number of Pages: 330
Binding: Hardback
ISBN-13: 978-1-59038-854-9
Price: $24.95

Reviewed by Thom Duncan

"To accept the idea that the human personality ends with death is to accept life as a futile, meaningless gesture....Broken, uncompleted lives are the best possible reason for a hereafter in which the scales of justice are balanced by a just God."

"Being trained as a geologist, [Evolution] answers many otherwise difficult problems for me, and I find no conflict with it and the Gospel."

That these two seemingly opposite ideas--faith in a divine being, and Evolution, could peacefully co-exist in the brilliant mind of a Nobel-nominated LDS scientist -- is very encouraging and holds out hope that someday those two seemingly disparate areas of knowledge can co-exist in the real world. The Nobel-nominee of which I speak is the man whose name is on the title of this book, Henry Eyring, renowned chemist and father of Henry B. Eyring, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Written by Eyring's grandson, Henry J. Eyring, this informative biography describes a man whose life was equally yoked to science and the spirit. Embracing both, while disparaging neither, Eyring showed that science is not religion's enemy, nor should religion carry any animosity toward science. He wrote extensively about the compatibility of science and religion and served as an amiable defender of both people in and out of the church. He once said, "Is there any conflict between science and religion? There is not conflict in the mind of God, but often there is conflict in the minds of men."

His greatest contribution to science was the discovery of the Absolute Rate Theory for which he was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1966. His contributions to religious thought are numerous, as evidenced by his many writings on the subject, of which the following excerpt is an example:

"The gospel...is the search for truth, and there is only one truth -- there is a God in Heaven who, if He is God over the world and over the universe, certainly understands everything, and inside His mind there must be no contradiction."

While offering many great insights into the faith and intellect of Henry Eyring, "Mormon Scientist" doesn't slack on contribution to Eyring's human side. He was a very friendly man, well known by his students as a man whom they could approach. Said one student: "Anytime you have questions on text material or problems he'll help you." At the age of fifty-eight, he began conducting foot races with anyone who would take up his challenge. It soon became an annual event, with prizes for the winners. Even though he never accepted any prize money, he would always buy lunch for the participants. He was known as a good-natured Mormon who always took ribbing about his religion from non-member students and faculty with good humor.

I wrote a play years ago about three BYU professors who were fired in 1911 for teaching Evolution. How ironic that, a half century later and at the non-Mormon University of Utah, a believing Mormon science professor would be lauded by church leaders and non-members alike as a respected intellect who found a way to make science and religion friends.

This book should be required reading for every LDS member who is interested in both science and religion. If Henry Eyring has a legacy, it is in this statement about the perfect melding of scientific and religious truth: "The gospel is to be found not only in the scriptures but in every detail of the world, if we can but read it."