Stephen L. Gibson's novel A Secret of the Universe is a story of love, loss, and the discovery of eternal truth. It focuses on two friends, Ian and Bill, and their quest for this truth and faith. Brought up in a dominantly Christian society, Ian looks elsewhere for answers that his faith can't provide after some tragic events. Bill, on the other hand, finds that his Christian faith gives him the answers and the comfort he needs. This book takes us with Ian and Bill on their journeys, exploring and discovering the truth about their faiths. Gibson tells us this story steeped in facts about Christianity and the Bible much like how Jostein Gaarder told us about philosophy with Sophie's World.
A Secret of the Universe isn't an easy read though. There were many philosophies which I didn't agree with, and a lot of times I just wondered what Gibson's point was. There were times that I just really wanted to give up on it, and it wasn't until the end that I finally understood what the secret of the universe was supposed to be, and then I thought about Gibson, "You made me read more than 500 pages just to tell me this?!"
Don't get me wrong, this book is really more about the journey than the destination, and the information we learn on the journey is very interesting, but because the conclusion is so unbelievably simple, you wonder why you had to walk 500 miles to your destination when all you had to do was take the five mile shortcut. The truth is that most of us already know what Gibson is trying to tell us with his conclusion, so this so-called "Secret of the Universe" is in fact, not much of a secret at all.
However, with that being said, if you don't care about the destination, the ride Gibson takes us on is a extremely enlightening, but only for Christians or for people living in Christian societies. Other than the interesting facts about contradictions in the Bible, and the theory that Jesus Christ may not be a real person, this book just went over my head. All the talk about being Christian and believing in the word of the Bible meant nothing to me, and calling a revelation about Jesus Christ "a secret of the universe" seemed very narrow-minded to me. It would be a huge secret, yes, and an earth-shattering one, maybe, but not a secret of the universe because the rest of the universe who aren't living in Christian societies just wouldn't care.
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