The God Code

January 1, 2004
In this dense, tangent-filled book, bestselling author Braden (The Isaiah Effect) argues that every human being has the name of God literally embedded in his or her DNA. Braden's research relies heavily on the kabalistic technique of assigning numerical values to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. He begins by correlating the essential elements of the human body (hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon) to their Hebrew equivalents, then he calculates their alpha/numeric values and finds that these elements spell out the Hebrew letters for God--YHVH. Braden attempts to make his explanations of this complicated process clear and free of scientific jargon. Despite his efforts, however, the chapters tend to drag, and the book contains many unnecessary digressions. He actually spends the first half of the volume discussing the theories of creationism and evolutionism, so that he doesn't reach his God-DNA arguments until midway through the book. After he does explain his finding, Braden spends the last section of the book ruminating on its possible implications. He speculates that"through the primal act of creating human life, God shared a part of himself as he 'breathed his breath' into our species." He wonders if"we will allow...the diversity within Christian, Hebrew, and Muslim values" to divide the world irrevocably. He speaks of scientists who believe it is possible for humans to one day live in a perfect world, free from disease, decay and war, should man truly understand that every person, no matter what race or religion, is made of the same stuff, and made by the same creator. Braden's message of unity is an appealing one, but this book's rambling style makes for a laborious read.