This entry is an outline summary of John Lennox’s 2019 book,Can Science Explain Everything?[1]
1. Science & Christianity are NOTat Odds.
a. The connection between the biblical worldview and the rise of modern science has been well recognized.
The modern world is the product of a revolution in scientific method … Both experiment in science, and the citing of sources as evidence in history, arise from the worldview of Jerusalem, not Athens, from the Jews and Christians, not the Greeks.[2]
Men became scientists because they expected Law in Nature, and they expected Law in Nature because they believed on a Legislator.[3]
The common belief that … the actual relations between religion and science over the last few centuries have been marked by deep and enduring hostility … is not only historically inaccurate but actually a caricature so grotesque that what needs to be explained is how it could possibly have achieved any degree of respectability.[4]
2. Why Some People Think Science & Christianity Do Not Mix
a. The mistaken idea that science is the only way to truth often leads people to think that “scientific” means the same as “rational.”
b. Richard Dawkins’ fallacious argument from The God Delusionthat religion is dangerous. Instead, religious involvement correlates strongly with wellbeing, happiness, life satisfaction, hope and optimism, purpose and meaning in life, higher self-esteem, better adaptation to bereavement, greater social support, less loneliness, lower rates of depression, and faster rates of recovery from depression.[5]
c. Freud’s belief that God is a delusion. This explanation only works if God does not exist. The exact same Freudian argument will show atheism as the delusion of God does exist. One first has to show whether God exists.
d. Making belief in God equivalent to belief in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. No one comes to belief in Santa or the Tooth Fairy as an adult. Instead, throughout history, some of the finest minds have given themselves to thinking about God.
e. Confusion about the nature of God. If you define God to be a god of the gaps, then of course you have to choose between God and science. God is not defined this way in the Bible.
f. Confusion about the nature of scientific explanation. The laws of nature describe the universe but they explain nothing.
… the fact that there are rules at all to be checked is a kind of miracle; that it is possible to find a rule, like the inverse-square law of gravitation, is some sort of miracle. It is not understood at all, but it leads to the possibility of prediction-that means it tells you what you would expect to happen in an experiment you have not yet done.[6]
g. Stephen Hawking’s claim that God is not necessary because the universe can create itself from nothing (because there is a law like gravity). This statement is not scientific and is not even rational.
h. The retort, “Who Created the Creator?” This question doesn’t even apply to the Christian God and doesn’t add anything to the argument as you can always ask, “You believe the universe created you, so who created your creator?”
Here is a blog post addressing the question, “Who Created God?”: https://natureandscripture.blogspot.com/2018/03/who-created-god.html
3. The Mistaken Idea That Religion Depends on Faith but Science Doesn’t and The Myth That Science Depends on Reason but Christianity Doesn’t.
a. Christian “faith” is not blind, but instead is a trust in Jesus based on evidence.
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.[7]
b. Even the most atheistic scientist accepts as an act of faith the following: a law-like order in nature that is at least in part comprehensible to us, the mathematical intelligibility of the physical world, that our minds are capable of thinking rationally about the physical world.
c. Rational thought is found everywhere in the Bible.
Here are some links to other blog posts that discuss the relationship between science & Christianity:
4. We CAN Take the Bible Seriously and Trust What It Says.
Here are some blog posts that address whether we can trust what the Bible says:
5. Belief in Miracles is Rational.
Here are some blogs that address miracles:
6. Belief in the Resurrection of Jesus is Rational.
Here are two videos that address the resurrection:
What explanation is adequate to explain the transformation of the early disciples? From a frightened group of men and women-utterly depressed and disillusioned at what they perceived to be the calamity that had befallen their movement when their leader was crucified-there suddenly exploded a powerful, international movement which rapidly established itself all over the Roman Empire and ultimately all over the world. And the striking thing is that the first disciples were all Jews: from a religion not noted for its enthusiasm in making converts from other nations.[8]
7. Conclusion:It is clear that science cannot explain everything and that science and Christianity do mix very well. Therefore, to use science as an excuse to fail to get to know Jesus is to miss out on life’s ultimate purpose and joy.
[1]John C. Lennox, Can Science Explain Everything?, The Good Book Company, 2019
[2]Australian Ancient Historian Edwin Judge, quoted in https://www.abc.net.au/religion/genesis-created-science-a-reply-to-tamas-pataki/10101306
[3]C.S. Lewis, Miracles, Simon & Schuster, 1996, page 140
[4]C.A. Russell, “The Conflict Metaphor and Its Social Origins”, Science & Christian Belief, 1 (1989), page 3-26
[5]Andrew Sims, Is Faith Delusion?, Continuum Books, 2009
[6]Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All, Penguin, 2007, page 23
[7]John 20: 30-31
[8]John C. Lennox, Can Science Explain Everything?, The Good Book Company, 2019, pages 100-101
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