Professor John Lennox | God DOES exist
Summary
TLDRThe speaker passionately argues for the compatibility of science and faith, asserting that Christianity fostered the scientific method. They contend that the universe's rationality and the human pursuit of truth are evidence of a divine creator. The speaker also addresses the problem of evil and pain, suggesting that Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection offer hope and justice, contrasting atheism's lack of ultimate justice. They conclude by emphasizing the personal nature of belief in God and the transformative impact of knowing Christ.
Takeaways
- 🙏 The speaker believes in a supernatural God who created and sustains the universe, seeing no contradiction between faith in God and rational scientific inquiry.
- 🧠 The rise of science in the 16th and 17th centuries was motivated by belief in a lawgiver, as scientific laws suggested a rational creator.
- ⚖️ The speaker critiques modern atheists who ask people to choose between God and science, arguing that both can coexist as complementary explanations.
- 🌌 The fine-tuning of the universe is seen as evidence for a creator, as Nobel laureate Arno Penzias suggests the universe's delicate balance points to a supernatural plan.
- 🧮 The speaker is fascinated by the rational intelligibility of the universe, pointing out that mathematical laws fitting nature imply design by an intelligent mind.
- 🧬 Atheism, according to the speaker, leads to doubts about the reliability of human reason since it suggests that human cognitive faculties evolved primarily for survival, not truth.
- 🛠 The speaker contrasts atheism with biblical theism, arguing that a personal and intelligent ultimate reality (God) explains why science works and why humans are rational and moral.
- ❤️ The values of human equality and morality, according to the speaker, are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition, which views humans as made in the image of God.
- ✝️ The speaker identifies Jesus Christ as central evidence for the existence of God, noting His teachings, historical resurrection, and the peace and forgiveness He brings to believers.
- 🕊 The problem of evil and suffering is acknowledged, but the speaker finds hope in the Christian view that God, through Jesus, has not remained distant from human suffering and promises ultimate justice and resurrection.
Q & A
What does the speaker mean by 'God does not compete with mechanism and law'?
-The speaker suggests that belief in God is not in conflict with scientific explanations, such as the laws of nature. God is seen as the creator and sustainer of the universe, and scientific laws describe the mechanisms through which His creation operates. These are not competing explanations but complementary.
How does the speaker respond to the idea that the universe could have created itself from nothing?
-The speaker argues that the notion of the universe creating itself from nothing is a logical contradiction. He compares it to the absurdity of claiming that X could create X, asserting that such statements remain nonsensical even when proposed by respected scientists.
Why does the speaker believe that Christianity and science are compatible?
-The speaker believes Christianity and science are compatible because the pioneers of science were motivated by their belief in a rational, law-giving God. This belief, he argues, was foundational to their expectation that the universe would operate according to discoverable laws, which drove the scientific inquiry.
What does the speaker say about the effectiveness of mathematics in describing the universe?
-The speaker notes that the effectiveness of mathematics in describing the universe is surprising, even to great scientists like Einstein. He suggests that this mathematical intelligibility points to an underlying rational order, which he believes is best explained by the existence of a rational Creator.
What is the speaker’s critique of the atheist position regarding evolution and reason?
-The speaker critiques the atheist view that human cognitive faculties evolved primarily for survival rather than truth. He argues that if this is true, then we should doubt the reliability of human reason, including the atheistic belief system itself, leading to an internal contradiction.
How does the speaker link theism to the foundation of morality and human equality?
-The speaker argues that concepts such as human equality and morality have their roots in the Judeo-Christian tradition, particularly the belief that all humans are made in God's image. He suggests that secular attempts to base these values without reference to God have led to devastating consequences, as seen in historical atrocities.
What role does the resurrection of Jesus play in the speaker’s argument for theism?
-The speaker presents the resurrection of Jesus as a crucial piece of evidence for the truth of Christianity. He argues that if Jesus truly rose from the dead, it confirms the existence of God and offers hope for life beyond death, in contrast to the atheistic belief that death is the end.
How does the speaker address the problem of evil and suffering in relation to his faith?
-The speaker acknowledges that the problem of evil and suffering is the hardest challenge for his faith, particularly when faced with personal tragedy. However, he finds hope in the belief that God, through Jesus, has entered into human suffering and that ultimate justice will be provided through the resurrection and final judgment.
What is the significance of the speaker's reference to Jurgen Habermas in the context of ethics and morality?
-The speaker cites Jurgen Habermas, a prominent philosopher, to support his argument that modern concepts of human rights, morality, and democracy are direct legacies of the Judeo-Christian ethic. Habermas's statement emphasizes that these ideals have no viable secular alternative, underscoring the enduring influence of religious thought on ethics.
What is the speaker's personal experience with belief in God, and how does he describe its impact on his life?
-The speaker shares that his belief in God is not just theoretical but personal. He describes how knowing and trusting God through Jesus Christ has given him a sense of forgiveness, acceptance, and peace, helping him confront both his personal flaws and the suffering he has encountered in life.
Outlines
🌍 Faith and Science: Harmonizing Belief in God and Scientific Inquiry
The speaker discusses their belief in God and how this faith aligns with their understanding of science. They emphasize that many founders of prestigious academic institutions, including Cambridge, saw no conflict between belief in God and rational inquiry. The speaker uses examples, such as Isaac Newton, to highlight how scientific laws do not contradict the idea of a divine creator but rather complement it. They argue that dismissing God in favor of science is as illogical as choosing between Henry Ford and engineering to explain the motor car. The existence of the universe and its laws point to a lawgiver, not a self-creating universe, which the speaker finds nonsensical.
🧠 Rationality and Belief: Evolution, Truth, and Morality
The speaker delves into the implications of atheism and evolution for human cognition and reason. They reference Alvin Plantinga's argument that if humans are the result of mindless, unguided processes, it undermines the reliability of our cognitive faculties. This would cast doubt on all beliefs, including atheism. In contrast, theism holds that human reason is designed by God, giving it purpose and reliability. The speaker also connects the existence of morality to God, explaining that ethics, like rationality, makes more sense within a theistic framework. They further explore how concepts of human equality, freedom, and democracy are rooted in Judeo-Christian values.
✨ Jesus Christ: The Ultimate Evidence for God's Existence
The speaker presents Jesus Christ as the central evidence for God's existence, citing his life, teachings, and resurrection. Jesus embodied the values of compassion, healing, and social justice, which the speaker argues are manifestations of divine nature. The historical resurrection of Jesus is positioned as the pivotal event for Christianity, and the speaker refers to legal analyses that reinforce the credibility of the empty tomb. They explain that belief in Jesus provides both intellectual satisfaction and a personal connection with God, offering forgiveness and peace. This relationship allows believers to confront their own flaws and gives them strength to face life's challenges.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Rational Inquiry
💡Fine-tuning
💡Lawgiver
💡Theism
💡Atheism
💡Intelligibility of the Universe
💡Moral Equality
💡Resurrection of Jesus
💡Problem of Evil
💡Cosmology
Highlights
The speaker asserts belief in both God and rational inquiry, arguing that there is no contradiction between faith and scientific excellence.
The quote from Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory illustrates that scientific pioneers saw the natural world as a product of divine law.
The rise of science in the 16th and 17th centuries is attributed to the belief in a lawgiver, according to thinkers like Alfred North Whitehead.
The speaker challenges the idea that one must choose between God and science, comparing it to asking whether Henry Ford or engineering explains the motor car.
Isaac Newton’s work in physics is cited as an example of a scientist who saw God as a fundamental explanation for the universe’s existence.
The speaker critiques modern scientists who argue the universe created itself from nothing, calling it an oxymoron.
Astronomer Allan Sandage, who converted to Christianity, is quoted saying that God is the answer to why there is something rather than nothing.
The fine-tuning of the universe is presented as a striking phenomenon that demands explanation, and Arno Penzias is quoted suggesting a supernatural plan behind it.
The speaker contrasts the atheist belief that human reason evolved purely for survival with the theistic view that reason was designed by God to discover truth.
Biblical theism asserts that ultimate reality is personal and intelligent, which explains why science works.
Ethical behavior, like rationality, is argued to be consistent with the belief that humans are made in God’s image.
The speaker quotes Jurgen Habermas, who links modern ideals of freedom and democracy to Judeo-Christian ethics.
The existence of morality, like rationality, is suggested to be unexplained by atheism and naturalism.
The speaker’s Christian faith offers personal comfort and intellectual satisfaction, particularly through the narrative of Jesus Christ’s resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus is described as the ultimate evidence for Christianity, offering hope for life beyond death and justice in the world.
Transcripts
[Music]
thank you very much ladies and gentlemen
I believe in God I believe in the
supernatural God who created the heavens
and the earth I believe in a God who
holds the heavens of the earth in
existence I believe that are the basis
of rational evidence similar to the
beliefs held by the founders of this
house who gave this University the motto
dominus Illuminati Oh May ah they saw no
contradiction between faith in God and
the utmost excellence in rational
inquiry and if I dare mention my alma
mater of Cambridge in this holy place I
would remind you that on the door of the
Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge were
written the words greater the works of
the Lord
studied by all who delight in them and
as we look at the rise of science of the
16th and 17th centuries Alfred North
Whitehead and many others commented that
men became scientific because they
expected law in nature and they expected
law in nature because they believed in
the lawgiver so ladies and gentlemen I'm
not ashamed of being both the scientists
in the Christian because arguably
Christianity gave them my subject what I
am amazed at is that serious thinkers
today continue to ask us to choose
between God and science that's like
asking people to choose between Henry
Ford and engineering as an explanation
of the motor car when uten discovered
his law of gravity he didn't say I've
got a law I don't need God no he wrote
the principia mathematica arguably the
greatest work in the whole history of
science because he saw that God is not
the same kind of explanation as a
scientific explanation God doesn't
Pete Agency does not compete with
mechanism and law why is there something
rather than nothing
Allan Sandage the brilliant cosmologists
who became a Christian in his fifties
said God is the answer to that question
but people are now so desperate to show
that the universe created itself from
nothing where it seems to me to be an
immediate oxymoron if I say X created Y
I'm assuming the existence of extra
explained the existence of Y if I say X
created X I'm assuming the existence of
extra explain the existence of X which
simply shows that nonsense remains
nonsense even if high-powered scientists
utter it it reminds me a little bit of
GK Chesterton who said it is absurd to
complain that it is unthinkable for an
unthinkable God to make everything out
of nothing and then to pretend that it
is more thinkable that nothing should
turn itself into everything the heavens
declare the glory of God says the
ancient Psalm and we've unraveled a bit
of that seeing the fine-tuning of the
fundamental forces of nature it's
something that's so striking to
scientists at our demands explanation
and it seems to me that Arno Penzias
hitted right
he is the Nobel Prize winner who
discovered the microwave background on
which a lot of the evidence for the Big
Bang is based he said astronomy leads us
to a unique event a universe which was
created out of nothing one with the very
delicate balance needed to provide
exactly the right conditions required to
rebid life and one which has an
underlying one might say supernatural
plan but I want to come to what I think
is one of the fundamental arguments for
theism I take it this house believes in
reason that's why we're all here and as
a scientist I believe that the universe
is rationally intelligible that is
something that has struck some of the
geniuses of science as demanding an
explanation
Einstein said the only incomprehensible
thing about the universe
versus that it's comprehensible and
Vigna talked about the unreasonable
effectiveness of mathematics how is it
that a mathematician thinking in her
head in here can come up with equations
that seem to fit the universe out there
well how is it indeed because the irony
of the Atheist position here is evident
my atheist friends that I have many of
them tell me that the driving force of
evolution which eventually produced our
human cognitive faculties reason
included was not primarily concerned
with truth at all but with survival and
we all know ladies and gentlemen what
has often happened and still happens to
truth when individuals or commercial
enterprises or nations feel themselves
threatened and struggle for survival
leading philosopher Alvin Plantinga if
not today says of atheists are right
that we are the product of mindless
unguided natural processes then they
have given a strong reason to doubt the
reliability of human cognitive faculties
and therefore inevitably to doubt the
validity of any belief that they produce
including their atheism their biology
and their belief in naturalism would
therefore appear to be at war with each
other in a conflict that is nothing at
all to do with God yet my atheist
friends still insist that it is rational
for them to believe that the evolution
of human reason was not directed for the
purpose of discovering truth and yet it
is irrational for me to believe that
human reason was designed and created by
God to enable us to understand and
believe the truth
curious logic by contrast with that
biblical theism asserts that ultimate
reality is personal and intelligent that
the reason science works and this was
the motivating force that drove the
great pioneers of science is that the
universe out there and the human mind in
here that does the science are
ultimately the product of the same
intelligent divine mind human beings are
made we are told in God's image and that
means that science can be done
that makes infinite
more sense to me as a scientist than
atheism does now let me come briefly to
ethics ethical behavior like rational
behavior of course does not itself
require religious belief this is
consistent with the fact that humans are
created in God's image as rational moral
persons but just as I suggest that
rationality cannot be explained without
the existence of God so I dare to
suggest that the existence of morality
cannot be explained either as modern
science sprang from judeo-christian
sources so did the concept of human
equality listen to a theist Jurgen
Habermas arguably one of Germany's
leading intellectuals he said that
universalistic egalitarianism for which
sprang the ideals of freedom and a
collective life and solidarity the
individual morality of conscience human
rights and democracy is the direct
legacy of the Judaic ethic of justice of
the Christian ethic of love this legacy
substantially unchanged has been the
object of continual critical
appropriation reinterpretation to this
day there's no alternative to it
everything else is just idle postmodern
talk and it seems to me he's setting the
core of something important because the
value of a human being on which sets
egalitarianism rests is based not on
what the human being can do but what
she's made off were how she's made in
God's image I never forget speaking when
on one of my many visits to Russia to a
colleague in the Academy of Sciences and
he said you know John we fought we could
abolish God and retain a value for human
beings we found we couldn't and we
murdered millions of them and Alexander
Solzhenitsyn has said if I'm asked why
is it that 60 million of my fellow
countrymen were sacrificed he said the
answer is we have forgotten God science
of course marvelous as it is is limited
even a Nobel Prize winner by aniline
KEK cannot tell why it was made
but aunt Matilda who made it continue
she can reveal it to you but if she
doesn't reveal it to you you'll never
know and that brings me to be my next
evidence it's the same with the universe
we can analyze it magnificently but
ultimately if it has a maker and I
believe it has only he can tell us what
it's all about and he's done so in the
powerful narrative of the Bible in
particular in its analysis of the
problem with humanity not simply in
terms of behavioral breakdown between
people but a vertical breakdown of trust
between us of the Creator the unique
solution to that problem is not simply
in terms of human ethical development
although that's very important but in
terms of something far deeper altogether
the restoration of the fractured
relationship of God through the
salvation he has brought through Jesus
Christ a radical relationship that
empowers us to live ethically from God
and here we reached what for me is the
chief evidence not only for the
existence but the nature of God it is
Jesus Christ
he it was who not only taught the golden
rule but embodied it fed the hungry
healed the sick and suffering and
welcomed society's outcasts brought
honor and respect to the marginalized
and ashamed and he's brought forgiveness
and peace to multi millions around the
world he's able to do this of course
because though he was a man he uniquely
never was only a man but God become
human the central evidence for this
startling claim is of course his
historical resurrection from the dead
that launched Christianity in the world
this is of course ladies and gentlemen a
crunch issue if Jesus rose from the dead
death is not the end and atheism is
false if Jesus did rise did did not rise
from the dead Christianity is false and
I remember at Cambridge as a student
listen
to the brilliant Sir Norman Anderson a
legal expert going through forensic ly
the evidence from his legal perspective
as a brilliant lawyer and he said at the
end of it the empty tomb them of Jesus
forms a veritable rock on which all
rationalistic theories of the
resurrection - themselves in vain
just finally now as I read the Bible I
do not only find intellectual
satisfaction but I find a great deal of
that I sense the voice of God speaking
to me
you say that's intensely personal but
ladies and gentlemen we've been asked
tonight about belief in God
and I want to strongly emphasize that
God is not a theory he's a person and if
the origination of me qua person is a
personal God then the most exciting
thing really is is there a possibility
of getting to know God and so I don't
simply believe there is a God I've come
to know him and trust him and I have
strong reasons for doing so because of
Christ dying and rising again for me and
that is generated in me a sense of
utterly unmerited forgiveness acceptance
and peace that has enabled me to face
the ugly side of my own nature and with
God's help to do something about it but
it's enabled me to face something else
the hardest problem I faced as a
Christian is the problem of evil and
pain my beefs getting a tumor at 22 that
kills her what do I say to my sister and
this is the hardest problem we face but
it seems to me that atheism here has no
answer because by definition atheism
believes that human death is the end so
there is no ultimate hope but you see
ladies and gentlemen we could stay here
till midnight and beyond arguing as has
been done in this university for
centuries what a good god should might
word could if not possibly might just
pretty not
dumb and we get nowhere so it seems to
me there's another question we can ask
and it's this granted that life is
presents us with a double picture we see
some beautiful things we see some ragged
edges we see hurt and pain and we see
joy how can we come to terms with that
and it seems to me here is no simplistic
answer but a window into an answer and
it's this if it is actually true that
Jesus is as I believe him to be the son
of God then we can ask the question what
is God doing on a cross and the answer
comes back at the very least God has not
remained distant from our human
suffering but has become part of it and
the other side of that is this because
Jesus rose from the dead he is going to
be the ultimate judge now here's an
irony because atheism has no ultimate
hope of justice by definition the vast
majority of people in the history of the
world have died without justice and will
die without justice and if death is the
end then of course they have no hope of
jotta but justice but the promise in the
new testament guaranteed by the
resurrection of jesus is that he is to
be the judge in the coming day so ladies
and gentlemen those are some of the
reasons why I believe that God is real
and worthy to be trusted thank you
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