God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?
4/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
John C Lennox
John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College. He lectures on Faith and Science for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. He has lectured in many universities around the world, including Austria and the former Soviet Union. He is particularly interested in the interface of Science, Philosophy and Theology. Lennox has been part of numerous public debates defending the Christian faith. He debated Richard Dawkins on "The God Delusion" in the University of Alabama (2007) and on "Has Science buried God?" in the Oxford Museum of Natural History (2008). He has also debated Christopher Hitchens on the New Atheism (Edinburgh Festival, 2008) and the question of "Is God Great?" (Samford University, 2010), as well as Peter Singer on the topic of "Is there a God?" (Melbourne, 2011). John is the author of a number of books on the relations of science, religion and ethics. He and his wife Sally live near Oxford.
Read more from John C Lennox
Seven Days that Divide the World, 10th Anniversary Edition: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Determined to Believe?: The Sovereignty of God, Freedom, Faith, and Human Responsibility Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5God and Stephen Hawking 2ND EDITION: Whose Design is it Anyway? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Against the Flow: The inspiration of Daniel in an age of relativism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cosmic Chemistry: Do God and Science Mix? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are missing the target Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Friend of God: The Inspiration of Abraham in an Age of Doubt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friend of God Study Guide: Discussing and Applying the Message of Abraham Today Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to God and Stephen Hawking
Related ebooks
Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Evolution and Intelligent Design in a Nutshell Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCosmic Chemistry: Do God and Science Mix? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGod and Cosmology: William Lane Craig and Sean Carroll in Dialogue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Be an Atheist (Foreword by J. P. Moreland): Why Many Skeptics Aren't Skeptical Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heretic: One Scientist’s Journey from Darwin to Design Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Science and Faith?: Friends or Foes? Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Is God Just a Human Invention?: And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Theory: Universes, Zero-Point Fields, and What's Behind It All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are missing the target Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Things Atheists Say: That Simply Make No Sense Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Shattering the Myths of Darwinism Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLanguage of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5New Proofs for the Existence of God: Contributions of Contemporary Physics and Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outgrowing God?: A Beginner’s Guide to Richard Dawkins and the God Debate Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outgrowing Dawkins: God for Grown-Ups Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummary of John C. Lennox's Cosmic Chemistry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPhilosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time and Eternity: Exploring God's Relationship to Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTaking Leave of Darwin: A Longtime Agnostic Discovers the Case for Design Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hard Questions, Real Answers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Improbable Planet: How Earth Became Humanity's Home Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Theistic Evolution: A Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Critique Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case Against Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Darwin on Trial Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith: Exploring the Ultimate Questions About Life and the Cosmos Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Canceled Science: What Some Atheists Don’t Want You to See Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDarwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Religion & Science For You
Faith Unraveled: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask Questions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Case for Miracles: A Journalist Investigates Evidence for the Supernatural Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Great Is Our God Educator's Guide: 100 Indescribable Devotions About God and Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower: And Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of God: The Convergence of Scientific and Biblical Wisdom Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of the Little Flower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyday Zen: Love and Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rational Mysticism: Spirituality Meets Science in the Search for Enlightenment Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Miracle Myth: Why Belief in the Resurrection and the Supernatural Is Unjustified Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn't Say about Human Origins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In the Beginning... We Misunderstood: Interpreting Genesis 1 in Its Original Context Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Devil's Tome: A Book of Modern Satanic Ritual Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Physics of God: How the Deepest Theories of Science Explain Religion and How the Deepest Truths of Religion Explain Science Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes: Harnessing Our Power to Change The World Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bible, Dimensions, and the Spiritual Realm: Are Heaven, Angels, and God Closer than We Think? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wonder of Creation: 100 More Devotions About God and Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Holy Haunting: Why Faith Isn’t a Leap but a Series of Staggers from One Safe Place to Another Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wormwood Prophecy: NASA, Donald Trump, and a Cosmic Cover-up of End-Time Proportions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Designed to the Core Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Revealer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for God and Stephen Hawking
7 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The new atheists, like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Hawking, are ever in the public spotlight these days, or so it seems. The idea that brilliant physicists and scientists can make sense of this world without a God appeals to many. Certainly the conclusions reached in books such as Hawking’s latest book, The Grand Design — that there is no God and no ultimate point to the universe — are conclusions many atheists and secularists are all too eager to affirm. Since everything does fit so nicely together, however, should we wonder if the case made is really as air tight as claimed? If the conclusions are made to order, we might have warrant to carefully scrutinize the claims of these New Atheist authors.John Lennox, author of God’s Undertaker, and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford in his own right, takes on Stephen Hawking’s arguments in a forthcoming book published by Lion Books and distributed in the US by Kregel Publications (available July 15). In God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?, Lennox exposes the circular reasoing and non sequitors that abound in Hawking’s The Grand Design. Lennox begins by framing the scope of what science can really address as it attempts to examine metaphysical questions. He then points out both Hawking’s dismissal of philosophy and his misunderstanding of Christian theism. God is not merely a “god of the gaps”, an explanation for the world as we know it. The Christian understanding of God has Him outside the boundaries of creation as Lord over all of it, not some explanation for unknown phenomena. As for philosophy, after rejecting it as “dead”, Hawking jumps in and tries his own hand at several metaphysical questions that philosophy has long addressed. Hawking’s attempt at doing philosophy is all the poorer for his outright rejection of it.Lennox then takes Hawking to task for claiming that the theory of gravity, or scientific laws in general, can operate as a “creator” in a sense, and be the ultimate cause for our universe. He clarifies what a law or rule of nature really “is”, and illustrates how Hawking makes more of such laws than can really be claimed. He then goes on to show how Hawking’s “M” theory of the “Multiverse” conveniently sidesteps objections by positing the existence of infinite universes. Still the question remains, why are there any universes instead of no universe? Lennox reveals that other major physicists have their own doubts as to the ability that M theory really has for being an explanation of everything.Lennox also addresses head on the claim that miracles cannot happen because the laws of science would be invalidated. He pries open the layers from this question and shows the irrationality of claiming that science strictly forbids the existence of exceptions or miracles.By the end of this short book (it’s only 100 pages long), Lennox has made a convincing case for theism and demonstrated that reasonable scientists continue to affirm the divine. Lennox’s book is accessible and clear, even as it interacts with quite complicated elements from Hawking’s writing. The book doesn’t own the six-day, young earth Creationist view, but it doesn’t rule it out either. Lennox argues that often the new atheists assume that to believe in God is to believe in a young earth view, and he shows this is not true. Lennox marshals arguments from science (the very idea of the big bang supports the Bible’s claim that the world has a beginning – something science has only admitted in the last hundred years), philosophy, history and the realm of human experience. The resulting case is convincing and should serve to bolster the faith of any troubled by the new atheism. At the least, it offers avenues of further exploration available in grappling with these issues.Before closing my review, I should excerpt a small section from this book which captures some of Lennox’s craft in action. This excerpt will illustrate his style and the way he can cut to the heart of an issue with incisive logic."Suppose, to make matters clearer, we replace the universe by a jet engine and then are asked to explain it. Shall we account for it by mentioning the personal agency of its inventor, Sir Frank Whittle? Or shall we follow Hawking: dismiss personal agency, and explain the jet engine by saying that it arose naturally from physical law…. It is not a question of either/or. It is self-evident that we need both levels of explanation in order to give a complete description. It is also obvious that the scientific explanation neither conflicts nor competes with the agent explanation: they complement one another. It is the same with explanations of the universe: god does not conflict or compete with the laws of physics as an explanation. God is actually the ground of all explanation, in the sense that he is the cause in the first place of there being a world for the laws of physics to describe."To this I add my “amen”. I encourage you to pick up this little book as it offers an excellent primer on how to deal with the claims of the new atheism. Even if you differ with Lennox on a point or two, his clear style and succinct arguments will equip you in thinking through these issues on your own.Disclaimer: This book was provided by Kregel Publications via Litfuse Publicity Group. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An interesting response to Stephen Hawking's The Grand Design. Lennox begins by pointing out the obvious contradiction of Hawking's statement "philosophy is dead" immediately followed by a book that goes beyond the realms of physics and into metaphysics, a.k.a. philosophy. Hawking argues that "natures laws" are inviolable and account for the creation of all things. Lennox challenges this on various grounds, finally concluding that the theory of the multiverse, far from disproving God, leads logically to His existence. This is a short and easily understood book, nevertheless it succeeds in picking significant holes in Hawking's work.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It's not Science Vs God. It's Theism Vs Atheism. Lennox logically explains how illogical Hawking's claims are!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design is it Anyway? is a philosophical approach to counter the "there is no god" scientific thought.Author, John Lennox takes a few key issues in Stephen Hawking's thesis and explains them with a philosophical approach. He counters all that the scientific athiest's claim that the world could only have been created through science, physics and mathematical principles. The scientists involved with this theory claim that God is a myth brought about by pagan and heathen cultures in order to tame the masses.Such questions as why is there something rather than nothing, why do we exist, how does the universe behave are among a few of the Hawking's hypothesis that are explained in this book. The author shares his vision and concepts with the reader, answering with his own mathematical basis as comparison. The arguments shared and explored are many each of us has thought about over the course of history.Many insights and examples via historical figures such as Hesoid, Isaac Newton, Galileo, Kepler to name a few are shared with the reader. Their scientific hypothesis and philosophies are shared with the reader to further strengthen the thought that God does exist, something cannot be created from nothing, for even with nothing, it is something.This is a very intellectual read. It is small and concise but heavily loaded with scientific explanations and accounts. If you've read Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" or "The Grand Design", then you will understand the principles involved with this thesis. The explanations given are sound and justified, backed with important examples via history and science. John Lennox is a mathematician himself and you can feel this as you read his logic concerning God and the Universe. He shows us that Gods existence is more than probable and sets his writing with many fine examples. Lennox believes that science and history are not the only sources to prove God's existence, all one needs to do is look around themselves and come to their own conclusions. All aspects and thoughts of God are based on personal experience and only the individual can truly decide what it is they believe to be true.I would suggest this book for anyone with questions about God's theology and existence. I would also recommend this for anyone who wishes to read an intelligent book about science, God, history and philosophy.
1 person found this helpful