In the past few decades, an assumption has grown prevalent. It is the argument that science and faith (belief in an intelligent design behind the universe) are diametrically opposed and an equivalent of water and oil. In Can Science Explain Everything? John Lennox, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University examines this popular assumption. John Lennox is a leading Christian apologetic who has spent the decades defending the rationality of the Christian faith and here in less than 150 pages he provides an excellent platform to further examine a topic that will rage on for a while.
There is the common derision that takes place in most private and even public conversations – a non-scientist declares allegiance to the God of the bible and an atheist derides his belief by expressing (often feigned) surprise that he/she could believe in such an irrational thing. The smug curt expression is often “How could you believe in such a fairytale when science has conclusively disproved the existence of God and answered everything about our universe”. The contradiction in this argument is that basic statistics (which is the hallmark of science) tells a different story – 72.5% of Nobel Prize winners in Chemistry identified as Christians, 63% in Physics and 62% in Medicine. So there is an immediate lie inherent in the argument that science and scientists don’t roll with belief in an intelligent designer of the universe and John Lennox does a pretty job of disproving this and he does this not just with emotions but with rational facts grounded in scientific theories though not devoid of his biases.
Furthermore, in answering the question of science explaining everything, John Lennox explains that the question itself is not scientific as science is not designed to answer everything. Its observation and theoretical models cannot deduce the origin of an event. As a Christian apologist who has spent his entire career applying scientific methods, John Lennox applies the same to the resurrection which is the crux of the Christian faith in a bit to show that reason is not divorced from the witness of the Christian faith. This is a relatively small read that reintroduces the concept of reason to the arena of faith and successfully too. Very good read.
3.65/5
