Can science explain every thing?

Can science explain everything?

© John C. Lennox, 2019.

Published by:

The Good Book Company in partnership with:

The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics

The Zacharias Institute

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ISBN: 9781784984113

For Sally on the occasion of our Golden Wedding

Anniversary, September 14th 2018.

With deep thankfulness for your love, support

and unfailing encouragement that have made

this and many other books possible.

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Cosmic chemistry

1. Can you be a scientist and believe in God?

2. How did we get here: from Newton to Hawking

3. Mythbusters I: Religion depends on faith but science doesn’t

4. Mythbusters II: Science depends on reason but Christianity doesn’t

5. Can we really take the Bible seriously in a scientifically literate world?

6. Miracles: a step too far?

7. Can you trust what you read?

8. How to disprove Christianity

9. The personal dimension

10. Entering the laboratory: Testing the truth of Christianity

Preface

This book has been written in response to many young people and adults who have asked for an introduction to the “Science and God” debate that would be more accessible than my book God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? In addition, many of them asked me to deal more specifically with the relationship between Christianity and science as distinct from restricting myself to evidence for the existence of God. I hope they will find this little book goes some way to meeting their requests.

John C. Lennox

Oxford, April 2018

Introduction: Cosmic chemistry

Make a search on the subject of science and religion, and it will take only a few clicks to convince you that you have stepped into a war zone.

In comment threads on almost every conceivable subject in science—from bioethics and psychology to geology and cosmology—you will find hostile exchanges and name calling from two sides which you are convinced would never meet across a negotiating table—even if the United Nations called a ceasefire.

There is what we might call, for convenience, the “science side”. They view themselves as the voice of reason. They believe they are working to roll back the tide of ignorance and superstition that has enslaved mankind since we crawled out of the primeval slime. If I can summarise their position, it is this:

Science is an unstoppable force for human development that will deliver answers ...