Christianity doesn't kill scientific discovery or enquiring minds John Lennox reminded us, in fact it is the opposites, it was in the Christian west that science developed and this was no accident. C . S Lewis said "men became scientists when they came to believe in a law-giver." I recall hearing Vishal Manawaldi on the same subject a number of years ago, he pointed that in India men studied Hinduism and astrology and allowed nature to dominate their lives. In the west they studied the Bible which told them that God created the universe, therefore they studied astronomy and sought to use creation to their own advantages. Mangawaldi went on to say that is why Europeans set out to the sea, whilst his own people sat in the mud.
Lennox reminded us of Isaac Newton who didn't abandon the idea of God when he discovered gravity instead he delighted himself in the genius of the creator who was the designer of the mechanism not himself the mechanism.
Lennox went on to talk about the Genome project, the first director was an Atheist, the second and current director is Francis Collins, a Christian, this isn't about science versus religion its about worldviews and which worldview best fits the evidence.
The evidence is on the side of theism, for instance the rationality of the universe.
Alvin Plantinga argues that Dawkins believe in random chance does away with human rationality and so cuts off the three the branch that he is sat upon.
Dawkins argues that religion is violent, but is it fair to lump Islamic terrorists together with members of the women's institute (for example)? Lennox says we can play the same game and point to Hitler and Stalin. It is much better however to point to Jesus who turned the other cheek and gave his life the just for the unjust.
Shalom
Stephen
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We have been trained in the West to reason. That is consistent with
Romans 12:2 "And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (ASV)
Or perhaps the West has come into being BECAUSE of this command! In any case, the circular reasoning of Yin and Yang, and fatalism, do not help a person understand God who has revealed Himself in propositional truth. We are called to “prove”, not to “thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis”.
This mindset is why Christian men of learning in the West took reason one step further than the Greeks and applied what God had made known, namely there is a Cause for what they observed. The Scientific Method requires making an experiment to prove a theory, and true scientists will recognize that science is limited thereby. No experiment can be made to prove the existance of God, and no experiment can prove the big bang nor much of what passes for scientific cosmology today.
Check out Ravi Zacharias' biography for a glimpse into India.
Ultimately, proof of God for the Christian is internal, not subject to some kind of test, but is real nevertheless. Romans 8:15-16 "For ye received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God...."
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