Can Science Explain Everything?
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
Can science explain everything?
Many people think so. Science, and the technologies it has spawned, has delivered so much to the world: clean water; more food; better healthcare; longer life. And we live in a time of rapid scientific progress that holds enormous promise for many of the problems we face as humankind. So much so, in fact, that many see no need or use for religion and belief systems that offer us answers to the mysteries of our universe. Science has explained it, they assume. Religion is redundant.
Oxford Math Professor and Christian believer John Lennox offers a fresh way of thinking about science and Christianity that dispels the common misconceptions about both. He reveals that not only are they not opposed, but they can and must mix to give us a fuller understanding of the universe and the meaning of our existence.
- Provides a helpful introduction to questions of God and science
- Examines the relationship between Christianity and science
- Proposes a cosmic chemistry between science and religion
- Can you be a scientist and believe in God?
- How did we get here: from Newton to Hawking
- Mythbusters I: Science
- Mythbusters II: Christian faith
- Can we really take the Bible seriously any more?
- Miracles: a step too far?
- Can you trust what you read?
- How to disprove Christianity
- The personal dimension
- Entering the laboratory: testing the truth
Top Highlights
“Sagan’s statement is simply an expression of his atheistic belief. The problem is, many people give to all statements by scientists the authority rightly due to science, simply because they are stated by a scientist.” (Page 26)
“C. S. Lewis sums it up well when he says, ‘Men became scientific because they expected law in nature, and they expected law in nature because they believed in a Legislator.” (Page 20)
“Galileo was actually a firm believer in God and the Bible and remained so all of his life. He once said that ‘the laws of nature are written by the hand of God in the language of mathematics’ and that the ‘human mind is a work of God and one of the most excellent’.” (Page 21)
“It is also wrong to suggest that science is the only way to truth. That idea, which is widespread today, is a belief called ‘scientism’.” (Page 26)
“Now we know how the cake was made and what it is made of, but suppose we now ask the scientists why the cake was made? The grin on Aunt Matilda’s face shows that she knows the answer, for she made the cake. But it is surely self-evident that the best scientists in the world will not be able to tell us from their investigations why she made it. Unless she reveals the answer, they will never know. The natural sciences can cope with questions about the nature and structure of the cake, but they cannot answer the ‘why’ question of purpose.10 Science has its limitations.” (Pages 27–28)
I am delighted that my colleague and friend John Lennox has invested time to offer a wonderfully readable summary of his work in science. Here he offers each of us what his parents gave him as a young lad growing up in Northern Ireland: the welcomed space to think for ourselves and the tools to dig deeper into questions of science and faith. I have learned so much from Professor Lennox over the years as I’ve watched him interact with critics and skeptics with grace and boldness. I believe you will find this book immensely helpful and enjoyable.
—Ravi Zacharias
Clear, fresh and brilliantly simple, John Lennox answers questions, dispels myths, and clarifies controversies like the seasoned master of the subject that he is—and all in an admirably irenic style. I highly recommend Can Science Explain Everything?
—Dr Os Guiness
Professor Lennox brings the logic of the mathematician to show that science and religion do not belong to a war zone, as some would have us believe. His highly accessible account is interlaced with colourful humour and personal experiences that relate to the excitement of rational, sensible and wholesome insights from the best-attested manuscripts of the ancient world. Myths are dispatched; miracles, evil and suffering are confronted; the Standard Model of physics, the Big Bang and the Open Universe are richly explored. But beware, particularly if you are coming from some sceptical distance: this is a book that could make a difference in worldviews and even lives.
—Sir Brian Heap CBE
- Title: Can Science Explain Everything?
- Author: John C. Lennox
- Publisher: The Good Book Company
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2019
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Religion and science
- ISBNs: 9781784984113, 1784984116
- Resource ID: LLS:QCACNSCNCXPVRYTHNG
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:31:55Z
Reviews
1 rating
Glenn Crouch
2/17/2020
This is an excellent little book that introduces the topic of whether Science and Christianity can co-exist. The Author is a Mathematician(thus I have an affinity for him as my Science degree and post-graduate studies where in Mathematics) - in fact he is (was) Professor of Mathematics at Oxford - and so it is not surprising that he takes quite a logical approach to the matter. I also appreciated that he didn’t ridicule those who disagreed with him, and that he gives good references to both sides of the argument. This book would be quite appropriate if you know at least a little Science, and want to know how does it relate to Christianity (if at all); or if you are Christian who wants to be able to give a better defence of his/her faith (so not a bad intro to Apologetics). Easy to read, and a good place to start :)