The Biblical Narrative Part 3 of 10
In the Socrates in the City interview “Has Science Buried God?”…conducted by the questioner Eric Metaxas …the scientist and author John Lennox makes the critical point that science has not buried faith…but that science can bury atheism.
Oxford professor of mathematics Dr. Lennox tells the story of some of his world-famous scientist friends and colleagues asking the question why he is not an atheist. His telling response is to ask them that if the computer they use in their scientific research was produced…was designed and manufactured through a mindless and unguided process…could they have confidence in the data the computer generated…and their answer every time is no.
If…according to materialism…the human mind/brain is likewise the product of a mindless and unguided naturalistic process…this undermines our sure confidence in the accuracy of human rational thought…that when extended-out to its end-point…dissolves rationality…even dissolves the philosophical thinking of atheism itself.
Atheism…thought all the way out to its logical end-point…dissolves the reliability and credibility of its own thought process…because the accuracy of a computer or a human brain that is the product of a mindless and unguided process…cannot be absolutely trusted.
Atheism based upon naturalistic materialism…when extended-out to its logical conclusion…destroys rationality because it sweeps away our reasonable confidence in the human mental capacity to take full advantage of the fundamental assumption underlying all scientific research…that the natural world is both orderly and intelligible…but most importantly and insightfully recognized…to be intelligible to human beings alone…amongst all other living organisms in the natural world…thus enabling scientific research in the first place.
One of the ingeniously insightful apologetic arguments in recent times for the existence of God…is the differentiation between matter and mind.
The classic case is made that the information conveyed in the daily headlines of the New York Times newspaper…is not explainable by means of the physics and chemistry of ink bonding to paper.
The information conveyed in the newspaper headlines is the product of the intelligent arrangement of the ink on paper…in the English language…that transcends above and is completely different from the mechanical explanation of how ink bonds to paper.
Physics and chemistry are incapable of arranging ink on paper to convey intelligible information. The arrangement of anything complex, specified, and coherently integrated…like the daily headline of the New York Times…requires a mind.
Saying that a creative mind is merely a brain of tissue-matter containing electrical circuitry…is similar to saying that the strings, felt hammers, soundboard, and keys of the concert grand piano are the origin of the artistic brilliance of Chopin’s Etude Opus 10 no. 3.
Fact-based evidence tells us this has to be true…because no other mind/brain in the history of music composition has produced piano pieces exactly like those of Chopin…or for that matter of Bach, or Beethoven, or Liszt, or Debussy, or Scott Joplin.
For some great discussions on science and Christianity...see Socrates in the City interviews of John Lennox and Stephen Meyer...among others...on YouTube.
Oxford professor of mathematics Dr. Lennox tells the story of some of his world-famous scientist friends and colleagues asking the question why he is not an atheist. His telling response is to ask them that if the computer they use in their scientific research was produced…was designed and manufactured through a mindless and unguided process…could they have confidence in the data the computer generated…and their answer every time is no.
If…according to materialism…the human mind/brain is likewise the product of a mindless and unguided naturalistic process…this undermines our sure confidence in the accuracy of human rational thought…that when extended-out to its end-point…dissolves rationality…even dissolves the philosophical thinking of atheism itself.
Atheism…thought all the way out to its logical end-point…dissolves the reliability and credibility of its own thought process…because the accuracy of a computer or a human brain that is the product of a mindless and unguided process…cannot be absolutely trusted.
Atheism based upon naturalistic materialism…when extended-out to its logical conclusion…destroys rationality because it sweeps away our reasonable confidence in the human mental capacity to take full advantage of the fundamental assumption underlying all scientific research…that the natural world is both orderly and intelligible…but most importantly and insightfully recognized…to be intelligible to human beings alone…amongst all other living organisms in the natural world…thus enabling scientific research in the first place.
One of the ingeniously insightful apologetic arguments in recent times for the existence of God…is the differentiation between matter and mind.
The classic case is made that the information conveyed in the daily headlines of the New York Times newspaper…is not explainable by means of the physics and chemistry of ink bonding to paper.
The information conveyed in the newspaper headlines is the product of the intelligent arrangement of the ink on paper…in the English language…that transcends above and is completely different from the mechanical explanation of how ink bonds to paper.
Physics and chemistry are incapable of arranging ink on paper to convey intelligible information. The arrangement of anything complex, specified, and coherently integrated…like the daily headline of the New York Times…requires a mind.
Saying that a creative mind is merely a brain of tissue-matter containing electrical circuitry…is similar to saying that the strings, felt hammers, soundboard, and keys of the concert grand piano are the origin of the artistic brilliance of Chopin’s Etude Opus 10 no. 3.
Fact-based evidence tells us this has to be true…because no other mind/brain in the history of music composition has produced piano pieces exactly like those of Chopin…or for that matter of Bach, or Beethoven, or Liszt, or Debussy, or Scott Joplin.
For some great discussions on science and Christianity...see Socrates in the City interviews of John Lennox and Stephen Meyer...among others...on YouTube.
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