Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science

by John C. Lennox

As a scientist I must confess that I find their attitude very strange. After giving a lecture on “Science and God” to a large group of scientists at a major research establishment, I was (pleasantly) accosted by a physicist, who said, “I deduce from your lecture that you not only believe in God, but you are a Christian. You are therefore obliged to believe that Jesus Christ was simultaneously God and human. How can you, as a scientist, explain that?” My reaction was to ask him a question as a quid pro quo. And as I regarded it as a simpler question, I suggested he answer first. “Agreed,” he said. “What is consciousness?” I asked. “We don’t really know,” he responded. “Never mind,” I said. “Let’s try something even simpler. What is energy?” “Well,” he replied, “we have equations governing it. We can measure it and use it.” “That wasn’t my question! What is energy?” After some thought, he said (as I knew he would), “We don’t really know.” I then said, “Do you believe in consciousness and in energy?” “Yes,” he said. “So you believe in them, and you do not know what they are? Should I write you off as a physicist?” “Please don’t,” he pleaded. I responded, “Yet you were prepared to write me off as a scientist unless I could explain something vastly more complex than consciousness or energy – the nature of God himself. Tell me,” I went on, “why do you believe in consciousness and energy even though you don’t understand what they are?” “Well, I suppose it is because these concept...