2013 Westminster Conference on Science and Faith - Session 2

Friday (4/5/2013) Evening General Session

 Speaker: John Lennox – “The Origin of the Universe”

     1.)      Redefining faith

-        What the New Testament teaches about faith (Jn 20:31 – evidence-based faith)

-        Elementary logic is important

-        In any discussion, where faith comes up, always clarify: Faith in what?

-        God or science, (as if we have to choose)

     2.)      Assigning creatorial powers to physical laws equates to idolatry.

-        Stephen Hawking and others believe that we believe in a God of the gaps.

The Origin of the Universe

“The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking, actually refutes design, claims philosophy is dead, and that scientists have taken up the responsibility as the bearers of the torch of truth.

Advice to a Young Scientist (P.D. Medawar) says that the worst thing is to claim to know all the answers, yet that is what Hawking is doing.

Science can talk about the ethical foundations of science, but not about the scientific foundations of ethics.

Is the universe created or not?

Is man made in the image of God?

Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, assumes that X is created, but what if God wasn’t created.

Stephen Hawking said, “Because there is a law of gravity, the universe can and will create itself out of nothing.”

The speaker rejected this statement as nonsensical.

The speaker said it was important to clarify what is meant by “nothing”.

What was meant in Hawking’s statement by “nothing” is a cosmic vacuum, not what we normally thing of when we say “nothing”.

Without God, there is a very big problem, because the law of gravity presupposes a principle existed.

The speaker said that this is the kind of thing that happens to brilliant minds that reject God.

Take a jet engine….where did it come from?

       a.)      The laws of propulsion and engineering or
 b.)      Frank Whittle

The answer is both.

The same is true about the universe. God used laws such as gravity, to create the universe.

God is not an alternative explanation to science.

The laws of nature create no event.

The laws of pure naturalism do not bring anything into existence.

Does the supernatural violate the laws of nature?

God is not a prisoner of the regularities of the laws of nature that He created.

Hawking said that religion was a fairy story for those afraid of the dark. John Lennox (the speaker) said that atheism is a fairy story for those afraid of the light.