Fleabytes 13 - John Lennox reflects on that lecture about Stephen Hawking

Interview 4 of 4 with John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. http://www.johnlennox.org

The University of Dundee's annual Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion for 2010 saw John respond to the recent best-seller by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow "The Grand Design", with a talk entitled 'A Matter of Gravity: God, the Universe and Stephen Hawking'.

In this interview with David Robertson of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity in Dundee, recorded the following morning, John reflects on the evening and explains his interesting approach for dealing with questions at the end of the lecture. To see the lecture itself, please visit:
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/externalrelations/events/lectures/2010/religion.htm

Professor Lennox's new book, to be released in early 2011, is a direct response to Hawking's and carries the title, 'God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design is it Anyway?'

Solas CPC
For questions or comments regarding the Solas Centre for Public Christianity in Dundee, please email office@solas-cpc.org or visit http://www.solas-cpc.org.

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[tokaistratocaster]

OK, David, one last chance. How DO you reconcile a literal Adam & Eve in a "perfect" world with an Old Earth Creationism? Just how DO you manage to get that one to work? Were A&E specially created? Were there no pre-existing (evolved) hominids? Were there no earthquakes or active volcanoes prior to the "Fall"? Details please - its your chance to nail Dawkins' acolytes. On the other hand, I will assume that continued silence and non-engagement means you dont have an answer....

[tokaistratocaster]

David, I would still like a reply. How DO you square belief in a literal Adam & Eve (plus no physical death before Fall, no natural disasters either) with a belief in Old Earth Creationism? I simply cannot see how you can square that circle? Perhaps you cant either and that is why no reply is forthcoming....

I just want to know what sort of timeline is involved and what happened when? Science tells me one story, Biblical orthodoxy tells me another. Answers please! :-)

[tokaistratocaster]

One last point. The question of origins is not a minor issue - it is one of the key issues fo the science / faith debate. Crack this one and you are on to a winner! However, I dont think it CAN be cracked. Just because Person A says "Black" and B says "White" doesnt mean that the "truth" is actually "Grey". Either A or B could be utterly, absolutely wrong......

[tokaistratocaster]

Right, the internally consistent bible view is YEC, special creation, no death before A & E, worldwide flood and so on. Lukes genealogy of Jesus supports this. A plain simple reading of the bible supports this.

The other view is Big Bang 13Mya, Solar system 4 -5 Mya, and evolution giving us the biodiversity we see today. Modern science supports this

Any other "half way" view, IMO is a fudge, and is neither internally or externally consistent. Please explain your thoughts.

[tokaistratocaster]

OK David, I just want to know how you make sense of it all - trying to square the Bible with science and all that. So A & E were literal, physical figures? Do you believe that they were specially created? Or dd they evolve from pre-existing hominids? And when did thisd happen. You see there are basically , AFAICS, two internally consistent paradigms for origins. One is biblical one is naturalistic. I'll post them next since I am running out of charac....... :-)

[theweeflea]

Yes - same JL. And yes I believe in a literal Adam and Eve...and no I don't believe that there were only two humans 6,000 years ago....go figure!

[tokaistratocaster]

John Lennox - would that be the same JL who believes in a literal Adam and Eve? Tell me David Robertson do YOU believe in a literal Adam and Eve? Was there a time 6000 years ago, when the there were only 2 members of Homo Sapiens, that male was created from dirt and the other, the female, from the rib of the male? Do you honestly believe that? Just liek to know...