God vs Science: Which explanation is correct? | John Lennox at SMU

Want Veritas updates in your inbox? Subscribe to our twice-monthly newsletter here:

[triv]

People believe God and Science are two conflicting, mutually-exclusive entities that fight to disprove one another...honestly, I think it's the other way around: Science and God reinforce each other 🔥🔥🔥

[cosy]

The more detail you hear around John’s explanations, the more convincing they become. Keep learning and asking questions… and the idea of God becomes very very convincing indeed.

[ProfYaffle]

Thank God for John Lennox. I'm a scientist and a Christian

[jasonh.]

That was good stuff. I don't think we will ever find God, nor understand beyond what we can see and measure, but I agree that if you believe that God created everything that means He created Science also. You can have God without Science but you can't have Science without God.

[ericjohnson]

Listening to Mr. Lennox is very enjoyable! He has a delightful style. His points are spot on.

[russnurseb]

Anyone and everyone can deny it but there is only one true God!!

[Bill_Garthright]

Human beings are complex. You can accept reality in _some_ respects while still clinging to whatever fairy tales you were taught to believe as a child. You can even compartmentalize your thinking, accepting evidence-based thinking in science and in your everyday life, while believing whatever you _want_ to be true when it comes to religion.

I mean _people_ can do that. I'm not sure how, myself. I'm not sure how you can recognize that evidence is how we distinguish reality from delusion and wishful-thinking when it comes to your profession, but then abandon that entirely when it comes to your religion. But people do that all the time - people of _lots_ of different religions, not just yours.

Unfortunately, faith-based thinking is destroying my country and my world. This stuff _matters._

[junevandermark]

If, as Stephen Hawking believed, that the universe in one form or another always existed, that would do away with the idea of creation or a creator, and would mean that suffering of all forms of life ... is natural.

[jimoyler]

True science is discovering, revealing the wonder of God's creation. Exploring how it all works and more. Science is but one facet of what God has given us to know more.

[russelldecv]

Thanks so much. I have to differ on one point, regarding the boiling water - both explanations are desirable but only one is actually needed - "I want a cup of tea"

[andyzar]

Science(Scientism) kills the dreams of the Never Ending Story and The Wolf is its prophet, because men without dreams and hopes are easier to control, and whoever has control has The Power.

[kpflush]

Faulty premise. Many religious scientists are making brilliant contributions.

[ancientfiction]

*The Enuma Elish would later be the inspiration for the Hebrew scribes who created the text now known as the biblical Book of Genesis.* Prior to the 19th century CE, the Bible was considered the oldest book in the world and its narratives were thought to be completely original. In the mid-19th century CE, however, European museums, as well as academic and religious institutions, sponsored excavations in Mesopotamia to find physical evidence for historical corroboration of the stories in the Bible. ***These excavations found quite the opposite, however, in that, once cuneiform was translated, it was understood that a number of biblical narratives were Mesopotamian in origin.***

*Famous stories such as the Fall of Man and the Great Flood were originally conceived and written down in Sumer, * translated and modified later in Babylon, and reworked by the Assyrians ***before they were used by the Hebrew scribes for the versions which appear in the Bible.***

***In revising the Mesopotamian creation story for their own ends, the Hebrew scribes tightened the narrative and the focus but retained the concept of the all-powerful deity who brings order from chaos.*** Marduk, in the Enuma Elish, establishes the recognizable order of the world - *just as God does in the Genesis tale* - and human beings are expected to recognize this great gift and honor the deity through service.

Google *"Enuma Elish - The Babylonian Epic of Creation - Full Text - World History Encyclopedia"*

Also discussed by Professor Christine Hayes at Yale University in her 1st lecture of the series on the Hebrew Bible from 8:50 to 14:30 minutes, lecture 3 from 28:30 to 41:35 minutes, lecture 4 from 0:00 up to 21:30 minutes and 24:00 up to 35:30 minutes and lecture 7 from 24:20 to 25:10 minutes.

From a Biblical scholar:

"Many stories in the ancient world have their origins in other stories and were borrowed and modified from other or earlier peoples. *For instance, many of the stories now preserved in the Bible are* ***modified*** *versions of stories that existed in the cultures and traditions of Israel’s* ***older*** *contemporaries.* Stories about the creation of the universe, a cataclysmic universal flood, digging wells as land markers, the naming of important cultic sites, gods giving laws to their people, and even stories about gods decreeing the possession of land to their people were all part of the cultural and literary matrix of the ancient Near East. *Biblical scribes freely* ***adopted and modified*** *these stories as a means to express their own identity, origins, and customs."*

*"Stories from the Bible"* by Dr Steven DiMattei, from his website *"Biblical Contradictions"*



In addition, look up the below articles.

*"Debunking the Devil – Michael A. Sherlock (Author)"*

*"10 Ways The Bible Was Influenced By Other Religions - Listverse"*

*"Top Ten Reasons Noah’s Flood is Mythology – The Sensuous Curmudgeon"*

*"The Adam and Eve myth - News24"*

*"Are The Ten Commandments Based On The Forty-Two Principles Of Maat That Appeared 2, 000 Years Earlier? - Ancient Pages"*

*"Before Adam and Eve - Psychology Today"*

*"Gilgamesh vs. Noah - Wordpress"*

*"No, Humans Are Probably Not All Descended From A Single Couple Who Lived 200, 000 Years Ago"*

*"Adam & Eve: Theologians Try to Reconcile Science and Fail - The New Republic"*

*"Adam and Eve: the ultimate standoff between science and faith (and a contest!) – Why Evolution Is True"*

*"Bogus accommodationism: The return of Adam and Eve as real people, as proposed by a wonky quasi-scientific theory – Why Evolution Is True"*

*"How many scientists question evolution? -

*"What is the evidence for evolution? - Common-questions - BioLogos"*
(A Christian organisation)

*"Why scientists dismiss 'intelligent design' - Science"*

*"Old Testament Tales Were Stolen From Other Cultures – Griffin"*

*"Parallelism between “The Hymn to Aten” and Psalm 104 - Project Augustine"*

*"Studying the Bible"* - by Dr Steven DiMattei
(This particular article from a critical Biblical scholar highlights how the authors of the Hebrew Bible used their *fictional* god as a mouthpiece for their own views and ideologies)

*"How do we know that the biblical writers were* ***not*** *writing history? -- by Dr Steven DiMattei"*

*"Contradictions in the Bible | Identified verse by verse and explained using the most up-to-date scholarly information about the Bible, its texts, and the men who wrote them -- by Dr. Steven DiMattei"*

[ryanherrington]

I think we have come to a point in history were we can no longer deny God. We live in a time were science proves the Bible to be true more and more every day. That being said at this point it is no longer an argument of wether God exists and is the 1 true God, it now becomes a personal decision to regent Him and what the Bible teaches because people don’t like it and it not being politically correct in 2023! And the is unfortunate considering the alternative!

[k.abangbang]

science is our way of trying to understanding god

[onsenguy]

his whole argument, as well as many theologians, is precisely "god of the gaps" in advancing religious belief. they often say things like "science can't explain everything", or "science can't explain the beginning of the universe", or "look at the order and magnificence of the cosmos, which science can't explain". anything science can't explain they claim falls under the umbrella of theology, which provides an explanation.

[peterperfect]

Excuse me YouTube, you need to tweak my algorithm somewhat. How did this garbage get on my list of things worth watching?

[RustyWalker]

"God" isn't an explanation. It's a noun. That doesn't mean science is "correct" by default, but science is self-correcting and self-improving. There are probably instances where we could say it's correct _enough_ to call it correct, but scientists are still working hard to improve our understanding on virtually every discipline.

[nilssturman]

Yikes... I really hadn't realized how poorly informed Lennox was on the subject of ancient near eastern mythologies. The narrative of so many pre-800 BCE episodes of the Tannakh fall exactly into this legendary, primeval, mythological vein (such as the battle against Leviathan, the elemental battle versus the forces of water in the Flood myth, the parting of the Sea of Reeds, the depiction of God as a fiery, volcano-like deity, or even the fact that he wields a legendary, magical sword in battle) that Mr Lennox appears to be ignoring. Now, granted, perhaps he is absolutely ignorant of Enuma Elish and the "God Vs the Deep" battle symbollism (for instance), but he shouldn't! To claim that the "other gods were products of the primeval stuff of the universe" is absolutely true... BUT so was Yahu (or YHWH or whatever you wish to call it). This god, a minor deity in the Canaanite pantheon, was a storm god whose portfolio expanded from basic raiding and weather roles, into a more central position. His people changed from henotheism, through monolatry and finally into monotheism over a period of several hundred years.

[jjcm]

Demolition of the spaghetti monster fairy tooth atheist gods by Prof. Lennox.