Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Science, theology, and the new atheism - an audio lecture by John Lennox

Quotes and comments;

1. This is a great lecture, and I recommend it to everyone. (The main focus is a discussion of a debate Lennox had with Richard Dawkins.)

2. In his book 'The God delusion' Dawkins claims the existence of jesus is in dispute. He apparently relied on a professor of german literature.
- Lennox points out Dawkins takes the view of someone outside their field of expertise, and ignores the mass of informed opinion. (I'd like to know how Dawkins came across such an obscure reference; was he spending too much time at Google?)

- In the debate Lennox challenged him on this claim, and Dawkins admitted the existence of Jesus.
- You can understand Dawkins a lot better when you realize he's directing most of his comments to an uninformed audience.

3. Dawkins tells us it's god or science.
- Lennox points out that this is a mistake in philosophy; these two things don't belong in the same category. It's what's called a category mistake.
- Dawkins repeatedly shows himself to be a philosophical ignoramous; at best. (Unless he knows better, and is merely trying to deceive the naive.)

4. One the great museums of natural history in England was dedicated (when built) to the glory of God. In the debate lennox claimed this, and Dawkins (though he'd worked there personally) mistakenly denied it.

5. The new atheism gives no basis for believing in rationalism, or in science...'
- in other words, if is matter in motion, there's no basis for believing our thoughts are true or valid.

6. When Lennox was in Russia professors liked to ask, "and who made god?"
- as Lennox points out, we can ask the Materialist, "and who made the universe? who made matter?"

- As he points out, all questions end somewhere. (i.e. all questions end in mystery.)