Looking forward to the release of the one-night-only movie Against the Tide, philosopher of science Stephen Meyer sat down with the film’s star, Oxford mathematician John Lennox, to talk about Lennox’s life and his thoughts on the ultimate question: Does the universe bear a “stamp” indicating the guidance of a designing intelligence? Lennox’s answer is yes. As they discuss, he has spent a lifetime arguing as much. It is a wonderful conversation that you can see here:

Reserve your tickets for the event, in theaters across the country, at the Against the Tide website. It releases on November 19 and you can only see it that one night!

Meyer and Lennox sweep away the misconception that there is a conflict between science and God. The truth is otherwise but it is veiled by a “power play and an authority play,” says Lennox, by the most aggressive atheists. In reality, there is a debate between theism and atheism over the question “Where does science point?” The power play consists of framing the issue in order to twist it to one side’s advantage. Theists and atheists commit themselves to opposite views on the question, but neither operates outside of a particular picture of reality in which they place their faith. “Every single person is a person of faith,” as Professor Lennox says.

Three Scientific Realizations

As Dr. Meyer sets out in detail in his next book, Return of the God Hypothesis, three scientific realizations of the past century have revealed the stamp of design. They are that the universe had a beginning, that it is fine-tuned for life beyond any otherwise reasonable expectation, and that life is infused with information. From the implications of this, atheists avert their eyes.

Against the Tide is an unusual and very well done mix of life story, science, and travelogue. Lennox is a great personality. He has both learned from and debated some of the greatest minds, theists and atheists alike — from C. S. Lewis to Fred Hoyle to Richard Dawkins. He traveled extensively behind Iron Curtain, where, as he tells Meyer, he noted an irony. The very universities from which tenured atheists inveigh against theism were themselves Christian inventions. Under Communism, universities were turned into state-controlled machines for propagandizing the populace. If the most rigid atheists and materialists in the West carried the day, the same fate might well await their own universities. We’re getting a taste of that particular power play with the current tide of “soft totalitarianism” in our own country.

I am not going to try to further summarize this fascinating discussion. Do treat yourself by watching it now!