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From Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking in Three Catastrophic Steps

Hawking zero gravity
Photo credit: Jim Campbell/Aero-News Network [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Theism is pressed by a range of challenges but none is greater than the perception that science has “buried God,” as Oxford mathematician John Lennox puts it. Nothing is more poisonous, for the young and the old alike, than the perception that the smart money is all on atheism. Of course, it’s not. In a video presentation, Lennox considers, among other questions, how and why the profile of what a great scientist must believe has evolved since Isaac Newton:

Newton was a devout if slightly unorthodox religious believer. Today the most iconic scientist-genius we know is the late Stephen Hawking, an atheist. Does the transition simply reflect the advance of scientific knowledge? Lennox says no. He identifies three catastrophic steps the culture has taken on the road from Newton to Hawking. They stem from “False logic,” “False ideas about the nature of God,” and “False ideas about the nature of scientific explanation.”

Lennox stars in the upcoming documentary Against the Tide: Finding God in an Age of Science, with actor Kevin Sorbo and including an exclusive post-movie conversation between Lennox and Discovery Institute philosopher of science Stephen Meyer. You can see it one of just three nights this month: November 19, 20, and 23. Those are a Thursday, Friday, and Monday, respectively. That’s just a little over a week away, so you are advised to get your tickets before they sell out.