St Paul's Lutheran Church (Nanaimo BC)
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Sermon Series on Ephesians
Today I have posted a series of sermons that I preached at St. Paul's this summer. They are listed under "Pages"
Thursday, 5 September 2013
Hawking's Contradiction
GOD AND STEPHEN HAWKING: A REFLECTION
Stephen
Hawking, the well-known physicist, and his fellow author, Leonard Mlodinow,
recently came out with their new book, ‘The Grand Design.’ In it, Hawking and Mlodinow argue that the
universe is not created by God, and that physics leaves no room for God.
John C.
Lennox, a mathematician and Christians at Cambridge University, has also
recently written a short book called ‘God and Stephen Hawking,’ in response to such
claims by Hawking in this book and earlier.
According
to Lennox, Hawking argues that ‘it is the laws of physics, not the will of God,
that provide the real explanation as to how the universe came into being. The Big Bang, he argues, was the inevitable
consequence of these laws: because there is such a law as gravity, the universe
can and will create itself from nothing.’
He goes on to say, ‘spontaneous creation is the reason there is
something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.’
But
Lennox tells us that Hawking goes even further.
Hawking rejects not only the traditional Christian creation account, but
he also has the temerity to get rid of all Philosophy. After having posed questions about how we
are to understand ourselves, the nature of reality, where everything came from,
and whether or not the universe needs a Creator, Hawking goes on to say,
‘Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. It has not kept up with modern developments
in science, particularly in physics. As
a result scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our
quest for knowledge.’
Lennox
then critiques Hawking’s last statements above by saying that these statements
here are themselves philosophical statements.
They are not statements of science, but metaphysical statements about
science. Hawking’s statement that
philosophy is dead therefore contradicts itself, for it is itself a
philosophical statement.
Lennox
is absolutely correct. Anyone who has
studied a modicum of philosophy can see that such a claim by Hawking is a
philosophical statement. It is amazing
to see that such a great scientist can
make such a fundamental error, such a category mistake, in fulminations
outside of his area of expertise.
This
teaches us once again that Christians should be wary of relegating to
scientists what is properly the realm of theology and philosophy.
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