Interview
to John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford(*):
You debated Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Peter Singer. Was it difficult to prove God’s existence during the debates?
Well, it’s
not proof.You give evidence. But these debates are very, very difficult. You
have to prepare for them and so on. But they are worth doing, because I want to
get it into the public space that atheism is not the only intellectual
possibility.
Your last
book Gunning for God is dedicated to the new atheism. Can you explain to people
who have not read your book what the new atheism is? Has atheism changed today?
The new
atheism as an old atheism, except it’s much more aggressive. You know I have
many atheist friends and they respect my believing in Christianity. We can
discuss that and have a good dialogue. There is no aggression on either side.
But the new atheism wants to destroy religion. That’s a very different thing.
The arguments are not new, it’s the aggression that’s new. I’ve written a
number of books, but the first main books addressed the scientific attack on
Christianity in particular it was my first book God's Undertaker: Has Science
Buried God? Then the new atheists also use a moral attack. So I wrote Gunning
for God,which is a book that deals with moral objections to God. I also deal
with the objections people raise against the Bibleand against the moralityof
the Old Testament.
What advice
can you give for Christians? How they should preach Gospel today?
We have to
be prepared to answer people’s questions. People don’t like preaching, but
discussion, presenting a case, and that’s important. Therefore, I think we need
to learn to dialogue much more. For instance, I often go to a church on
Sundays, and I say to the people, right at the beginning, not at the end, ‘What
are your questions?’ I write down their questions and then I discuss them. The
problem sometimes is in churches, that we are answering things that nobody is
asking. It is very important that Christians engage one on one with their
friends and do not rely on formal situations in a church. If you come to my
lectures here, I teach the Bible dealing with the questions at the same time.
It’s not the Bible here and the world over there. The questions are bringing
the two together. And that has to be learnt.
To your
mind what are the main questions that Christianity should answer today?
People are
interested in basic things. Why do you believe there is a God? Is there life
after death? Where can I find meaning for my life? How can you believe that
Jesus is God when there are so many religions? What about suffering? Those are
the questions that come up everywhere. They’re all are the same and they are
important.
Can you
share your story about how you’ve become a Christian?
Well, it’s
not very sensational, because my parents were believers and they shared the
Christian faith with me. But they taught me to think about it. They were very
unusual. I’ve come from Northern Ireland which is the sectarian country. And
often religion there is very narrow. Parents pressurize their children, but my
parents did not. They allowed me to think, so I could come to my own decision.
So I had the stage in development. When I became a Christian is not entirely
clear. I probably was about 10 or 11, but when I got to Cambridge and people
started asking questions about my faith, my commitment began developing. I
could see that the case for Christianity, the evidence for Christianity is very
strong. I believe it’s true, you see. That’s the important thing for me.
The
majority of scientists do not believe in God, do they?
Well,
that’s probably still correct in the West. The percentage is much higher for
the average scientist (it is about 40%). Relatively, there are many scientists
who believe in God. And in Oxford, where I am the Professor, there are more
professors like me, who believe in God, than you think. There are not dozens of
them, but they are there, and in Cambridge too, and elsewhere. We are not in a
tiny minority.
And are
there many Christian students in Oxford?
You could
go to church on Sunday in Oxford, and you would have at least three churches
where you would get 300 or 400 students in each of them. There is a lot of
Christian activity among students. When I was a student in Cambridge, the
Christian union was the biggest of all groups in the university. Christianity
is a significant presence in British universities. And, for instance, if I give
the lectures, like I’ll be doing in February in Oxford, on science and
Christian belief, I would expect probably a thousand students to come.
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(*)In his exclusive interview to the Christian Telegraph, John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, Fellow in Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science, and Pastoral Advisor at Green Templeton College, Oxford, spoke about Christianity, science and modern moral challenges.
He has
written a number of books on the interface between science, philosophy and
theology. These include "God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?"
(2009), "God and Stephen Hawking", a response to "The Grand
Design" (2011), "Gunning for God" on the new atheism (2011), and
"Seven Days that Divide the World" on Genesis 1 (2011).
John Lennox
debated Richard Dawkins on "The God Delusion" in the University of
Alabama (2007) and on "Has Science buried God?" in the Oxford Museum
of Natural History (2008). He has also debated Christopher Hitchens on the New
Atheism (Edinburgh Festival, 2008) and the question of "Is God
Great?" (Samford University, 2010), as well as Peter Singer on the topic
of "Is there a God?" (Melbourne, 2011).
Lennox
speaks English, Russian, French, German and Spanish. He is married and has
three children and five grandchildren.