Can science explain everything? – John C. Lennox

Those familiar with the name John Lennox will be encouraged to know that he has written another book. However, for those who plodded through Gunning for God or God’s Undertaker, this shorter volume may provide slightly easier reading. It has to be acknowledged that Lennox’s writings are for thinkers – those who are not satisfied with glib phrases and stock answers to life’s complex questions – but, as a consequence, the arguments he lays out require concentration. They are not bedtime reading!

This latest volume seeks to tackle the issue of science and the Bible by showing ‘that there is a different way of looking at things that is more rational, more sensible, and more wholesome than the all too familiar alleged conflict between science and religion’. Chapters include: How did we get here: from Newton to Hawking; Mythbusters 1: Religion depends on faith but science doesn’t; Mythbusters 2: Science depends on reason but Christianity doesn’t; and Miracles: a step too far? amongst others.

Although there is plenty of carefully reasoned and compelling material in this book, one of its strengths for the general reader is its use of apt and telling illustrations. This reviewer now sees the making of a cup of tea, Aunt Matilda’s cake, and 1+1=2 in a whole new light! Whilst not all will be altogether happy with Lennox’s section of Genesis chapter 1, he does make the telling statement, ‘if scientists had taken the biblical perspective seriously at an earlier date, they might well have searched for evidence of a beginning before they did’.

One of the most useful aspects of this book is that it is an excellent piece of gospel literature. Tackling many of the arguments for science and against the Bible and showing them to be superficial and, often, illogical, it moves towards its climax in a chapter entitled The personal dimension. Stripping away many of the so-called reasons for unbelief, this book lays out the evidence for the resurrection and the implications of that fact for us all. It stresses that the claims of Christ and the Christian gospel require an answer. Lennox concludes, ‘To fail to get to know him [Christ] is to miss life’s ultimate purpose and joy’.

This book is recommended. Buy it and give it to any thinker and searcher after the truth!