Video, well worth watching:
[youtube hdNNNJMZJ_c]
(–> also cf the audio by John Lennox here. The Worldviews 101 here on may also be of help.)
Full presentation (v. fat download). PDF, with notes.
Abstract:
The New Atheism claims being a scientist and a Christian is like being a vegan butcher. But both today and in history, many scientists,
Mathematicians and engineers are motivated in their work by the uncovering of precise orderliness, underlying simplicity, and inherent beauty of God’s creations. Many not only study the creation., but have pursued the identity of the creator and have found Him in the foundational tenets of Christianity. Some of these scientists are:
o Isaac Newton – the father of classical physics and co-creator
of calculus
o Michael Faraday – the founder of electrical engineering
o Blaise Pascal – mathematician extraordinaire and inventor of
the first computer
o Leonhard Euler – the most prolific mathematician of all time
o George Washington Carver -the “father of the peanut”
o Louis Pasteur – the father of microbiology
o Thomas Bayes – the founder of statistical inference
o James Clerk Maxwell- the formulator of electromagnetics
o Francis Collins – Director of the Human Genome Project
o and on and on . . .
I think we need to also compare Lewontin:
. . . to put a correct view of the universe into people’s heads we must first get an incorrect view out . . . the problem is to get them [hoi polloi] to reject irrational and supernatural explanations of the world, the demons that exist only in their imaginations, and to accept a social and intellectual apparatus, Science, as the only begetter of truth [[–> NB: this is a knowledge claim about knowledge and its possible sources, i.e. it is a claim in philosophy not science; it is thus self-refuting]. . . .
It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, thatwe are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes [[–> another major begging of the question . . . ] to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute[[–> i.e. here we see the fallacious, indoctrinated, ideological, closed mind . . . ], for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door. [ “Billions and Billions of Demons,” NYRB, January 9, 1997. Bold emphasis and notes added. If you wish to dismiss this as “quote-mined” . . . an implication of calculated or at least willful dishonesty, kindly cf the wider cite and notes here.]
. . . and, seminal ID thinker, Philip Johnson in reply:
There are some very serious things the new atheists, rationalists and fellow travellers have to answer for. END