God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? Paperback – March 20, 2009

John Lennox is a professor of mathematics at Oxford, and a Christian. Lennox's main argument is that the complexity of the universe points towards a creator God. Lennox has a way of making science appear easy to understand, the book is very accessible. Lennox believes that the universe, as well as life on Earth, could only have got started with help. Richard Dawkins believes that "all life, all intelligence, all creativity and all design anywhere in the universe is the direct or indirect product of Darwinian natural selection." Unfortunately, evolution does not really explain who or what created the laws of physics. Stephen Hawking has said: “spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper and set the universe going.” Hawking concludes that “because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.” The problem is that he does not explain who or what lit the metaphorical "blue touch paper." Neither does he explain where gravity came from, and why the laws of gravity seem to be the same everywhere in the Universe. Ultimately, there is a lot we don't know about the origins of the universe. Lennox argues that there must have been a designer.Lennox believes in Darwinian evolution but argues that Darwinian selection cannot explain the existence of DNA. Bill Gates has described DNA as the most complicated computer program ever created. Human DNA contains no fewer than 3.1 billion base pairs. Lennox suggests that something so complex could not have been created randomly. Frances Crick, who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA, reached a similar conclusion. Crick suggested that microorganisms were sent to Earth by some unknown civilization in order to seed the planet with life. Dawkins has said something similar. That still leaves us with the problem of who or what created life on other planets.Over the last 40 years or so, scientists have noticed that the physical laws that govern the universe are "just right" for the development of life. This is heavily discussed in the book. We can't explain why neutrons are just a tad heavier than protons. If it were the other way around, atoms couldn't exist, because all the protons in the universe would have decayed into neutrons shortly after the big bang. No protons, then no atomic nuclei, and no atoms. No atoms, no chemistry, no life.We know that relatively small changes in certain parameters, like gravity, would make the Earth uninhabitable for humans. There are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life—every single one of which must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. Without a massive planet like Jupiter nearby, whose gravity will draw away asteroids, a thousand times as many would hit Earth’s surface. Science cannot explain why this fine-tuning occurs, although if it didn't happen we would not be here. Lennox believes that God was responsible.Hawking argues that we don't need a god to explain the mysteries of the universe. He stated in 2010 that "the multiverse concept can explain the fine-tuning of physical law without the need for a benevolent creator who made the universe for our benefit." Lennox explains that the multiverse consists of lots of universes, with an infinite number of almost-Earths, and an infinity of identical Earths. The assumption is that we are in a part of the multiverse that allows us to exist. Lennox criticizes the multiverse theory and quotes philosopher Richard Swinburne: "To postulate a trillion other universes, rather than one God in order to explain the orderliness of our universe, seems the height of irrationality." There is currently little experimental evidence to back up the multiverse theory. Hawking has been criticized by some scientists for making statements on the existence of God based on his faith in an unsubstantiated theory. Lennox has in recent years accused Hawking of talking nonsense.Hawking and Dawkins seem to suggest that using God as an explanation for the universe is invalid because it does not explain who created God. That is not an argument that works on Christians who believe that God is omnipotent. Lennox's argument is that a rational universe must have been created by a rational being. Dawkins and Hawking have “faith” that science will ultimately answer all the big questions about life, the universe, ​and everything. Their current arguments are not entirely convincing. Lennox argues for a creator God, while Dawkins and Hawking don't really have a satisfactory alternative. The theoretical physicist Paul Davies may have it right. Davies, whom Lennox quotes in the book, has stated that “perhaps we have reached a fundamental impasse dictated by the limits of the human intellect.” He suggests that our minds may still be far too crude and our knowledge of the universe too fragmentary to allow us to perceive the correct answers to many existential questions.

Now THIS is more like it! John Lennox is pretty much my favorite Christian author. He doesn’t get you lost in philosophical mumbo-jumbo. He actually speaks English, and he has very thoughtful arguments that need to be heard. In the debates I’ve watched between Lennox and Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Peter Atkins, I found that he responds much more directly to whatever his opponent is saying than Alister McGrath or William Lane Craig do. While there are some moments where I feel he might be oversimplifying things or not explaining what he means in great enough detail, I still appreciate the fact that what he says can resonate with me better than any other author. The only person who will think exactly the same way I do is…me, and I think I need to do a better job of accepting that.The book kicks off with a general discussion of the tensions between science and religion. Lennox, of course, settles on the view that they are compatible. In fact, he explains to us that Christianity was responsible for the origins of science. It was the belief in God of most early scientists that led them to study the universe around them in greater detail.Then Lennox discusses the limitations of science, which was a great chapter. In a nutshell, he tells us that science explains how things work rather than why they work the way they do. He is very articulate, gives examples to illustrate his points, and goes into more than enough detail to satisfy me.Then we get into reduction. Basically he tells us about how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I’ll admit that I am young and not all that smart, so I probably don’t fully understand this concept. But I think I get the general idea. God created the universe, which includes the parts we understand and the parts we don’t understand. While that number of things we don’t understand may shrink, we still only understand some of the individual laws that govern the universe. Understanding how they all fit together is a whole different story. Lennox also gets into the mind-boggling question of whether we can trust anything our brains tell us. If our brains are nothing but a cosmic accident, then we have no reason to believe that our brains are feeding us accurate information.The next chapter, titled “Designer Universe?” starts getting into the evidence for a designer. The chapter covers a lot of ground. He talks about the rational intelligibility of the universe, the role of faith in science, the fact that there’s something rather than nothing, the origins of the laws governing our universe, and the apparent fine-tuning that had to take place for the universe to be able to support life. There’s definitely some stuff that the average lay reader like me won’t fully understand, but Lennox does a good job making these concepts more accessible.The next chapter talks a lot about how God and evolution are compatible, and that belief to the contrary is usually more motivated by ideology and dogma than anything else. I don’t feel a need to go into further detail. Read it for yourself.Next up is more about evolution. My first John Lennox book was Seven Days that Divide the World, another excellent book that led me to believe that he was a theistic evolutionist. Turns out he is better described as a supporter of intelligent design, which still allows for evolution on a smaller scale. Lennox does a good job of explaining the different ways that the term ‘evolution’ is used, and what the difference is between microevolution and macroevolution. I hadn’t really understood the difference before, so I’m glad I read this. Lennox concludes that you may indeed be crazy if you don’t believe in any form of evolution, but that he doesn’t believe that irreducibly complex organisms could arise through the processes of evolution alone that we’ve observed. I hadn’t really understood what irreducible complexity had meant before either. Personally, I’m convinced that intelligent design has more merit to it than most scientists would have us believe. I figure that the fact that the majority of scientists are atheists makes them prone to the same kinds of bias that ID scientists are charged with.The rest of the book is mostly discussion of evidence pointing to a creator. The origins of life, the genetic code, and information get a lot of coverage. I won’t get into detail about the arguments made, as I’m sure I’m not the best one to explain them. I don’t fully understand everything he talks about, but I think I can usually get the gist of the points he’s making.I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It is a must-read for any believer in God. It talks so little about Christianity specifically that I could easily see even a deist enjoying it. And, of course, I’d like atheists to read it as well to get a different perspective than what they’re used to hearing. So I guess this book should be read by pretty much everyone.