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October 06, 2007
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Two professors from Oxford University recently
engaged in a two hour debate about the existence of God.
Dr. John Lennox, a professor of mathematics and a Christian
apologist defended the fact of the existence of God. Taking
the opposite view, Professor Richard Dawkins, a biologist,
claimed it is delusional to believe in God. His book, The
God Delusion, has been on the New York Times best-seller
list for over 30 weeks.
Time is needed to assess who held the stronger position.
As you might expect, I felt that Dr. Lennox made some irrefutable
arguments. From my perspective, one point made by Dr. Lennox
always stands higher than the rest: the point that if there
is no absolute ruler of the universe, we cannot be certain
that there are any absolutes.
Apart from God, the foundation of the whole realm of human
existence is undermined by a series of uncertainties. The
first question is: To whom are we accountable? The second
is: What are we accountable for?
An atheist might answer that the majority decides what is
best for society. But that raises another question: Who
says the “majority rules?” That is only some
people’s opinion—perhaps the majority’s
opinion, but again, who gives the majority the right to
decide that?
A further question is: What is best anyway? Since most of
us are only here for less than one hundred years, our descendents
might discover that what we thought was the best was the
worst. In the environment alone, we have come to realize
that we have been harming it by many choices and inventions
made in the past few decades.
Yet, suppose we do find out what is best, does it matter
after all? Some would say it matters for the survival of
the human race and for the environment. But then we ask,
does it matter? If we trash ourselves and the universe,
it won’t matter a thousand years from now. No-one
will be around to care. There will be no-one to regret it.
“Life” will go on!
If there is no God, there are no certainties. There are
many questions but few answers.
If we accept that God is, we now have Someone to guide us
and we have guidelines to follow that provide a purpose
for living. The Psalmist understood the blessings of believing
there is a God and the joy and meaning it brought to existence.
He stated “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in
Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there
are pleasures for evermore” Psalm 16:11.
Jim Beattie
submitted by Russ Nesbit
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