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Original Title:	God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
ISBN:	0745953034 (ISBN13: 9780745953038)
Edition Language:	English
Characters:	Richard Dawkins

God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

John C. Lennox

Paperback | Pages: 192 pages

Rating: 4.28 | 1353 Users | 146 Reviews

Details Appertaining To Books God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

Title	:	God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
Author	:	John C. Lennox
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 192 pages
Published	:	August 20th 2007 by Lion Hudson (first published October 1st 2002)
Categories	:	Science. Religion. Nonfiction. Philosophy. Christian. Theology. Christianity

Interpretation To Books God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

I've dreaded reviewing this book, as it's the type of polarizing work that yields predictable reactions: most believers are going to love it, and most non-believers are going to... not love it. It is not the sort of work that leads to conversions on either side - rather, it's written as an apologetic tract to bolster Christians with arguments to debate atheists, or to simply feel confident ignoring atheists. As a former Christian who has been an atheist for 12 years, I am not the target audience. At the same time, I regularly read apologetic works because I am interested in considering the arguments and hope to run across some new and thought-provoking ideas. Also, this book was recommended by a respected friend.

John C. Lennox is an Oxford Mathematics professor who also holds degrees in Philosophy and Bioethics, so he seems a good candidate to talk about whether or not science has "buried God". He has debated the Oxford biologist (and prominent atheist) Richard Dawkins, and Dawkins is clearly the central figure upon which Lennox builds his arguments. In a book just over 200 pages, a search yields 170 mentions of Dawkins. I waited until after reading the book to watch their debate (of the same title), which sums up most of the talking points of the book (but allows Dawkins to respond to the points): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0UIb.... Suffice it to say, Lennox clearly bears an unrequited fascination with Dawkins, and this book could better be called "Au Contraire, Richard Dawkins!"

One of his first arguments is that many respected scientists believe in God. Lennox spends a lot of time pointing out all the usual suspects (Francis Collins, John Polkinghorne, et al.). One could write a much longer book filled only with the names of scientists who don't share Lennox's belief, but certainly the point is taken that you can do good science and also believe in God. Or aliens, for that matter. Lennox also triumphantly points to the religious belief of classical scientists like Newton and Galileo... products of a time where there was no real precedent for unbelief. More irritating, Lennox quote-mines prominent scientists (Hawking is a frequent target) to make it seem as if they truly agree with the Christian perspective, despite their public stances. Another tact is to regularly quote fringe figures as having important voices in the debate who really do not, without giving any sense of their marginal status (Michael Behe, Hugh Ross, William Dembski, Guillermo Gonzalez, David Berlinski, Antony Flew, and even Fred Hoyle come to mind). All in all, there is a fixation on authority and name-dropping that one simply doesn't see in books on the other side of the debate.

He also focuses on the definition of science, protesting that "supernatural" explanations have been defined out of the enterprise a priori. However, Lennox never names one testable claim that hasn't been given due attention from the scientific community. It's not that scientists aren't open to evidence of the supernatural, it's just that those phenomena don't tend to be measurable or repeatable, let alone falsifiable. It has been tried. There's been plenty of research about the effectiveness of prayer, for example (turns out, it doesn't do anything). I'd be really curious to hear about an avenue of research that could be followed to explore supernatural hypotheses, and I'm sure the scientific community would be all ears, too. In the meantime, buddy, stop whining about being excluded.

Lennox insists the universe needs a creator, but wriggles out of the question of where God came from by saying God is not the sort of thing that is created. (Ta-da!!) He spends a lot of time talking about the precise tuning of the physical constants that led to life (that only exists, as far as we know, on one infinitesimal pale blue dot) and the amazing odds of those constants being calibrated as they are. Lots of, "the odds of this happening are one in one hundred billion, billion" statements. He doesn't like being accused of making God of the Gaps arguments, and tries to differentiate "good gaps" from "bad gaps". If anyone can explain the distinction better than he can, please let me know. He moves on to the watchmaker argument, and tries to point to reasonable inferences of design (the Ford analogy is oft-repeated and excruciating).

Here he wanders into the subject of biology (and information theory), and does a really dishonest job of misrepresenting Dawkins' arguments. For example, Lennox dissects the analogy of monkeys on typewriters producing Shakespeare ad nauseam, refusing to understand the point of the analogy. Of course Dawkins is not saying that the biological equivalent of the phrase "methinks it is like a weasel" is already out there, waiting to match specific gene sequences. That would indeed be absurd. That's why it's a metaphor. Rather, Dawkins is describing how certain random mutations are beneficial and sustained by successive generations, leading to cumulative adaptation. Lennox absolutely refuses to grasp this concept, and endlessly attacks the literal understanding of a metaphor about monkeys on typewriters. Elsewhere, Lennox quotes Dawkins's bold concluding sentence (made after a chapter's worth of supporting explanation) without context. He then accuses Dawkins of jumping to conclusions. I'd be curious to know what Lennox thinks was happening for 3.5 billion years of evolution. Apparently he agrees on the timeline, but doesn't feel it was sufficiently long for natural selection to do its thing. In which case... I might wonder why God sat around staring at single-celled organisms for 3 billion years.

I would have called that the most embarrassing part of the book, except that Lennox then abandons any pretext of neutrality and goes straight into talking about the resurrection of Jesus and the importance of the Bible. He also defends miracles, saying that of course they're extremely rare and impossible to prove... otherwise they wouldn't be miracles! (Ta-da!!)

I highlighted many passages that I felt to be misleading, but to respond to them in any kind of detail would make this an unbearably long review, so I shall resist the urge to expound any further. I'll just sum up by saying that Lennox is clearly a clever fellow - he is quite adept at spinning an argument to make a weakness in his own position sound like an advantage. It's an impressive display of mental gymnastics - something an intelligent person can accomplish when he's already got a conclusion fixed in his mind. At best, he is simply unaware of the process. At worst, this is pious fraud. Either way, it is geared toward inoculating believers against challenging ideas before those ideas have a chance to be presented fairly.

Rating Appertaining To Books God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

Ratings: 4.28 From 1353 Users | 146 Reviews

Appraise Appertaining To Books God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

Being neither a mathematician nor a scientist, certain aspects of this book skimmed over my head. Still, I found it to be a fascinating, memorable, moving, and convincing argument thus: not only are science and God compatible, they validate each other.

This book could be split in two as the first section covers that apparent confict between science and religion and the second part talks about the "Intelligent Design" issue in biology.I have only read the first half and if the book was only that part I would give it 5 stars. I have nothing against I.D. and for many it would enhance this book greatly. Sadly for some people with a prejudice against I.D. its inclusion might make them prone to dismiss the first section of the book.On the first

Brilliant book on various philosophical and scientific apologetic ideas. The last paragraph of the book sums its central argument up so well: "...far from science having buried God, not only do the results of science point towards his existence, but the scientific enterprise itself is validated by his existence. Inevitably, of course, not only those of us who do science, but all of us, have to choose THE PRESUPPOSITION WITH WHICH WE START. There are not many options - essentially just two.

I didn't expect this book to be indecipherable. I found myself frequently rerun my eyes and refocus myself on the book while reading. John C. Lennox is a scientist as well as a philosopher, the fact that is missing from Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and many other Christians and atheists. You could not find an attack on atheism like you could find on Dawkin's book on religion. Nor will you find a Lennox's defense of his belief in this particular book (maybe you can find it on his other

An extremely accessible book examining whether or not recent scientific advancements finally render God unnecessary. I found it to be a very enjoyable read. Lennox does not go into excruciating detail and that makes the book quite readable. I'm a Christian, and I found it to be a refreshing reminder that being a Christian, does not mean checking my brain at the door. Highly recommended for anyone interested in a quick discussion of God and science.

Yes Bible is real Book Everybody there please read thisDoes Science Agree With the Bible?The Bibles answerYes, for although the Bible is not a science textbook, it is accurate when it mentions matters of science. Consider some examples showing that science and the Bible agree and that the Bible contains scientific facts that differed greatly from the beliefs of many people living at the time it was written. The universe had a beginning. (Genesis 1:1) In contrast, many ancient myths describe the

I found John Lennoxs book to be extremely enlightening concerning the wondrous complexities of life, especially about the language of life written in DNA code. This book was encouraging to me as a theist, but if I had been an agnostic as was the case in past decades of my life I probably would not have been persuaded by Lennoxs arguments. From my current perspective, the arguments seem almost persuasive, but I realize that the mind-set of an unbeliever in any Divine Reality renders that mind