Axioms and Inferences: A Mathematician Thinks About Faith from The Veritas Forum on Vimeo.
Here are my comments:On the whole, I'm pretty underwhelmed by John Lennox's argument. Firstly, the vast majority of the argument could be summed up as "anything but atheism," which is hardly an argument for Christianity. I admit that some arguments concerning first principles can be interesting, but when it comes to religion I find them less and less so over time. When your entire argument for Christianity seems to hinge on the meaning of the word "faith" in the English language, there appears to be something missing. True, mathematicians don't primarily deal in empirical matters, but rather in matters of logic. Yet is it too much to ask that a mathematician who identifies as a Christian also be held responsible for the pressing empirical questions on which the whole of Christianity is based?
Second, I find this attack on atheism using "simple logic" very glib, and quite probably uncharitable. Consider the quote from Bertrand Russell near the beginning of the talk: "What science cannot tell us, mankind cannot know." Lennox quickly dismantles this statement by saying, well, this isn't a statement of science, so you cannot know it. Many responses could be given to this refutation, but Lennox passes them over as if basic logic can easily refute atheism.
He is also conflating atheism with scientism, and this leads me to a third point. I find this "two competing worldviews" narrative rather unhelpful and even deceptive (perhaps unintentionally so). If it is true that atheists don't fully appreciate the diversity within Christian thought, it is still more true that Christians apparently don't have a clue when it comes to the diversity of secular thought. I have grown quite tired of Christians trying to claim that atheism is a "worldview" which, like Christianity, must stand on its own. That is false. It is true that atheists must have some sort of worldview, but among the competing possibilities, we find atheist representatives in all of them. Some atheists are collectivists, and others are individualists; some are modernists, and others are postmodernists; some hold to the myth of progress, others are nihilists; some put their faith in science, others put their faith in power, and others put their faith in personal (even mystical) experience. And I really haven't begun to list all the real alternatives. So the idea that there is an "atheist worldview" is nonsense, as most atheists will be quick to tell you. Christians really should be a little less blind to this. If you're merely trying to refute Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins, just say so. Don't bring everyone else into the picture without acknowledging how big and complicated the world is.
