God and Stephen Hawking: Whose design is it anyway?

John Lennox. professor of mathematics at Oxford College, responds to Stephen Hawking's “The Grand Design”. Dr. Lennox’s response to the “The Grand Design” strikes at the very foundations of Hawking’s ideas. Lennox puts forth the following points reducing Hawking’s latest book to insignificance. 1. After declaring that philosophy is dead (and science will explain all), Hawking begins to posit philosophical statements thus contradicting himself right in the beginning of the book. 2. After displaying an inadequate view of philosophy, Hawking displays an inadequate view of God. That is, he shows the foolishness of the old Greek mythological gods but never interacts with the God of the Bible. 3. Hawking states, “ Because of the law of gravity, the universe creates itself out of nothing.” Lennox writes “Hawking appears therefore to be simultaneously asserting than the universe is created from nothing and from something - not a very promising start.” Indeed for something to create itself is nonsense. 4. Hawking misunderstands the nature of physical laws. These physical laws (and theories) describe the regularities found in nature. To quote Lennox again, “... the theories and laws cannot even cause anything, let alone create it.” He then illustrates this by saying that Newton’s law’s of motion do not cause billiard balls to race across the table. 5. Hawking states that the M-Theory (string theory) and the multiverse explain the coming from nothing. Indeed in these theories, whatever universes can exist, do exist. This leads to bizarre conclusions. These theories are not verifiable or falsifiable and therefore can the even be considered science? With these 5 fundamental points, not much is left of Hawking’s book. To quote Lennox again, “.... nonsense remains nonsense, even when talked by world-famous scientists.” “God and Stephens Hawking” is a short book of less than 100 pages and relatively small in size. Lennox gets right to his points and is relatively concise to this book will not be a burden to read. If you want a more in-depth (but readable) critique of M-Theory, check out “Big Bang Big God” by R. Holder.

Thank you for giving me this space to type my review. I usually don't include any because I have to type on my Kindle and I am old and cannot use that little stupid keyboard to write more than LOL. I have any number of books on the issue of science and religion, and this one will find a prominent place among them for references sake. Why? Because he writes more lucidly than do most apologists, who often couch their writings in esoteric and obscure logic equations and language that takes it out of the ability of the regular believing reader. Lennox improves on this and stays logical and lucid throughout. I have now ordered another of his books and find even after a short reading there the same clarity and lucidness. Greg Bahnsen had been my favorite until now, with William Lane Craig also appearing on the radar. Plantinga is much to obtuse and esoteric for my comfort. He might be right, but who can tell? Lennox is much better for most scholars and Christian readers. I will review the new book by Lennox when I complete it, but I am sure it will be positive as well.

Can science really answer the deepest questions humans ask? John C. Lennox does not seem to think science can and I'd have to agree with him. In this book he takes on the most famous scientist in the world, Stephen Hawking. John C. Lennox presents his logical arguments without any malice and sometimes he is lol funny. I lost track of all the times I laughed while reading this erudite work. I will say this, John C. Lennox has no patience for logical incoherence and points it out when he finds it. So do we have to choose between God and science? John Lennox does not seem to think so and shows how more scientists in the past did believe in God. This book delves into such topics as M-theory, relativism, free will, scientific determinism and reductionism. John Lennox is well versed in philosophy and science and his conclusions make logical sense. So if you want to know what Stephen Hawking believes this book is a good start besides reading his books. John C. Lennox brings a voice of reason to the debate between theism and atheism. ~The Rebecca Review

This book is a fantastic and a complete rebuttal of hawking's theory of "infinite, alternate universes" (which are of course "undetectable") proposed by a man who desperately needs to deal with the mathematical odds on how life began. The odds are so impossible that life could have begun from inanimate chemicals here in *this* universe that hawking has concluded that there must be infinite, undetectable alternate universes, which of course, increase the probability resources necessary for what he wishes to be true. John Lennox dashes these hopes with *real* science, sorry hawking. And also sorry dawkins whose screeching has reached a crescendo, but it is just that: "screeching". No science, so: sorry dawkins as well. Very well done and very well written. Short and always to the point, John C. Lennox is fast becoming my new favorite author on this topic. Any of the curious should go and see John's debate videos on youtube, he leaves no doubt and I do enjoy his Irish accent and sweet demeanor.

Nobody does it like John Lennox. He's not afraid to step into the fray. In fact, he quite likes it. Of course, his argument wasn't with the eminent Stephen Hawking anyway; it was with Hawking's fallacious line of thinking. I teach a high school worldview class and I put Hawking's argument in front of them and asked them if they thought there was any problem with it. One of my eleventh graders finally asked, "Aren't natural laws just descriptions of regularities in something that already exists? I mean, doesn't that something have to exist for the regularities to be observed? So how does the law of gravity make anything?" It was a thing of beauty--an eleventh grader going toe to toe with a world famous physicist, and coming out on top. Anyone might feel a bit intimidated when addressing a position taken by someone like a Stephen Hawking, so I tell my students to forget who made the argument, and just deal with the argument. Lennox showed the problems in no uncertain terms, simply and elegantly.

I picked up Hawking's "Grand Design" expecting powerful arguments to explain the Big Bang apart from the supernatural. I wanted something to challenge my own assumptions and make me think more deeply than ever on a topic that intrigues me but is outside my field of expertise. I wasn't more than a few paragraphs into the book than I realized Hawking was making philosophical statements, not scientific ones. But I figured it must just be me. Surely the most renown physicist in the world could come up with something better than what I was reading. I plowed on. It didn't get better. So when I saw Lennox's book on Amazon, I bought it immediately. Lennox is incredible. He's as gracious as he is smart, and he made me realize my reaction to Hawking's book wasn't a deficiency on my part. Hawking's key argument is indeed circular. To quote a great line by Lennox: ". . . nonsense remains nonsense, even when talked by world-famous scientiests." Though the line refers to another scientist's claim, it describes why I was so disappointed with "The Grand Design."

In his book Grand Design, Stephen Hawkings unwittingly makes the strongest case yet for the intelligent design of the universe. He starts off stating that "philosophy is dead", yet his complete case for the fine tuning of the universe is essentially metaphysical. In this book, John Lennox clearly points out the profound contradictions within Hawkings reasoning. Lennox critique is effective, unrelenting, and at times makes you feel a bit sorry for Hawkings. Probably the best thing that will be said about Hawkings book Grand Design is that he was old when it was written, and was probably overly influenced by his anti-catholic, rabidly atheistic co-author. The crumbling case for a naturalistic explanation for the creation of the universe has profound implications for humanity going forward. As much as academia and media will try to perpetuate this line of thought, truth has a way of surfacing. In any case it is now clear that the best science leans toward an intellegently created universe. I also highly recommend reading "Signature in the cell" by Stephen C. Meyer; a very compelling case intelligent design at the origin of life.

Stephen Hawking came up with his theory of everything as an attempt to explain how the universe and life exist apart from the existence of a Creator. In his book, The Grand Design, Hawking states that, while the universe's extreme fine-tuning would suggest that there was a Grand Designer, there was none. Instead, to explain the improbability of the random existence of our universe, he theorized the existence of an almost infinite number of universes and that everything came into being from nothing because of the existence of gravity. John Lennox, a Christian professor at Oxford University, has written this concise, readable, crisp response. It's an excellent little book. Every high school junior and senior and college student should read this! It quickly reveals the fallacies of Mr Hawking's theory and cites many in the scientific community who contend that Mr Hawking's position is not supported by science. Professor Lennox then reasserts the Christian position of an infinite God as Creator as a superior position to Mr. Hawking's.

Professor John C Lennox destroys Hawking's overreaching scientific reductionism and demonstrates that the existence of God is not just probable but necessary to explain a fine tuned universe.

Muito interessante o ponto abordado. Uma voz sensata e preparada, vai na jugular - como assim S. H diz " Filosofia não é mais necessária". Como alguém genial e famoso pode entrar nesse nível de arrogância? Gênios não são gênios em tudo. E vale ler

Another fantastic work by Dr John Lennox. His knowledge is simply amazing.

Focussed and pointed arguments. The book does not waste time and gets straight to the core of the theme. The author simple yet powerful analogies that a layman can easily understand. I recommend this to all truth seekers and suggest not to see things through Hawking's eyes but your own.

Muy interesante. Buena explicación del libro d Hawking. Bien refutado. Escencial para leer bueno para emitir juicio. Sencillo de leer