As we take God’s word to the world we encounter challenges and questions – ethical, spiritual, personal, pastoral – and there are many resources available to help us engage with those issues. Take a look at this month’s top five for exploring questions related to science and faith…
1. Dixon, T (2008), Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
READ this short, sharp and intelligent book for an overview of the science vs. faith debate. From quantum physics and cosmology to neuroscience and evolutionary ethics, this book offers a genuinely balanced perspective that also engages the topic historically, politically and socially.
2. Krauss, L and Craig, WL (2013), Life the Universe and Nothing (three-part video file). Retrieved from http://lifeuniversenothing.org/content/videos-now-youtube
WATCH scientist and Prof Lawrence Krauss take on philosopher Dr William Lane Craig in the three-part debate ‘Life, the Universe and Nothing’. You’ll get to hear scholarly and robust reasoning from both sides as each man weighs in on whether or not science has buried God.
3. Lennox, JC (2009), God’s Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?, Lion, UK.
READ the compelling erudite arguments of philosophical scientist Dr John Lennox as he posits that not only is science highly consistent with a theistic worldview, it actually points towards God. Lennox engages with the debate at a high level, but his writing style is straight forward and accessible.
4. Dickson, J, Clarke, G and Smart, S, God Science: Creation, Darwin and the End of Faith [DVD], Centre for Public Christianity.
WATCH a range of interviews with prominent scientists and philosophers – including Australia’s own Dr John Dickson and Dr David Cohen – pulled together by the Centre for Public Christianity. Tackling topics like Darwinism, the age of the earth, and the Big Bang, it offers weighty wisdom in bite-size chunks.
5. McGrath, AE (2009), A Fine-Tuned Universe: the Quest for God in Science and Theology: the 2009 Gifford Lectures, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY.
READ this in-depth study on the topic of “the quest for God in the natural sciences and Christian theology.” Alister E. McGrath draws on a wide range of resources including the latest research in physical and biological phenomena. McGrath concludes that there is resonance between the Christian worldview and what is actually observed in science.
