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Oxford Mathematician Explains Why He’s A Follower Of Jesus
https://hillfaith.blog/ ^ | March 19 2019 | M.TAPSCOTT

Posted on 03/19/2019 9:21:43 AM PDT by Para-Ord.45

Only stupid or insecure or misguided people become followers of Jesus, right? That is an attitude one inevitably encounters while working for a U.S. senator or representative.

But then there is Professor John Lennox, the Irish mathematician from Oxford university, who not only is incredibly intelligent but also among the world’s most effective apologists for Christianity.

In this interview on Britain’s Premier Christian Radio, Lennox is asked by host Justin Brierley about Christians who fear having their faith challenged by non-believers and thus keep themselves in a sort of “Christian bubble” that is separate from the world around.

“Yes, it does and it develops a ghetto mentality and it’s very sad because the very first commandment, after all, is to love the Lord our God with our minds,” Lennox responds.

“And it’s sad because it indicates that people somehow feel that they might learn something that is true that upsets them. But if there is a God, then He is THE truth and one of the central claims of Jesus Himself was ‘I am the truth,” Lennox continued.

Lennox is a formidable intellect who admired and responded to the great Stephen Hawking on multiple occasions (see this lecture in which Lennox discusses Hawking at length).

But first, take 10 minutes to watch and listen as Lennox explains how and why he became a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haBHDekMoFU


TOPICS: Religion; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: fartyshadesofgreen; ireland; johnlennox; oxford; scientists; stephenhawking; unitedkingdom
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To: RoosterRedux

...I think mathematics is a wonderful example of God’s work.

The Beauty of Mathematics give one a small glimpse into what The Mind of God is. I find this Very Comforting


21 posted on 03/19/2019 10:29:27 AM PDT by HangnJudge
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To: job
Example 1
Consider this. The odds of winning a state lottery are about 1 chance in ten million. The odds of someone winning the state lottery every single week from age 18 to age 99 is 1 chance in 4.6 x 1029,120. Therefore, the odds of winning the state lottery every week consecutively for eighty years is more likely than the spontaneous generation of just the proteins of an amoebae!

A more detailed estimate for spontaneous generation has been made by Harold Morowitz, a Yale University physicist. Morowitz imagined a broth of living bacteria that was super-heated so that all the complex chemicals were broken down into their basic building blocks. After cooling the mixture, he concluded that the odds of a single bacterium re-assembling by chance is one in 10100,000,000,000. This number is so large that it would require several thousand books just to write it out.

https://truenews.org/Creation_vs_Evolution/origin_of_life.html

22 posted on 03/19/2019 10:31:41 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: job

[[But as long as there is a one for the numerator, you have some people out there believing it still could have happened.]]

I know- the odds of just one mutation adding “New, Non Species Specific information” (Something that is absolutely required for moving one species KIND to another new species KIND) are impossible, yet in order to believe that all life arose from non life, one has to believe this impossible single scenario happened not just once, but billions of times- if it’s impossible for just one time, then how impossible is it that it happened billions of times?

It’s just irrational to think nature violated it’s own rules billions of times in order fro life to spring from non life


23 posted on 03/19/2019 10:38:47 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: HangnJudge
Mathematics is also a great way to begin to understand the concept of Righteousness. Math is so righteous that if you miss one tiny little number or variable or sign denoting an operation in a vast equation, you will have to start all over again.

That is just the beginning of trying to fathom God's Righteousness.;-)

24 posted on 03/19/2019 10:49:52 AM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: Para-Ord.45

Home Viewing Bookmark.


25 posted on 03/19/2019 11:03:27 AM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: HangnJudge
21 ...I think mathematics is a wonderful example of God’s work. The Beauty of Mathematics give one a small glimpse into what The Mind of God is. I find this Very Comforting

Per Wikipedia - Pascal's Wager

Pascal's Wager is an argument in philosophy presented by the seventeenth-century French philosopher, mathematician and physicist Blaise Pascal (1623–1662). It posits that humans bet with their lives that God either exists or does not.

Pascal argues that a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.), whereas he stands to receive infinite gains (as represented by eternity in Heaven) and avoid infinite losses (eternity in Hell).

Pascal's Wager was based on the idea of the Christian God, though similar arguments have occurred in other religious traditions. The original wager was set out in section 233 of Pascal's posthumously published Pensées ("Thoughts"). These previously unpublished notes were assembled to form an incomplete treatise on Christian apologetics.

Historically, Pascal's Wager was groundbreaking because it charted new territory in probability theory, marked the first formal use of decision theory, and anticipated future philosophies such as existentialism, pragmatism and voluntarism.

Believe in God and there is a God = +1
Believe in God and there is no God = 0
Don't believe in God and there is no God = 0
Don't believe in God and there is a God = -1

26 posted on 03/19/2019 11:06:55 AM PDT by MacNaughton
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To: Bob434
Therefore, the odds of winning the state lottery every week consecutively for eighty years is more likely than the spontaneous generation of just the proteins of an amoebae!

And then when you have your one celled amoeba how do you randomly morph it into a woolly mammoth? How did so much genetic material randomly materialize?

27 posted on 03/19/2019 11:28:45 AM PDT by BipolarBob (How can we dance when our earth is turning)
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To: BipolarBob

[[How did so much genetic material randomly materialize?]]

I blame the invention of gummy bears


28 posted on 03/19/2019 11:30:44 AM PDT by Bob434
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To: Para-Ord.45

4L8r


29 posted on 03/19/2019 11:31:44 AM PDT by JDoutrider
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To: Para-Ord.45

p


30 posted on 03/19/2019 12:22:37 PM PDT by wintertime (Stop treating government teachers like they are reincarnated Mother Teresas!)
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To: Bob434
Your example sounds similar to other statements of mathematicians that have reckoned the possibility of self generation by accident to be so remote it is impossible. One,( I think from Russia) said if a mutation occurred every second of the building blocks supposedly available in the soup, there hasn't been enough time in the largest number of years claimed by science for the smallest virus to be formed. Then he expounded on this astronomical number and said, if randomly a combination of these chemicals came together to make a virus right off the bat, it would be hundreds of billions of years later to make the next viable virus in complexity. Even mathematicians knew the amount of zero's after 10x was so large, they all said it represented impossibility.

They all had to admit that the odds of the virus living long enough or the bacteria living long enough to have food to eat or a mate to mate with was also impossible. Even an asexual example eating his own would never change into something else to have some other example to eat or mate with, so no evolution. All of these "scientific" claims of evolution cannot be shown possible with math. The claims made by non mathematicians about evolution are just their imaginations and cannot be shown possible by math.

31 posted on 03/19/2019 12:52:21 PM PDT by chuckles
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To: chuckles

good summary- the following follows up on that thought:

“The major links in the molecules-to-man theory that must be bridged include (a) evolution of simple molecules into complex molecules, (b) evolution of complex molecules into simple organic molecules, (c) evolution of simple organic molecules into complex organic molecules, (d) eventual evolution of complex organic molecules into DNA or similar information storage molecules, and (e) eventually evolution into the first cells. This process requires multimillions of links, all which either are missing or controversial.”

https://trueorigin.org/abio.php


32 posted on 03/19/2019 1:03:13 PM PDT by Bob434
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To: RoosterRedux

It’s because of math, and science that I believe in GOD.


33 posted on 03/19/2019 2:50:11 PM PDT by Do the math (Do the math./)
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To: Para-Ord.45

Bookmark


34 posted on 03/19/2019 2:51:02 PM PDT by DocRock (And now is the time to fight! Peter Muhlenberg)
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To: Para-Ord.45

The truth is that many of the greatest artists, scientists, mathematicians, and composers in Western Civilization were Christians.

Johann Sebastian Bach: stupid? insecure? misguided? I think not. He is just one of many.


35 posted on 03/19/2019 3:51:45 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: MacNaughton
Pascal's Wager might be amended to include the following:

Believe in God and there is no God = eternity equals zero, but life itself before death has meaning, transcendence, beauty, decency, and glory due to the sublime ideal of Righteousness as presented by the Bible.

36 posted on 03/19/2019 4:17:42 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
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To: Larry Lucido; RoosterRedux
Many infallible proofs.
37 posted on 03/19/2019 4:34:03 PM PDT by Ezekiel (The pun is mightier than the s-word.)
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To: wintertime
p

Are you trying to find a bathroom?

38 posted on 03/20/2019 6:28:47 AM PDT by humblegunner
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