Stealing From GodSample

Why Science Needs God

John Lennox asks his students to consider the following scenario: Imagine there is a Ford Model T in front of you. What accounts for the Model T?  Henry Ford or the natural laws governing internal combustion?

The students recognize both are necessary. Henry Ford explains the car’s origin, and the natural laws of internal combustion explain its operation. 

No matter how much you learn about the laws of internal combustion, the need for a designing engineer will never change. In other words, learning more about how an engine works should never cause you to conclude there was no designing engineer. You need both. This is why the technological advances we enjoy through science should never cause us to think that there is no God, as some atheists suggest. Our improved understanding of natural laws can never disprove the Being who set up and sustains those laws. To say that a scientist can disprove the existence of God is like saying a mechanic can disprove the existence of Henry Ford. It doesn’t follow. The existence of secondary operational causes does not negate the need for a primary and sustaining cause.

You can find out something about Henry Ford by studying his car and something about God by studying His creation. That’s because we can know about causes by their effects. We see a book, we learn something about the author; a car, the carmaker; a creation, the Creator (Psalm 19:1).

While this Henry Ford illustration is helpful in showing that a Creator is necessary, it doesn’t go far enough. After Henry Ford built his car, the car could go on without him. But that’s not true about God and the universe. The universe and the consistent laws of nature require a sustaining cause, not just a first cause. God is to the universe as a band is to music. A band creates and sustains music, and God creates and sustains the universe.

Atheists also make a mistake when they insist that science and Christianity conflict.  Actually, science and atheism conflict.  We couldn’t do science if the laws of logic and the laws of nature weren’t orderly and consistent. Christianity can account for those orderly laws—a Divine lawgiver. Atheists have to steal those laws from God in order to do the very science they mistakenly say disproves Him! (See Chapter 6 (“Science Doesn’t Say Anything: Scientists Do!”) in Stealing from God)

We adapted this Plan from Stealing From God by Frank Turek. Learn more about this discipleship resource.