Seven Days That Divide The World: The Beginning According To Genesis And Science (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
Dr. John Lennox is such a nice fellow. Reading his book I am convinced once more that interaction between people with different ideas on a given subject can be based on respect. This is a thing I can hardly see on the www between christians and atheists. In a debate with Richard Dakins, the Oxford zoologist says that it is no big deal that the Bible has got it right on how the univers was: if it had a beginning or if it is eternal. John Lennox says that this is very important because there was a lot of opposition in science agains what currently is the standard model, given it supports a christian worldview. John Lennox is among the world's leading apologists, in my view, because he combines several admirable qualities: he is a bona fide expert on a relevant discipline (although mathematics is about as far away from most of the things he talks about as an apologist as one would want to be, since math at his level is as much art form as it is a science of discovery); he communicates clearly and at the right level for his audience; he has read widely in sources that matter (including a remarkable number of sources in the history of Christian thought); he generally exercises good sense about what does and doesn't count as a good argument, whether on his side or on his opponents'; and he seems to play fair, without special pleading or other manipulative rhetoric.This book runs into trouble chiefly on the problem of (natural) evil, particularly on the problem of animal pain, both before the Fall and afterward. Whence animal pain? If Satan is somehow to be blamed (and Lennox is open to an explanation involving the devil), then we now have a second conundrum, namely, Satan's position in the cosmos under God's Providence. Is Satan "the prince of this world" by exile or by us handing the world of which we are to be lords over to him? If he is already lord, then what is our role vis-à-vis his? And how could God call such a world, ruled by Satan and full of animal pain, "very good" at the end of the Genesis 1 creation account? The theologico-chronological problems here are serious.They are serious, however, for everyone tackling these questions these days. The state of the art on this question is, frankly, that orthodox theologians generally have not agreed on a reconciliation of what we think we know about paleontology (including a long record of apparent animal suffering and death before the emergence of human beings) with what we think we know about the Fall and its consequences for the rest of creation.Lennox also gets into some theological difficulties elsewhere--on the Trinity, on an anthropocentric construal of "the ends for which God created the world," and one or two other spots--but, again, he has good company there in the history of Christian reflection.These caveats notwithstanding, however, Lennox sets an admirable standard indeed for apologetics. His writing brims with interesting information and argumentation, and his tone is just right: confident, but also humble; assertive, but also receptive; adversarial at times, but collegial throughout. This book, along with others of his on similar themes (such as "God's Undertaker") are exactly what Christians need to respond to Dawkins and Hawking and the other not-so-New Atheists, but also, and more importantly, to the honest questions every thoughtful and informed person--including Christian persons--asks about God and the natural world.
What do You think about Seven Days That Divide The World: The Beginning According To Genesis And Science (2011)?
Amazing book. A must read for every Christian, and especially those who evangelize.
—tii
Excellent book. I bought it in ebook form too to get detailed notes.
—Lau
Liked it but the 2nd half was not that easy to read.
—Morgan
