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John Lennox Humbly SILENCES Arrogant Atheist Professor On "God's Hiddenness" — Transcript

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0:00For thousands of years, people have
0:01believed that there is a God.
0:05If God does exist,
0:07then the next question is,
0:09does he want us to find irrefutable
0:13proof of his existence?
0:15Here's the thing.
0:17God only exists because people want him
0:20to exist.
0:22>> [snorts]
0:23>> And as long as that makes people happy,
0:25and they do not harass non-believers,
0:27there's nothing wrong with that.
0:30There's nothing wrong with having an
0:32imaginary friend. God exists in the same
0:35way Santa Claus exists. We wanted Santa
0:39Claus to exist because he brings joy and
0:41happiness, and let's not forget
0:44presents.
0:45So, we made him up.
0:47>> I'm not convinced about comparing God
0:49with Santa Claus, ladies and gentlemen,
0:51because have you ever met an adult that
0:53came to believe in Santa Claus?
0:58>> This guy says you made up God, like you
1:00made up Santa Claus, and that's fine if
1:02it makes you happy. Lennox won't dodge
1:04that. He's about to explain why a hidden
1:07God in Bethlehem beats one flipping the
1:09Eiffel Tower upside down. Miss this, and
1:12you miss the actual answer. Do well to
1:14subscribe and drop your honest take in
1:16the comments below.
1:17>> For thousands of years, people have
1:19believed that there is a God,
1:22a supreme being, the creator and
1:25sustainer of the universe.
1:28Will there ever be a Michelson-Morley
1:31type of experiment that proves that God,
1:34too, is a flawed hypothesis?
1:40The answer is no.
1:44Maybe I hear a big sigh of relief.
1:49Vice versa, can we prove that God does
1:52exist?
1:54Let us assume that there's only two
1:56options. Either God exists or he does
1:59not exist.
2:01If God does not exist, then there's
2:03obviously nothing to prove.
2:06If God does exist,
2:09then the next question is,
2:11does he want us to find irrefutable
2:14proof of his existence?
2:18Now, if God does not want us to find
2:21such proof, then there's nothing we can
2:22do about it. Assuming that God is
2:25all-powerful and that he created the
2:27entire universe including the
2:30gravitational ripples in the three
2:32Kelvin background radiation and all the
2:34giraffes and all the platypuses,
2:37preventing us from finding scientific
2:39proof for his his existence should be a
2:42piece of cake.
2:44That leaves just one option.
2:48God does allow us to find
2:51proof that he exists.
2:54But in that case, he made it very
2:55difficult.
2:57Because after thousands of years, we
2:59still have found no such proof.
3:03We [snorts] found planets around other
3:04stars. We found the Higgs boson, but we
3:08have not found God.
3:13It is very simple for God to prove that
3:15he exists.
3:17If on a sunny afternoon, God shapes the
3:21clouds in the sky
3:22to read the message
3:24"Tomorrow at noon, Greenwich Mean Time,
3:28I, God, will turn the Eiffel Tower
3:32upside down."
3:35And the next day that actually happens,
3:39I am converted.
3:42According to the Old Testament, God has
3:44awesome power, so it should be child's
3:47play to perform this small miracle and
3:50make me and everyone else on the planet
3:53believe in God.
3:56So, clearly God does not want to convert
3:59all the unbelievers in this simple and
4:01effective way.
4:04Why not?
4:07Apparently, God wants you to believe in
4:09him without scientific proof.
4:12This is called faith
4:14and it deliberately leaves you in a
4:17perpetual state of uncertainty.
4:20You will despair,
4:21doubt, and maybe even hate God when a
4:25devastating earthquake destroys your
4:27hometown killing 10,000 people.
4:31But you will praise and love him again
4:33when 10 days later an old woman is found
4:36alive underneath the rubble.
4:40Here's the thing.
4:41God only exists because people want him
4:44to exist.
4:46>> [snorts]
4:47>> And as long as that makes people happy
4:49and they do not harass non-believers,
4:52there's nothing wrong with that.
4:54There's nothing wrong with having an
4:56imaginary friend.
4:59God exists in the same way Santa Claus
5:03exists.
5:04We wanted Santa Claus to exist because
5:06he brings joy and happiness and let's
5:09not forget presents.
5:12So, we made him up.
5:14Throughout history, people all over the
5:16world wanted to believe that God existed
5:19and so they made him up
5:22because it's a comforting thought that
5:24all things happen for a reason and there
5:27is someone out there who loves you and
5:29takes care of you.
5:32In conclusion, it is impossible to prove
5:35that God does not exist.
5:38Just like it's impossible to prove that
5:40there are no green pigs,
5:43fairies, or Smurfs.
5:45People who believe in God should be
5:47grateful for that.
5:49>> [snorts]
5:49>> Think about it this way.
5:53If you honestly believe that there is a
5:55God and tomorrow some brilliant
5:58scientist proves beyond a shadow of a
6:01doubt that God does not exist,
6:05would you stop believing in God
6:07just because he is not real?
6:11Thank you.
6:14>> Professor Lennox, may I ask you to
6:16answer that question if you
6:18>> Of course you may.
6:19Um
6:21I'm not convinced about comparing God
6:24with Santa Claus, ladies and gentlemen,
6:25because have you ever met an adult that
6:28came to believe in Santa Claus?
6:33>> You?
6:35>> [applause]
6:36>> And
6:37I think this is actually very important.
6:39The Freudian argument is brilliant and
6:41it works
6:42provided there is no God. He's a wish
6:44fulfillment. And Germany's top
6:46psychiatrist Manfred Lütz has just
6:48written a book to make this point. If
6:51God does not exist,
6:53um
6:54the argument that God is a wish
6:56fulfillment is brilliant. But if God
6:58does exist, the very same argument
7:00proves that atheism is wish fulfillment,
7:02the desire never to have to meet God,
7:04never to have to do with God and so on.
7:07So, Manfred Lütz's bottom line as a
7:09psychiatrist is on the substantive
7:12question whether God exists or not,
7:14Freud, Jung or Frankl can't help you.
7:17But I think what can help you to come to
7:19your question. I was a bit puzzled when
7:22Peter here,
7:23um we've been getting on like a house on
7:25fire in the in the in the interval, said
7:28that God hides himself. That's only to a
7:31certain extent true. I mean, one of the
7:33central points I made, ladies and
7:35gentlemen, was my major reason for
7:38believing God is that he hasn't hidden
7:40himself. He's revealed himself in space,
7:43time, and history in Jesus Christ. And
7:47it's that specificity
7:49of the incarnation, life, death, and
7:52resurrection of Jesus, and their
7:53documentation
7:55that for me is by far and away the
7:57biggest evidence that God does exist.
8:01What has often always impressed me about
8:03Christianity is this, that God doesn't
8:06force his way into our thinking. If he
8:09turned the Eiffel Tower upside down, I'd
8:12love to read the books by atheists the
8:13next day explaining how it happened. And
8:17uh
8:19that's not going to convince anybody.
8:21When God came into the world, he came in
8:24in such a way that did not threaten
8:26people.
8:27They They weren't wiped out by a a
8:30colossal display of power.
8:33God came into the world almost incognito
8:35so the people could get to know him and
8:38get to see how he cared. And so, because
8:41the big thing at stake to my mind is
8:44human love and trust, and you don't win
8:47that by a display of magic tricks or
8:49power. You win it by what I believe
8:52happened during the incarnation. So, I
8:54don't think God has hidden himself.
8:56>> No.
8:56>> But he hasn't made himself so obvious
8:59that you have to bow down whether you
9:02believe it or not because you cannot
9:05get people to accept a truth on the
9:09basis of force. So, you have to do it
9:11another way. And the central message of
9:14Christianity is, after all, that God
9:16loved the world, not that he was going
9:18to impose something by force.
9:21I believe in God, as you heard. I come
9:23from a nation, Northern Ireland, which
9:25is reputed for religious violence.
9:28I still believe in God. I live in a
9:30world which is full of suffering.
9:33I don't know how many hundred thousand
9:34infants have died needlessly since we
9:37started our evening.
9:39And I can sympathize greatly with many
9:41of my colleagues
9:43who become atheists because of that.
9:46I have many friends who lost all their
9:48family in the Holocaust. I've stood and
9:50wept in Auschwitz many times.
9:52And this is a problem I face all the
9:54time and it's the number one problem and
9:56it's the most difficult problem. So,
9:58give me a couple of moments just to say
10:00and this is
10:02we need a whole evening on this. But,
10:04let me say one or two things. Firstly, I
10:06say that atheism claims to solve the
10:09problem by saying
10:11that's just how life is. Dawkins says
10:14this universe is just as you'd expect it
10:16to be at bottom there's no good, no
10:18evil, and no justice.
10:21But, you see that strikes me as a
10:22non-solution because it doesn't remove
10:25the suffering. It's still there. What it
10:27does remove is any hope. Now, you might
10:29say as Dawkins did to me directly,
10:32that's it. It's bleak. That doesn't
10:34prove it's false. I said, Richard, that
10:36prove it's true either. We need to go
10:38deeper than that. Now,
10:40one of the reasons, ladies and
10:42gentlemen, one of the biggest bits of
10:44evidence
10:46for my Christian faith has to do with
10:48this problem
10:50because we face it all the time.
10:53I as a human being discover I'm a moral
10:56being.
10:57I discover a desire for justice. Is that
11:00ultimately an illusion?
11:03Because if there is no God and in
11:05particular if there's no life after
11:07death, it is an illusion.
11:09The vast majority of people who have
11:11ever lived will never get justice.
11:14They'll never get relief. They will
11:16never have any answers to their hurt. A
11:18few of us in the West are lucky and we
11:21may get some kind of justice in this
11:23life.
11:24Now, from my point of view, I have a
11:26problem.
11:27But, you see that is where I
11:30would like to suggest to you that
11:32Christianity is utterly unique and
11:36it doesn't compete with any other
11:38religion
11:39because no other religion offers me
11:41this.
11:42You see at the heart of Christianity
11:44there is a cross.
11:47And what I see there, if that really is
11:50God, try and come with me. If you want
11:52to judge Christianity, you have to
11:54listen to what it says.
11:56If that really is God, what does that
11:59tell me? At the very least it tells me
12:01this,
12:02that God has not remained distant from
12:04human suffering but has himself become
12:06part of it.
12:08Now that to my mind is profound and I
12:10can see and have seen many times that
12:13becoming a window of possibility for
12:15people. Now you know that the next claim
12:18is that Christ did not remain on the
12:20cross. He died and he rose again. Well,
12:23that opens up a vast new world for me.
12:27It means Well, it means this and this is
12:30my final thought. We can argue
12:32philosophically all night, all year.
12:35It's been done for thousands of years.
12:37What a good God should, could, must,
12:39might, all this kind of thing and have
12:42you ever been satisfied by that
12:44argument? No. Why not?
12:46Because what we're faced with when all
12:49the arguing's finished is a world that's
12:52a mixed picture. It's a bit like
12:55Coventry Cathedral that was bombed
12:57during the war. You go into it, you see
12:59that a bomb has hit it but you also see
13:01traces of beauty.
13:03Look at life. Look at our world. It's
13:04beautiful. Keukenhof, phenomenal, which
13:08I visited for the first time last year
13:10and it blew my mind away. But I see the
13:12barbed wire.
13:14I see the cancers. I see the tsunamis.
13:17So I'm presented in looking at this
13:19world with a mixed picture.
13:21So how do I face it? Well, I ask this
13:24question. I I solve the philosophical
13:26question.
13:28And I say, "Look, is there any evidence
13:30anywhere in the universe
13:33that there's a God who cares and who I
13:35can ultimately trust with the answer?"
13:40My answer to that is, from personal
13:42experience and all that I've said
13:44tonight,
13:46is that although I can't answer
13:47everything,
13:50I've learned enough, and I'm speaking
13:52very personally now because it is a
13:54personal thing.
13:56I believe I can trust God with the
13:58answer.
13:59Atheism has no answer whatsoever. It has
14:01no hope to offer ultimate hope. It may
14:04have temporal hope. And it is utterly no
14:07solution ultimately to the problem of
14:09evil and suffering.
14:10>> So, the atheist professor opens with a
14:12line that's supposed to end the
14:14conversation before it starts. God
14:16exists the same way Santa Claus exists.
14:19We wanted him to be real, so we invented
14:21him. And as long as it keeps people
14:23happy and they're not hurting anybody,
14:25what's the harm? [music]
14:26That's the whole Christian faith reduced
14:28to a coping mechanism dressed up as
14:30compassion. And he doesn't stop at
14:32Santa. He goes for the hardest case he's
14:35got. He brings up an earthquake that
14:37kills 10,000 people and an old woman
14:40pulled alive from the rubble 10 days
14:42later and says that's the pattern.
14:45You'll hate God when the quake hits and
14:47love him again when the miracle happens,
14:49which just proves God's only real to you
14:51when it's convenient. That's a genuinely
14:54sharp point. If you've ever sat with a
14:56friend who walked away from faith after
14:58losing someone, you've heard some
15:00version of it. Don't let anybody tell
15:02you that's a weak argument. It isn't.
15:05Here's where it gets interesting,
15:06though. Lennox doesn't open with a
15:08counterargument. He opens with a joke
15:10that's actually a real point. Have you
15:12ever met an adult who came to believe in
15:15Santa Claus? Stay with that for a second
15:17because it's doing real work. The wish
15:19fulfillment theory only explains why
15:22people start believing something. It
15:24says nothing about whether the thing is
15:26true. And then Lennox does something
15:28most apologists wouldn't bother doing.
15:31He names the source. A German
15:33psychiatrist named Manfred Lütz wrote a
15:35whole book pointing out that the wish
15:37fulfillment argument cuts both
15:39directions. If God doesn't exist, sure,
15:42maybe we invented him because we wanted
15:44comfort. But if God does exist, the
15:47exact same logic says atheism is the
15:49wish fulfillment, the desire to never
15:52have to answer to anybody. Lennox isn't
15:54just trading insults here. He's showing
15:56you that you only believe that because
15:58you want it to be true is a knife that
16:00cuts the person holding it just as
16:02easily.
16:03But here's the honest part, and this is
16:05where I need you to actually pay
16:07attention instead of just cheering for
16:08your side. Lennox doesn't fully close
16:11the door the atheist opened. The deeper
16:14challenge buried under the Santa Claus
16:16joke is that a God who can't be tested
16:18either way isn't really making a
16:20falsifiable claim. And Lennox's answer
16:23to that isn't a knockout logical proof.
16:25It's something else entirely. He says
16:28God hasn't hidden himself. He's revealed
16:30himself in space and time, in history,
16:33in the actual life, death, and
16:35resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's not
16:38Lennox dodging. That's Lennox relocating
16:41the whole argument. He's saying don't
16:43ask me to prove an abstract concept
16:45called God. Look at a concrete claim
16:48about a concrete man at a concrete
16:50moment in history, and test that
16:52instead.
16:54Whether that fully satisfies you depends
16:56on whether you think the resurrection is
16:58a historical question or a philosophical
17:00one, and that's worth sitting with, not
17:03steamrolling past.
17:04Then the atheist's Eiffel Tower dare
17:07comes back around, and here Lennox gives
17:09you the line that actually answers it.
17:11He says if God flipped the Eiffel Tower
17:13upside down tomorrow, he'd love to read
17:16the atheist's explanations the next day
17:18because a forced miracle convinces
17:20nobody who doesn't want to be convinced.
17:23It just gets explained away.
17:25Then he says something that should stop
17:26[music] you cold if you've ever wondered
17:28why God doesn't just settle the argument
17:30with a Thunderbolt. God came into the
17:33world almost incognito, not wiped out by
17:36a colossal display of power because the
17:38thing actually [music] at stake is love
17:41and trust and you don't win love by
17:43magic tricks. If you've ever had a doubt
17:46that sounded like, "Why won't God just
17:48prove it already?" That's [music] Lennox
17:50telling you force was never going to get
17:52you what you actually want from God
17:54anyway.
17:55Before we get to the moment that decides
17:57this whole thing, there's a piece you
17:59cannot skip past because it's Lennox's
18:01strongest philosophical move in the
18:03entire clip. He says as a human being he
18:07discovers he's a moral being. He
18:09discovers a desire for justice. And then
18:12he asks the question that should needle
18:14anybody, believer or not, is that desire
18:17ultimately an illusion? Because if
18:19there's no God and especially no life
18:21after death, then it is an illusion,
18:24full stop. Now here's the moment where
18:26the performance drops and you hear an
18:28actual human being instead of a debater.
18:31Lennox brings up Northern Ireland, his
18:33own home famous for religious violence,
18:36and says he still believes in God. And
18:38then he says he has friends who lost
18:40their entire families in the Holocaust
18:43and that he has personally stood and
18:45wept at Auschwitz more than once. He's
18:47not scoring a point there. He's handing
18:49the atheist's strongest weapon back to
18:51him and saying, "I already know. I felt
18:54this." And a few minutes later he says
18:56the line that matters more than anything
18:58else in the whole clip, "I can't solve
19:01the philosophical question." Not I have
19:04solved it. Not here's my airtight answer
19:06to suffering. He says he cannot solve
19:09it. That's the single most honest thing
19:11said in this entire segment because it's
19:13the moment a trained debater stops
19:15performing certainty he doesn't have and
19:18tells you the truth instead. And here's
19:20why that lands harder than a clever
19:22rebuttal ever could. The atheist's whole
19:25opening move was that faith is just
19:27people refusing to face hard truths.
19:29Lennox just faced one on camera in front
19:32of an audience and didn't flinch from
19:34it. So, where does that leave the actual
19:36decision in this clips? Lennox doesn't
19:39out-argue the problem of evil. Nobody
19:41ever has and he says so himself. What he
19:43does instead is point to the cross and
19:45say that whatever else is true, the
19:47Christian claim is that God didn't stay
19:50distant from human suffering. He became
19:52part of it. That's not a philosophy
19:54paper answer. That's a person who's wept
19:56at Auschwitz telling you he can trust
19:58God with a question he can't fully
20:00answer because of what he believes God
20:02already did about it. Compare that to
20:05the atheist's ending move. As long as it
20:07makes you happy, what's the harm? Which
20:09sounds compassionate until you notice it
20:11never has to risk being wrong about
20:13anything because it never claimed
20:15anything was true in the first place. If
20:17you're watching this with a faith that's
20:19never been tested out loud, this is what
20:21it looks like to hold your ground
20:23without faking certainty you don't have.
20:26If your faith is wobbling right now
20:27under exactly this kind of suffering,
20:30hear what Lennox actually said. Not that
20:32he has the answer, but that he's found
20:35enough to trust the one who does. And if
20:38you clicked on this hoping to watch the
20:39Christian get embarrassed, you got a
20:41fair fight instead of a straw man and
20:43that's worth more than a cheap win.
20:45So, here's the question for the comments
20:47and I want a real answer, not a dodge.
20:50If Lennox is right that you can't solve
20:52the suffering question philosophically
20:54and can only trust God through it
20:56personally, is that faith or is that
20:58giving up on the question too soon?

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