Session 1 - Can Science Explain Everything?
Interviewer: Some people see a contrast between religion and science when thinking about suffering. For example, religious sectarianism in northern Ireland (where John grew up) has given rise to unimaginable suffering, whereas science has been our saviour with vaccines and medicines alleviating suffering.
John Lennox comments that science has the capacity for both good and evil and expresses his shame at the religiously motivated violence in northern Ireland. He points out that Jesus repudiated violence.
- Do you agree (a) that Jesus was against violence and so (b) any violence in the name of Christianity is actually ‘pseudo-Christianity?
- You may wish to reflect on the proposition that extreme suffering almost always arises out of atheistic philosophies and within atheistic regimes. For example, Russian, Chinese, and Cambodian atheistic states perpetrated mass murder on an unimaginable scale.