Reddit reviews God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway?

The problem is, a lot of the books that Christians here are recommending are very different in both style and direction than the kinds of books that you're talking about with Dawkins and Hitchens. Which, to be frank, ought to be expected. Detailed philosophical argumentation just isn't something most Christians are worried about or interested in since, once establishing faith, theology and discipleship are far more interesting intellectual pursuits to believers.


In any case, here are a variety of more serious academic responses to the kinds of books you've been reading:


Reasonable Faith By William Lane Craig


Warranted Christian Belief by Alvin Plantinga


Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism by Alvin Plantinga


Why God Won't Go Away: Is the New Atheism Running on Empty? by Alister Mcgrath


Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith by Francis S Collins


God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design Is It Anyway? by John C Lennox


Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target by John C Lennox


Edit: And don't forget that you don't have to buy any of these books to read them! For serious. Library card + inter-library loan system via internet is the way to win.

Oxford/Cambridge Mathematician John Lennox is releasing his book, God and Stephen Hawking on it, following a lecture series he gave at Berkley (Christianity and the Tooth Fairy).

Essentially, it boils down to this: Hawking is a great scientist but a poor philosopher in that he is confusing mechanistic Law with Agency. Lennox summarizes it thusly with this anaology: Choose between the laws of internal combustion and Henry Ford. Hawking really makes a nonsensical statement when you break it down to its roots.

Here's excerpts from Lennox's upcoming book: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3_-anTJ67A

Galileo and Copernicus have no bearing in relevancy with regard to "The Grand Design"

I have nothing but respect for Stephen Hawking when he does science, but "The Grand Design" is most definitely not science.

In the beginning of said book, he notes how philosophy is dead, yet goes onto write a book of philosophy. This can be a slippery slope, as Einstein once said, "The man of science is a poor philosopher."

Since you clearly seem to think you're pretty clever, I'm sure you are constantly expanding your not inconsiderate knowledge. I would like to suggest you read a short little book by John Lennox, which I found helpful among the many other refutations of that particular work. In conclusion, I would like to add that science does not say anything scientists do. Therefore, to engage in science one must have a philosophical fiat, and to deny philosophy is to deny thoughts themselves. One cannot hold a belief without holding to a philosophy.

http://www.amazon.com/God-Stephen-Hawking-Design-Anyway/dp/0745955495