God's Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty Read Online Free PDF Page B

were the primary themes. Ironically, there was very little “reason” present at their Celebration of Reason. The emotionalism they claim religion relies on permeated every presentation.
    I left the conference convinced that the primary strategy of these new atheists is to lay claim to the word reason , as a business owner might try to secure a domain name before the competition gets it. By doing this they can label anyone who opposes them as “anti-reason” or irrational. With the zeal of a political party, their hope is that science would eliminate any faith or religion as well as philosophy. This was stated clearly by Dawkins in a discussion with John Lennox at Oxford University , sponsored by the Fixed Point Foundation:
    What worries me is if you don’t have, if you don’t allow in a rational basis for what you believe then it is possible for people to say, I’m sorry I just believe that Allah told me to go kill all those people. And it’s no good arguing with me because arguing is not what it’s about.Faith is what it is about, and that is the danger. 3
    John Lennox, an Oxford mathematician who has debated Dawkins on several occasions, responded to this remark in one of their encounters:
    I understand it from my own perception of the New Testament that that is not what the Christian faith is, that’s dangerous, that blind faith. But all faith is not blind faith and just as you say you have faith in the scientific method and so have I, I have faith in God and believe that it is evidence based. 4
    A legitimate concern is when people believe without a rational basis. This allows them to carry out horrible, unreasonable acts, such as the 9/11 terrorist acts, in the name of their faith. The One who said, “Love your enemies,” is the extreme opposite of someone commanding his followers to “kill the infidel.”
    Reason serves as a type of immune system helping us sort out helpful beliefs from harmful ones. When humans look at any set of events, we use our reason to draw conclusions about what has happened. Whether it is an incident that just took place before our eyes or one that happened thousands of years ago, reason processes the events and decides whether the explanation being offered is plausible. Irrationality is not a religious thing; it’s a human thing. Ever heard of a mad scientist ? Making the point that real faith isn’t blind includes not blindly believing everything said in the name of “science.” The evidence that God exists is all around us and inside of us. You have been given the abilityto observe the phenomena around you and reason whether it is the product of blind forces or an intelligent Creator.
    The twenty-first century is the most astounding time in history to be alive; every day we learn more about the stellar universe and subatomic particles. Consider the discovery of the Higgs boson particle at the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland, in July 2012. This particle, nicknamed by nonscientists the “God Particle,” is unlocking physicists’ understanding of the mysterious subatomic world and producing the belief that humanity may soon understand the smallest detail of how the universe works. However, just because we know how a mechanism works doesn’t eliminate the existence of the architect and builder of the mechanism. The way these facts are interpreted comes down to the beliefs you hold or the lens through which you look.
    Atheists believe a fantastic story that the universe just happened, by chance, and that all of this life and complexity came from nothing. “The universe just is,” asserts the naturalist. Yet is that really true? Is that the only option a rational person has to consider? The late Christopher Hitchens, one of the most outspoken atheists of this generation and considered their most eloquent voice, seemed quite taken aback when he encountered Christians in his debates who actually had reasons for their faith. He thought that all we had was our