Quote 294
When you look from the perspective of a scientist at the universe, it looks as if it knew we were coming. There are 15 constants -- the gravitational constant, various constants about the strong and weak nuclear force, etc. -- that have precise values. If any one of those constants was off by even one part in a million, or in some cases, by one part in a million million, the universe could not have actually come to the point where we see it. Matter would not have been able to coalesce, there would have been no galaxy, stars, planets or people. That's a phenomenally surprising observation. It seems almost impossible that we're here. And that does make you wonder -- gosh, who was setting those constants anyway? Scientists have not been able to figure that out.
Francis Collins
http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/08/07/collins/index2.html1.8K
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth A Quest for Godliness (126)
Inconsistency is the sign of a failed argument.Dividing Line
From the beginning Christianity has been a proclamation, not a thesis supported by various logical arguments. The Doctrine of God (109)
What you win people with is what you win people to.
Truth shines the most brightly against the backdrop of error. The Potter's Freedom(14)
Apologetics cannot precede faith and does not attempt a priori to argue the truth of revelation. It assumes the truth and belief in the truth. It does not, as the introductory part or as the foundational science, precede theology and dogmatics. It is itself a theological science through and through, which presupposes the faith and dogmatics and now maintains and defends the dogma against the opposition to which it is exposed. Thus understood, apologetics is not only perfectly justified but a science that at all times, but especially in this century, deserves to be seriously practiced and can spread rich blessing all around. The Valid Apologetic
The proper activity of professing Christians who disagree with one another is neither to ignore, nor to conceal, nor even to minimize their differences, but to debate them. We are 'to maintain the truth in love,' being neither truthless in our love, nor loveless in our truth, but holding the two in balance.Christ the Controversialist (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1970), pp. 22, 19.
the pressure was on Platonism to adapt to the challenge of Christianity, not the other way round.32
it cannot be claimed that the influence of Greek philosophy drove Christians to develop a corresponding theology; Jews and Muslims were exposed to the same influences, but with very different results. This suggests that there is something in the nature of Christianity itself which led to this development.The Doctrine of God (20)
Suppose we think of a man made of water in an infinitely extended and bottomless ocean of water. Desiring to get out of water, he makes a ladder of water. He sets this ladder upon the water and against the water and then attempts to climb out of the water. So hopeless and senseless a picture must be drawn of the natural man's methodology based as it is upon the assumption that time or chance is ultimate. On his assumption his own rationality is a product of chance. On his assumption even the laws of logic which he employs are products of chance. The rationality and purpose that he may be searching for are still bound to be products of chance.The Defense of the Faith
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Apologetics that simply take tight philosophical arguments, dump them on people, and then simply wait to see if they can say "uncle" or not, are not very effective. First of all, not all of us are philosophers; second, it doesn't reach into heart commitments, which is where the issues of life are. It's not how bright I am and whether I can think through a problem that is going to lead me to Christ. It's whether I have the kind of information, wisdom, and preaching that will challenge my deepest assumptions and lead me to Christ. World Magazine(July31 2010)
If you look at the details of biochemistry and molecular biology you might find a signature of some sort of designer... And that designer could well be a higher intelligence from elsewhere in the Universe. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv8Vt9n0do8
Scientific atheism of the type practised until recently in Eastern Europe is just as untenable as natural theology. It depends for its superficial validity on the unwarranted assumption that scientific methods are adequate to explain everything that exists in the real world. The Doctrine of God(107)
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