Christian Apologist: The Truth About Christianity (And Why Atheism Is Fading)

**Steven Bartlett** (0:00)
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**John Lennox** (1:15)
There are worship groups that worship AI, because it's got some of the qualities we normally associate with God. And some people welcome this and say, this is the way we should go. But the danger is we treat these human-eyed robots as if they're conscious beings. This is a seriously important thing. And I do feel that the Christian faith has a great deal to say about this.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:37)
And it's fascinating to me that you are very religious, you believe in God, because typically I think that mathematicians lean more towards atheism.

**John Lennox** (1:44)
So the great pioneers of modern science were all believers in God. And I've interrogated myself about its truth, for over 70 years. I've made myself totally vulnerable, and I've found that Christ offers me something nobody else offers me.
Peace in my heart, the peace of knowing that I have real forgiveness. Things like, for example, God has met people even in death row. I never forget looking through the door of a Russian security death row. I went up to the door and a chap came over and looked at me. He killed 12 women and he said, I deserve to be here. And then his face just burst into it. What I can only describe as a ghastly smile. And he said, I met Jesus here and he forgave me.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:28)
So on this point of forgiveness, would the serial killer be forgiven and allowed into heaven? And then how do you know that this thing you've committed yourself to is true?

**John Lennox** (2:37)
So I have had several experiences, enough to tell me, look, this stuff is real. OK, so.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:48)
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John Lennox, you've published over 70 peer-reviewed mathematical papers, co-authored two research texts at the Oxford Mathematical Monograph Series, and you've really become a pioneer in many domains through your career. But for anyone that doesn't know you, what is the most important context they need to understand the reference points, experience, education that you're pulling on, that is going to inform all of the subjects we talk about today?

**John Lennox** (3:49)
I mean, I've written a number of papers, I got a certain amount of international recognition, I chaired Oxford and all the rest of it. But I think the real value of that has been the training and logic, really saying that mathematics works. The fact that it works is for me one of the strongest evidences that this is what I call a word-based universe.
We can use mathematics to describe things about how the universe works, thinking God's thoughts after him, Kepler's famous statement. But also, we've lived to see a biological revolution where we discover biology's word-based as well with the human genome. And that to me resonates with the explanation given in both the Old Testament and the New language of John's Gospel. In the beginning was the word.