[Questioner] So the next question I think is to do with what a reasonable faith. The
Bible says that blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
So why then the need to show religion is not at odds with science? [Craig] What did Jesus
mean when he says that? That is a saying that appears in one of the resurrection
appearance stories where so-called doubting Thomas says that I will not
believe what his other disciples have told him that they have seen the Lord. He
says, "I'm not going to believe unless i can put my finger into the wounds on his
hands and my hand into the wound on his side." And Jesus then appears to the 12
including Thomas in the upper room and it's very interesting Thomas does not in
fact touch his wounds or put his hand in his side. Thomas just falls to the floor and says
"My Lord and my God" when he sees him. And it's at that point thatJjesus said to
him "Thomas do you now believe because you have seen, blessed are those who
believe but have not seen." And what Jesus is indicting Thomas for is that he failed
to believe the apostolic testimony to the resurrection of Jesus. He was
skeptical of what these disciples had testified to what they had seen and
heard. And in the same way the author of the Gospel of John is saying to us, us
later readers, we too need to believe the apostolic testimony. And we shouldn't demand
that Jesus appear to us in our bedroom at night but rather we should believe
what these original apostles have testified to and I think, now this is a
totally different topic, I think that historically this testimony is extremely
credible. We have very good historical grounds
for thinking that the tomb was found empty as the narrative say that these
disciples did experience resurrection appearances of Jesus that changed their
lives. And so I do believe the apostolic testimony and I think that's what Jesus
is saying. He's not asking you to put your brains on the shelf and believe
something that is contrary to science and to the evidence. He's saying believe
the apostolic witness to my resurrection rather than demanding that Jesus
appear to every person in every generation in the in the ages to come.
[Questioner] I think the question also is asking whether it's really compatible. Do
you really need to do this thing with faith and science? Aren't they sort of separate modes
of knowledge and kind of mixes things together. [Craig] I would refer folks to a
dialogue that I had yesterday at the Polytechnic with a Buddhist faculty
professor on science and religion and I gave a Christian perspective on science
and religion and she gave a Buddhist perspective on science and religion and
what I emphasized is that Christianity and science have areas of overlap where
they speak to the same issue. And we've seen one tonight. The notion that the
universe had a beginning, that the universe is not eternal. That view was
rejected by ancient Greek materialism and modern atheism - the Judeo-Christian
faith dug in its heels on the temporal finitude of the past and the creation
of the universe,
despite the materialistic views
that opposed it. And now science has verified this prediction.
So this is one area of overlap where science can either verify or falsify
religion or religious claims. And so I do think that while these are markedly
different in their aims
nevertheless there is areas of overlap where science can verify or falsify
religious claims and also, I would say, where theology can actually aid science
in dealing with metaphysical problems that science confronts that science
isn't itself equipped to answer.