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John C. Lennox Quote

The example of the jet engine can help us to clear up another confusion. Science, according to many scientists, concentrates essentially on material causation. It asks the how questions: how does the jet engine work? It also asks the why question regarding function: why is this pipe here? But it does not ask the why question of purpose: why was the jet engine built? What is important here is that Sir Frank Whittle does not appear in the scientific account. To quote Laplace, the scientific account has no need of that hypothesis.29 Clearly, however, it would be ridiculous to deduce from this that Whittle did not exist. He is the answer to the question: why does the jet engine exist in the first place?

John C. Lennox

The example of the jet engine can help us to clear up another confusion. Science, according to many scientists, concentrates essentially on material causation. It asks the how questions: how does the jet engine work? It also asks the why question regarding function: why is this pipe here? But it does not ask the why question of purpose: why was the jet engine built? What is important here is that Sir Frank Whittle does not appear in the scientific account. To quote Laplace, the scientific account has no need of that hypothesis.29 Clearly, however, it would be ridiculous to deduce from this that Whittle did not exist. He is the answer to the question: why does the jet engine exist in the first place?

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About John C. Lennox

John Carson Lennox (born 7 November 1943) is a mathematician, bioethicist, and Christian apologist originally from Ireland. He has written many books on religion, ethics, the relationship between science and God (like his books, Has Science Buried God and Can Science Explain Everything), and has had public debates with atheists including Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
Lennox earned a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Cambridge, then earned a second and third doctorate from the University of Oxford and Cardiff University, respectively. As a professor, Lennox specialised in group theory. He is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford, where he is also Emeritus Fellow in Mathematics and Philosophy of Science at Green Templeton College and has worked as adjunct lecturer at Wycliffe Hall and at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Saïd Business School and a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum.