Pain: Illusion or Truth? John Lennox and Daniel Lowenstein at UCLA

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The Veritas Forum

9 жыл бұрын

John Lennox (Oxford) and Daniel Lowenstein (UCLA) explore the problem of suffering, the nature of God, and morality. | UCLA, 2015 | Explore more at www.veritas.org.
Speakers:
John Lennox - Professor of Mathematics (Emeritus) at the University of Oxford
Moderator:
Daniel Lowenstein - Professor of Law (Emeritus) at UCLA Law School
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Пікірлер: 116
@marcusoruiari2099
@marcusoruiari2099 9 жыл бұрын
John has me convinced more....I Believe more now than ever. Thank you brother.
@ville477
@ville477 9 жыл бұрын
***** Meanwhile your disbelieving more, huh? If only you got out of your religiosity and see that you're no different than our believing fellow human.
@ville477
@ville477 9 жыл бұрын
***** That's what you believe.
@ville477
@ville477 9 жыл бұрын
***** Let me sugar coat it this way since you're that far-----> (me having beliefs=no)
@ville477
@ville477 9 жыл бұрын
***** define some terms if you can in that "God (what's you think)" "is (can God be is? or is God is?)" "imaginary (what's, hence you knew all existence to claim that)"
@ville477
@ville477 9 жыл бұрын
***** So Imaginary IS god*
@rocketscientisttoo
@rocketscientisttoo 2 жыл бұрын
One thing about the Q & A session is that some people make statements, leading up to their question, that are their real reason for being at the microphone not getting an answer to their question. If we ask questions about the statement sometimes we can reveal just what their underlying agenda is. Remember facts are objective not subjective otherwise they would just be our opinion.
@joekerley8674
@joekerley8674 5 жыл бұрын
There was a fall from grace for man in the beginning which unleashed sin into the world,and at the same time gave us the freedom to make our own choices and mistakes, which have consequences that we as men can choose to learn or not to learn from .It was about knowing the value of life and the learning of one's mistakes that God put into place for man to know,but not all men will learn from the choices they make.
@crazyanimeloveable
@crazyanimeloveable 9 жыл бұрын
I think one of the clever things Dr lennox said was when he talked about Justice. If you do not believe in God, you deny that there is such a place as heaven or hell. Which also means that the cruelty and evil minded people get away with there sins. There would absolutely be no justice, The concept of it has been an illusion I personally could not live without Hope, or without the meaning of my life. Striving to be reconciled with God and have Eternal life (If I'm god enough). I also can not understand how an atheist can life his life if he believes that one day it would all end. Done and nothing to strive for...
@Gnomefro
@Gnomefro 9 жыл бұрын
***** _"If you do not believe in God, you deny that there is such a place as heaven or hell."_ Not necessarily. You could have a reality in which morality operated like a law of nature and where certain types of behavior led to being eternally tortured in a lake of fire. Granted, this is not a normal naturalistic view, but that's only because belief in it is as irrational as theism due to lack of evidence in the reality we live in. This did not have to be the case - a naturalistic hell could be a lake of fire easily visible to everyone. _"Which also means that the cruelty and evil minded people get away with there sins."_ Well, "sins" don't exist under naturalism at all. What you are trying to say is that they get away with immoral behaviors, but this is clearly not necessarily the case. Humans are the only punishers of such behavior that we observe - via the various forms of punishment we enforce, both what's encoded in law and things we regard as reasonable self defense. There are also other costs to bad behavior, in that other people will hate you, avoid you or see you as a threat worthy of attack instead of relating to you in positive ways. You would also probably be the kind of person you like and have a lot of internal self loathing due to your behavior. _"There would absolutely be no justice, The concept of it has been an illusion"_ No, it would just not be possible to enforce at all times. What you're saying here really is something like "If God don't exist, then nobody are ever put in jail or given fines". Clearly this is false. Justice under naturalism has value because of the demonstrable positive effects of assigning costs to certain types of undesirable behavior and that's why it exists - and is the only form of justice that anyone ever observes. I suppose I could also point out that most people don't actually accept that it's "justice" to torture people forever for the "crime" of not accepting Jesus as their Lord and savior.(Or for any other finite crime) _"I personally could not live without Hope"_ What you mean here is probably that you think you can't live without a belief that you will never die. I'm not sure how to respond to that beyond simply stating that we have a 100% death rate among humans. _"or without the meaning of my life."_ Well, meaning of life is inherently subjective and it's easy to prove. just imagine that God exists and has assigned some "objective purpose" to your life that is the antithesis to everything you want to do. Say, being eaten by ants to sustain their existence or something equally absurd. You will then discover that purpose doesn't depend on god, but on your desires, needs, interests etc. It might just happen to be the case that they are centered around a religion at the moment - because you were indoctrinated into it - but the moment you realize that it's false, what will happen is that your views of meaning will realign themselves with what you believe to be true about reality and you might start caring more about what to do with your finite life than whether you can survive your own death. _"Striving to be reconciled with God and have Eternal life (If I'm god enough)."_ Right. That's a purpose that's completely subjective because you right now believe that this is an attainable goal. The moment that belief vanishes, you would get other goals. _"I also can not understand how an atheist can life his life if he believes that one day it would all end. Done and nothing to strive for..."_ I just view that as a bizarre statement. What about life ending in X years makes it uninteresting to me what I do today? Do friends and family cease to be important because of that? Of course not. Many people also identify with processes, like the development of higher civilization, improve human knowledge etc and are perfectly content with a meaning in which they are simply part of such a process and improving the lives of everyone, even if just a little bit. The fact that it's going to end someday doesn't matter to this. It's like saying that it's meaningless to eat a good meal, because it's going to end someday. Pointless to read a book, because there's an end to it. Movies end as well. Listening to a sermon? Pointless - it's finite. Clearly you engage in such things because of their temporal and subjective value to you - not because they're eternal.
@crazyanimeloveable
@crazyanimeloveable 9 жыл бұрын
Gnomefro First of all Thank you for the time you took to comment back on me. The first statement about the existense of Hell or heaven would suggest that you still need faith to believe in them. Since no one has ever seen a lake of fire. And if such a place exists than someone clearly has to be the ruler or creater of it. Because things do not happen by itself. And science will back this theorie. I can understand by reading your comment that you do not believe in a concept as 'sins'. you express by telling about how people are the ones who punish others, but what happens to people like Hitler. he killed soo many people and in the end he commited suicide. If we'd say that we are the ones giving judgement than what happend to him. where is the so called justice of millions of people. The true meaning of having faith is to know that we have a savior. Someone who you can depend on. Someone who cares soo deeply about you that he sacrifaced his own son, so that you, me could have eternal life. To life in Happiness and in the comfort of the one that created you. Doesn't that give you more satisfaction then to believe that Life just ends some day. There are so many people in this world that suffer every day. Hunger, poverty, war, people who are being robbed from their freedom. Faith is so much more it gives hope and strenght. But I agree you should live your life to the fullist. but you can do that while believing. You should care, help, provide needs as much as you can. And about the rules that we as human beings have cerated. You know that most of them come from Biblical believes. Don't murder, Don't steal. Help each other etc. So we are not as clever as you think we are. To come up with a social system. In fact looking back in history you'll see how lost we have been and still are. Slavery, Child workers etc. Of course I believe that we will die someday. No doubt about that. But what have you to look forward to? Thats what I meant by Hope. And I could easilly ask you the same question, what if you are wrong and there is (I know there is) a God. There is so many proof that the evolution theory is not based on sience. What if you are missing the chance to meet your creator. I Hope you have friends and familie that are close to you, but what about people who have none. People come and go but God lasts forever. About Goals in your life. you can have many of them.in fact that's good because you strive to be a better you. you want to be a independent being and explore yourself as much as you can. At least I hope you do. If so I can only congrate you by having these goals. But in the longer run what then. Your knowledge, talents will vanish Im not saying that because of this you shoudnt do anything or lay back. But eventually you'll die (like everyone). Is it not a shame that you won't be able to thanx God who has created you for the things in your life? I am a student myself and I strive to be a social worker. I love reading books and I try to be a strong individual. Just as most people I enjoy a movie or a song. But the satisfaction I get from these things (materialism) is short. it won't last forever. But my faith does. I hope you are not offended by these words because I know religion is a sensitive subject. I can only hope that you'll give it a chance and experience this undiscribble feeling. And also English is not my native language I hope you won't mind the grammer mistakes...!
@markfrank0924
@markfrank0924 6 жыл бұрын
Someone mentioned and it made perfect sense if we can comprehend the mind of God he would not be worthy of worship. Our existence and all that is around us is all the proof that should be needed for a thinking person. Like a fish who swims all day in water, we too with all the wonders of creation around us pay no attention.
@JosiahFickinger
@JosiahFickinger 2 жыл бұрын
Thank God saved John Lennox so he could TALK about the problem!!
@bonnie43uk
@bonnie43uk 5 жыл бұрын
John Lennox talked at length about his dying niece and how she was comforted by her belief in an afterlife, as we speak, there are millions of people all over the world who have terminal illnesses, but millions of them believe in a different God, what would John Lennox ( or any Christian) say to them as words of comfort? John says that "what is true is very important to me".. so would he tell them they've got to ditch their life long held belief in Allah, or Shiva ( or whatever God they believe in), and start asking Jesus for forgiveness. If you were a devout Muslim, dying, I don't think you'd find that very comforting, you would have already made peace with your own God. Something to think about.
@blackfalkon4189
@blackfalkon4189 3 жыл бұрын
a pyramid has only 1 tip
@cynthiaharvey6155
@cynthiaharvey6155 Жыл бұрын
To my knowledge the problem of evil is in the very first part of the Bible starting in Genesis chapter three. The rebellion taking place is in the first part of the Bible.
@mapaz555
@mapaz555 2 жыл бұрын
Our God said I’ll come, become human and suffer with you and show you then that there is life after suffering, after death
@tooskepticool7675
@tooskepticool7675 5 жыл бұрын
I don't know how coincidental this is that this video showed up on my feed the day after the mosque Massacre Christchurch buy an Eco fascist
@omarmedina8141
@omarmedina8141 7 ай бұрын
does this wise kind man is completely aware of how many people he has helped to grow their faith in God?
@GeoCoppens
@GeoCoppens 6 жыл бұрын
University degree in the philosophy of science!
@cynthiaharvey6155
@cynthiaharvey6155 Жыл бұрын
To get an answer to the problem of evil, we have to go back to " the beginning" in the Bible. Satan the tempter started it by telling Eve that if she ate from the tree that she positively WOULD NOT DIE. Adam had been instructed by his Creator NOT to touch the tree or he would die and return back to the dust. After they both ate from the tree that was when all of the trouble began, and it went on and on and got worse and worse down to our day. The whole Earth is off balance for that reason. This is my Bible study knowledge which makes more sense than anything else I've ever heard. We always have to go back to "the beginning" what God had instructed the first man Adam NOT to do, and also remember that Satan rebelled against his Creator and also got the first human couple to do the same, this is where the jevil came from, to my knowledge. If we do not go back to "the beginning" it will never make sense of why there is so much evil on Earth. Also the scriptures says that GOD SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON AS THE REDEEMER FOR OUR SINS, IN ORDER THAT WE MAY HAVE LIFE.. HE SENT HIS SON AND HIS SON IS THE IMAGE OF HIS FATHER.
@JungleJargon
@JungleJargon 9 жыл бұрын
The error of many people is that God operates on a wider timeframe than what we are so often aware of. The problem of sin and evil in the world is something that should shake us up when we understand that God is holy and good. We should seriously question what brought all the evil on us. We need to see that something has gone very wrong. Yes, it is true that we would not even exist in a robotic world where everything went as determined. We need to see there is so much more than the physical world that we see. There is a fire that doesn't burn. The burning bush didn't consume the tree (well, it is a tree now). Even a fire that does burn did not burn Abraham ( אברהם) , Hananiah (חֲנַנְיָה), Mishael (מִישָׁאֵל) and Azariah (עֲזַרְיָה). We did not get here by any physical means and we will not cease existing when the physical means runs out.
@VV66613
@VV66613 9 жыл бұрын
The error is that, there's still quite a lot of morons believing that god exists.
@jaymesmckenzie5592
@jaymesmckenzie5592 9 жыл бұрын
Valdas Vaigauskas Kim Jong, Mussolini, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot, and Stalin... what do they have in common? An atheistic worldview! ..but of course, a belief in a creator is soooooo much worse, LOL. You sir are a troll and a bigot. I have colleagues and friends who are atheists and you are giving atheism a bad name; please think first and then post from now on. Thanks
@cnathanj1
@cnathanj1 9 жыл бұрын
If it exists, it has an opposite, Right - left...up - down...on - off...square - circle. You can't have one without the other. Negative - Positive...light - dark. Life - death. .Its a proven scientific fact. And a law of creation All life depends on it. .Male - Female..Why would anyone be surprised, that evil exists, along with good .
@VV66613
@VV66613 9 жыл бұрын
Jaymes McKenzie I'm trolling Jungle Jargon​ in response of him trolling nearly every science post. Dictators you've mentioned, they had different religion - communism and they were gods themselves of the communism, so they don't really represent atheism.
@jaymesmckenzie5592
@jaymesmckenzie5592 9 жыл бұрын
Valdas Vaigauskas Exactly, why should we judge an entire group of people based off what a few people have done or said? My point is you should not be so quick to use the term 'moron' about an entire group of people; it makes you sound like a bigot. It fine to debate on here but why do grown men need to resort to name calling. If you really believe all theists are morons than is you that is the true moron... trust me there are fools on both sides of the fence. No hard feelings, I just wanted to let you know how your words might come off to others.
@ii.gondolkodo3169
@ii.gondolkodo3169 2 жыл бұрын
Animuldok Writes below: If one uses the decree of a god as his moral basis, his morality is not rational .... arbitrary. - Answer: If someone uses the highway operator's ordinance as a basis for following the rules when driving on the highway, following the rules is not rational… arbitrary. [Ridiculous atheist excuse.]
@aquillafleetwood8180
@aquillafleetwood8180 4 жыл бұрын
Genesis 1: 14...the stars shall be for signs... Google, the Northern Cross, by Aquilla Fleetwood, youtube! Google, Hebrew Word Pictures, by Aquilla Fleetwood, youtube! Romans 16: 16
@davidzou7707
@davidzou7707 9 жыл бұрын
With due respect, I would urge reconsideration upon the notion that how can we tolerate a God who turns a blind eye to suffering and evil ( natural or other wise). God intended for humanity to be perfect in every respects, but the end product certainly doesn't reflect the original intention, rather the exact opposite has occurred--a fallen world is what we live in today. Nobody can discredit this: there are few who would dare to say that there isn't something wrong with this world. Atheists argue that Christians rely on a divine being for comfort, safety, or relationship. But I would argue that Atheists, simply uncomfortable with the notion of considering love in its fullest extent, cannot reconcile that there is someone who is the embodiment of morality and overwhelming love. I find that there is no god other than the Judeo Christian God who clearly created man and the universe for good not out of malice like gods ( natural deities ) Mayan creation story or the Greek pantheon. Just something to consider.
@Animuldok
@Animuldok 9 жыл бұрын
If someone uses the decree of a god as the basis for their morality, their morality is not rational.... it is arbitrary.
@davidzou7707
@davidzou7707 9 жыл бұрын
Of course, if you believe in god, it is without a doubt arbitrary. However, God's decree is absolute in righteousness and justice. The God isn't just any god.
@Animuldok
@Animuldok 9 жыл бұрын
gods are a dime a dozen. And what they decree is more a reflection of the society which spawned them.
@wadikzyang4112
@wadikzyang4112 9 жыл бұрын
Animuldok list have?
@Animuldok
@Animuldok 9 жыл бұрын
wadikz yang Here's a good start... ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_myth_gods_index.htm
@wadikzyang4112
@wadikzyang4112 9 жыл бұрын
Animuldok i think it depends on the nature of GOD,and second how can we extrapolate moral paradigm on naturalism?
@ExtantFrodo2
@ExtantFrodo2 7 жыл бұрын
"what is more stupider than a talking snake fairy tale?" Answer: people who believe a talking snake fairy tale.
@Yaya-mg8sb
@Yaya-mg8sb 6 жыл бұрын
ExtantFrodo2 Stupider???? Really? How about grammer, how about that.
@bonnie43uk
@bonnie43uk 5 жыл бұрын
@@Yaya-mg8sb Ok, Grammatically he wasn''t correct, but you didn't answer his question, I'll happily rephrase it. Q:What is more stupid than a talking snake fairy tale? A: People who believe a talking snake fairy tale.
@parmachiropractic4838
@parmachiropractic4838 5 жыл бұрын
If it was a fairy tale, then it would be stupid - agreed. Who is stupid if it's not a fairy tale?
@joehay5094
@joehay5094 11 ай бұрын
I also think many or most followers of the biblical religions don't take this story literally, but as a myth.
@tonyd6853
@tonyd6853 9 жыл бұрын
The fact that these two have an education is an illusion.
@aisaketakau7824
@aisaketakau7824 5 жыл бұрын
Tony moron . What kind of education did you ever have? There are many atheists videos that talk to your type. Don't insult other audiences.
@idajane1974
@idajane1974 Жыл бұрын
Nature evil is Not evil..... it's just nature.
@joehay5094
@joehay5094 11 ай бұрын
But the question is, how can we say that God is good if He created a world where nature is so dangerous?
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