Has science buried God ? Fixed Point Foundation, 2009 dvd £4 81 mins. Available on You Tube
The debate on this topic between Professor Richard Dawkins and Professor John Lennox took place in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
The choice of venue was quite deliberate as it was here in 1860, a year after Charles Darwin published ‘The Origin of Species’, that Thomas Huxley debated with Bishop Samuel Wilberforce at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement if Science.
Their exchange, even today, is a matter of memorable record despite there being no verbatim record of the debate.
The present debate between two renowned Oxford professors is valuable insofar that we hear rehearsed the well-worn arguments for and against a divine creator but nothing new.
At the end, one is left with the impression that few will be persuaded one way or the other.
Rather, their present convictions will just become more entrenched.
The value of the film is to listen to experienced scientists, well grounded in their beliefs, putting forward the reasons for their beliefs.
It might be interesting, as a marginal insight, to note the attitudes and behaviour of the two debaters.
Deeply felt as their respective beliefs are, Richard Dawkins is cool, calm and clinical, presenting a persuasive case for the intellectual coherence of atheism, ie that science has provided, is providing and will continue to provide reasonable explanations to account for the cosmos in all its complexity.
John Lennox, on the other hand, is more passionate and lively expressing his conviction that a divine, powerful creator is a perfectly coherent, reasonable and acceptable explanation of a complex world.
Despite taking opposing views, their respect for each other is always apparent.
Proof is not at issue; faith is, for both atheism and Christianity are belief systems, matters of faith.
There have been many such high-level debates in the past.
No doubt there will be many more such in the future.