{"id":145675,"date":"2026-06-05T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=145675"},"modified":"2026-06-05T18:24:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T22:24:00","slug":"pc-john-lennox-the-worlds-foremost-christian-apologist-on-the-story-he-almost-never-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=145675","title":{"rendered":"(PC) John Lennox: The world’s foremost Christian apologist on the story he almost never told"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A crucial turning point in your life came when you encountered a Nobel Prize winner as an undergraduate student. Tell us that story.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I always played Socrates, and still do, asking people questions. So I plunged in and asked this person about the research that he\u2019d done to win the Nobel Prize. Then I said: \u201cDid it ever occur to you when you discovered the intricacies of these processes that there was a mind behind the universe?\u201d He stiffened and said: \u201cNo.\u201d The conversation finished \u2013 he wasn\u2019t going there. But at the end of the meal, he said: \u201cLennox, come to my room,\u201d which was not an invitation, but a command. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my surprise, he\u2019d invited several other senior people. He sat me down and said: \u201cIf you want a career in science, you need to give up this naive faith in God, because it will cripple you intellectually. You\u2019ll never make it. So, give it up now, in front of witnesses.\u201d It was an enormous pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I said: \u201cTell me, what have you to offer me that\u2019s better than what I have in Christ?\u201d He said: \u201cThere\u2019s the philosophy of Henri Bergson.\u201d It was a very bad choice, because Bergson actually thought of converting to Catholicism at one stage. I said: \u201cIf that\u2019s all you\u2019ve got, I\u2019ll take the risk. I\u2019ll stay with Christ.\u201d I got up and walked out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That moment changed many things for me. It taught me a lot about the unacceptable face of academia and the misuse of authority. I made up my mind that if ever I got to the kind of position I\u2019m in today, as a professor at Oxford, I would never use my position to abuse anybody intellectually. And it did occur to me that if he\u2019d been a Christian and I\u2019d been an atheist, he\u2019d probably have lost his job for doing what he did \u2013 such is the non-level playing field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I resolved, as best as I could, to put arguments for God and Christ into the public space, give them the evidence and let people judge for themselves. And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing for the rest of my life. I suppose it was a preparation for meeting lesser intellects, like that of Richard Dawkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

Here's my interview with the brilliant Christian apologist @ProfJohnLennox<\/a>, recorded at his house just outside of Oxford https:\/\/t.co\/rzareCsBEi<\/a><\/p>— Sam Hailes (@samhailes) June 5, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>