The Case for a Creator - Lee Strobel [49]
Obviously, delving into the dawning of the universe—way back to the first 1/10 million trillion trillion trillionths of a second, which is the furthest back scientists believe they can peer—is going to require a certain degree of speculation. Theories abound. Conceded one prominent cosmologist from Stanford University: “These are very close to religious questions.” 14
As for myself, I wasn’t interested in unsupported conjecture or armchair musings by pipe-puffing theorists. I wanted the hard facts of mathematics, the cold data of cosmology, and only the most reasonable inferences that can be drawn from them. And that’s what sent me to Georgia to visit the home of a widely published expert who has studied and debated these issues for decades.
INTERVIEW #3: WILLIAM LANE CRAIG, PHD, THD
As a college student who graduated in 1971, Bill Craig had been taught that various arguments for the existence of God were weak, outdated, and ultimately ineffective. And that’s what he believed—until he happened upon philosopher Stuart C. Hackett’s 1957 book, The Resurrection of Theism.15
This dense tome never burned up the best-seller list. In fact, the self-effacing Hackett commented years later that “the book fell stillborn from the press because of its heavy style and technical context.” 16 Still, it absolutely stunned Craig.
Hackett is a brilliant thinker who took these theistic arguments seriously, rigorously defending them from every objection he could find or imagine. One argument in the book was that the universe must have had a beginning and, therefore, a Creator. Craig was so intrigued that he decided to use his doctoral studies under British theologian John Hick to come to a resolution in his own mind concerning the soundness of this argument. Would it really withstand scrutiny? Craig ended up writing his dissertation on the topic—an exercise that launched him into a lifetime of exploring cosmology.
Craig’s books include a landmark debate with atheist Quentin Smith called Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology, published by Oxford University Press; The Kalam Cosmological Argument; The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe; The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz; and Reasonable Faith, as well as contributions on this and related topics to the books Does God Exist?; Faith and Reason; A Companion to Philosophy of Religion; Questions of Time and Tense; Mere Creation; The History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition; Naturalism: A Critical Appraisal; and God and Time.
His articles on cosmological issues also have appeared in a wide range of scientific and philosophical journals, including Astrophysics and Space Science, Nature, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, The Journal of Philosophy, and International Studies in the Philosophy of Science.
A member of nine professional societies, including the American Philosophical Association, the Science and Religion Forum, the American Scientific Affiliation, and the Philosophy of Time Society, Craig currently is a research professor at the Talbot School of Theology.
I hardly needed directions to Craig’s suburban Atlanta home. In previous visits, I had interviewed him for The Case for Christ and The Case for Faith, both times walking away thoroughly impressed by his scholarly depth and disarming sincerity. He has an uncanny ability to communicate complex concepts in accessible and yet technically accurate language—a rare skill that I would certainly put to the test again with this challenging subject.
Craig answered the front door wearing a short-sleeved shirt, dark blue shorts, and brown moccasins. We descended a short flight