News
Why Not Stay Agnostic?
If it’s impossible to establish Christianity as hard scientific fact, surely we’d be better off staying agnostic, wouldn’t we? Unfortunately, science doesn’t have a monopoly on truth – otherwise we’d have to be agnostic about things like history, music or our personal relationships. Fortunately, there is plenty of wonderful evidence for the truth of the Christian worldview, from history, personal experience and even science!
Share
Please share this video widely with friends or family and for more Short Answers videos, visit solas-cpc.org/shortanswers/, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit us on Twitter Instagram or Facebook.
Support
Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose a free book as a thank-you gift!
Scotland’s Mountains – Grandeur that speaks to our souls
Scotland’s mountains are not high by world standards, but they are stunningly beautiful. There are only 282 Munros (peaks above 3000ft), yet – they are accessible, visually stunning and so varied that people come from all over the world to walk, climb, cycle and photograph them.
Since arriving in Scotland, I have been ‘Munro-bagging’. For the uninitiated, this means climbing each of country’s 3000ft+ peaks. I am of course aware this hobby is in one sense as pointless as it is arbitrary! There are many fine mountains which don’t exceed 3000ft and that demarcation is irrelevant in the landscape. If health and fitness were the only aim, I could have joined a gym. Equally, if being sociable were the only goal, I could have gone to the pub.
Yet – something draws me back to the Munros again and again. In fact, this week with a crowd of friends and family, I climbed my final one. Steadily ticking off hill names on Munros tables has taken me through high waterfalls in spectacular gorges, to soaring peaks towering over distant lochs. I have waded peat bogs and crossed rivers; cycled mountain tracks and dangled from ropes. I have scaled the ridges and precipices of the western mountains, and the lofty glacial plateau’s of the East; scrambled over the Black Cuillin of Skye and trekked into lonely Knoydart where golden eagles soar. I have slept under canvass and listened to Stags roaring through the mist in the high Corries of Argyll.
And I am not alone. The hills are alive – with the sound of hillwalkers. People are irresistibly drawn to the beauty of nature, and here in Scotland we have an embarrassment of riches. The Highlands are full of people who cannot resist the mountain’s draw.
SIZE
There is something which seems to move us quite viscerally when we are confronted by the size of the mountains and then our own smallness. The sense of wonder it provokes is captivating, and some would say even spiritual. Sitting on top of mighty Slioch and gazing out over the vast wilderness of Fisherfield is an overwhelming experience – and something medieval cathedral builders invoked when they flung their vast structures skywards. In the busyness of our lives and introspective tendencies, the physical act of climbing a mountain upon which one appears the size of ant; makes us look out beyond ourselves.
Professor Alister McGrath, once described two men arguing about whether there was life beyond the desert island upon which they lived. One day they found a message in a bottle washed up on the shore. They debated its meaning and concluded that it didn’t prove the existence of others – but it was a clue that someone was probably out there. The point is that that gazing down the Lairg Ghru from on high – that great glacial trench through the Cairngorm plateau, we are not meant to merely take a photo and move on as if that were the end of the matter; but receive it as sign of something greater, or a message in a bottle.
BEAUTY
The Scottish landscape is irrepressibly beautiful. Landscape photographers do a great trade in prints and calendars; with that most photogenic mountain, Glen Coe’s Buachaille Etive Mor, being a perennial favourite. When the summit of Skye’s Bla Bheinn is reached, and the sight of the Black Cuillin over Glen Sligachan assaults the senses – mouths hang open where adjectives and superlatives fall short. But again, why does beauty move us so deeply? Why is bleak functionality not all that matters to us? What is it about beauty, especially unspoilt natural beauty that provokes a response in all of us that makes the A9 to the North so overwhelmed with traffic all summer?
Again, I am unpersuaded that naturalistic, atheist answers to this question do not reduce us to being mere machines, and that attempts to posit merely some evolutionary advantage to our aesthetic responses hacks away at something of the very core of what makes us human. It seems to me that this is yet one more message in a bottle washing up on our shore, pulling us towards the conclusion that there is something, indeed someone more than we can see; calling to us from afar. The alternative is a grim reductionism that sees music as ‘only’ vibrations in the air, great art as ‘some paint’ or love as little more than a breeding arrangement; a way of seeing the world which falls such a long way short of our experience of being human.
This view of beauty is embedded in the Bible. One little known part of the creation narrative says of a fruit tree that God made it both good for food and pleasing to the eye. Think about that for a moment; the claim is that the world is made deliberately functional and beautiful; and that you and I are designed to both function and to know and respond to that beauty. We are hard-wired to appreciate the beauty that creation possesses.
I think too that while much of our daily experience is of a world polluted; of graffiti, of litter in a scarred world; mountains speak to us about the way it was meant to be; indeed ought to be. Surveying the Mamore hills near Fort William from the summit of Sgurr a Mhaim is an undiluted delight. The Mamores are perhaps my favourite r
ange of hills which I have climbed many times, in all seasons. Steep, shapely – with curves, ridges, shoulders, gorges, hanging-valleys, waterfalls, surrounded by deep glens; The Mamores are dramatic mountain architecture presented in sumptuous style.
There is something in natural beauty that we instinctively know is right. The regenerating native woodlands on the north side of Glen Affric teem with life; insects, tiny birds, and raptors and blaze with colour as the bio-diverse landscape is allowed to flourish. It is good and beautiful in a way that fly-tipping is wrong and ugly. But such categories assume that there is a way that the world ought to be; which can differ from the way that it often actually is. Such an is/ought distinction in our world is instinctive and necessary; but doesn’t make a huge amount of sense if the natural world is all there is. When we see ugliness, injustice, pain and evil and think ‘this isn’t right’ we make a deeply Christian response, whether we acknowledge it or not. I know no one who looks at these things and sighs, “ho-hum this is just where we have evolved up to presently”. Natural beauty calls to us deeply, for it presents us with the ought, in a world that is often distorted. The Christian story is that God created a good world, but it has been marred, and the creative intent often hidden, leaving us railing against ugliness, sensing that something precious has been lost. I don’t think like Richard Dawkins that the universe is ultimately characterised by “blind pitiless indifference”; rather that natural beauty is another message in a bottle washing up on the shores of our perception.
TIME
The mountains we walk through are also incredibly old: we are dwarfed not merely by their size but also by their age. The majestic peaks of Torridon are founded on Lewisian Gneiss; amongst the oldest rocks in Britain. Geographers tell us that the ice which carved the great U-shaped valley in which Loch Avon sits behind Cairngorm did its work 18,000 years ago. To walk through this landscape is to be confronted with our own finitude and mortality. Our lives in contrast, the Bible likens to a morning mist, which might arrive with the appearance of permanence but is gone by the time the walkers have left the car park and started to climb.
When I left Inverlochlairig to climb my final Munro, I was delighted that so many family and friends were able to join me. I was also deeply aware that two hillwalking companions who I once assumed would be there for my final hill were tangibly absent. I climbed Ben More from the same car park with David – lost to pancreatic cancer many years ago.
Kevin was a hillwalking legend, an outdoor athlete with a big heart and a huge grin; with whom days in the hills were always a joy. Kevin was one of the most truly alive people I ever met – and yet a decade ago a brain tumour took him from us.
My conversations with Kevin in the hills were wide ranging and fascinating. We planned and schemed all manner of future hill walks; most of which were never to be. We looked at maps and bothies and mountains – and dreamt up all kinds of future trips, and I always just assumed that Kevin not just be present for my final Munro, but be the life and soul of the party; the prankster, the ring leader and the schemer-in-chief.
Kevin was a doctor who knew he was dying; and he spoke about this too. Our last hill together was Ben Wyvis. As we sat and had lunch on the shoulder of the hill looking out over the vastness of Scotland, he pointed out that smoke billowing from the Norbord factory chimney on the other side of the Moray Firth was the landmark with which to line up where his house and his family were. Then he said to me. “I believe God can take care of my wife and children, and I would love to be part of that. But even if I can’t; I still believe that God can take care of them.” I was struck by the profundity of his faith. I knew Kevin was a man of deep Christian conviction, and was both troubled by his words and heartened by the way in which such deep faith in Christ proved itself in life’s darkest valley. Kevin walked through the valley of the shadow of death – and there found that Christ walked with him. Before I had much of a chance to respond, Kevin was on his feet with a smile. “I think we have a hill to climb” – and so we did.
How many countless generations have these hills seen come and then depart? We come, we go – but the hills seem to remain. These ancient rocks not only humble us with our physical finitude; but also with our tragic temporariness. But again, what can it mean? Why do we lament loss? Is bereavement just a necessary part of the survival of the fittest as the species marches on; or is the loss we sense when we bury our friends something more? I am persuaded that this too is a message in a bottle; washing up on the beaches of our experience calling to us about a far bigger reality than one we have yet encountered. Death is a tragedy, not just a biologically necessary mechanism; because human death is grotesque intrusion into God’s good world. Again, the biblical story is of death being the fall-out from humanity’s descent into sin. The appearance of permanence we see in the great hills calls out to us because we were initially intended for such. The Christian hope I shared with Kevin is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus – we can be restored to eternal life with him; if we will but call out to him and receive his forgiveness.
BOTTLES EVERYWHERE
As Munro bagging has taken me all over Scotland – through so many seasons and conditions with a cast of colourful characters; I have been pondering what makes the mountains so magical, so alluring, so almost mystical. I think that it is something to do with their size, their beauty and their age – and that these things communicate deep spiritual truths to us about ourselves and the nature of reality. I am struck by Alister McGrath’s notion that all these things are like messages in a bottle, washing up on the island of our experience. And while each bottle is not itself a knock-down mathematical proof of the Christian faith; more and more bottles are washing in on the tide. Beauty, music, truth, justice, altruism, love, and our desire for hope, are just some of the bottles that arrive. If we are willing to open these messages, and see where they lead and what makes sense of the world and ourselves, we’ll find Christ; the saviour who has in fact been looking for us the whole time.
Our Mission and His Kingdom
Steve Osmond spoke at Perth Baptist Church about a topic dear to our hearts at Solas – the way in which our mission advances God’s Kingdom here on earth. You can watch the whole talk (above) which is set to play from the start of Steve’s talk.
With Chris McBurney
Gavin and Kristi hear from Chris McBurney about how students in Ireland are responding to the gospel in different ways across very different contexts in the north and south of the island. Reflecting on the rise in spirituality, coupled with muddied worldviews, the beating heart of evangelism for young people still seems to remain rooted in authentic relationships. As leader of Christian Unions Ireland, Chris shares his passion for this type of ministry.
With Chris McBurney – PEP Talk
Our Guest
Chris McBurney is the Director for Christian Unions Ireland. He lives in Comber with this wife Katie and two girls, Orla and Ava. Having become a Christian at university in Canterbury, he’s spent the last 10 years working in student ministry both in England and across the island of Ireland.
About PEP Talk
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
Islamophobia, Blasphemy Law and Evangelism!
Andy Kind was the host for a fascinating discussion about Islam in Britain today. Andy Bannister from Solas and Tim Dieppe from Christian Concern were in the host seats, answering Andy Kind’s questions.
Some parliamentarians are discussing the possibility of an Islamophobia Council. What will the effects of such a body be? What is Islamophobia, and how might back-door Islamic blasphemy laws be applied? What would the implications be for freedom of speech and religious freedom? Could critical engagement with controversial and problematic aspects of Islamic theology be classified as ‘racism’? All this and more in this stimulating and wide-ranging discussion which you can watch above.
Ministry in Kilmarnock
Central Evangelical Church in Kilmarnock is a fellowship that Solas has had a relationship with for a long time. Andy Bannister has spoken there several times over the years, and they were very involved in the Keswick in Ayrshire group who hosted our Confident Christianity conference in West Kilbride a few years ago.
I had never been to Central before though – so was delighted to receive and invitation from their pastor Burt Garrick, to preach there morning and evening recently. They graciously allowed me to tell the church a little about Solas and our work too.
Both my talks that day were related to the gospel work that Solas is engaged in. In the morning we looked at 1 John 1 7-21 which contains the famous phrase, “God is Love”. We explored what John meant (and didn’t mean) in that great saying, and how it demands a response from us.
In the evening we turned our attention to the apostle Paul and looked at his courage in the book of Acts. We looked particularly at Acts 23:11, a key moment in Paul’s ministry. In that verse we meet Paul in protective custody as the crowd were trying to kill him. The spiritual encounter he had with The Lord there in that cell, explains why he didn’t give up in the face of opposition and what we need to seek from The Lord in order to be braver, bolder, more consistent witnesses for him in the face of a culture which routinely opposes us.
The morning message on 1 John can be viewed here.
The evening message on Acts can be viewed here:
At Solas we love working we local churches, all over the country. Every week Solas speakers are found in churches all over the country, preaching the gospel and equipping and encouraging congregations in sharing their faith. We also enjoy sharing the vision of Solas with Christians and developing partnerships in the work we do. If a Solas speaker might be useful for you in your church, please do get in touch using the ‘Connect’ button above. Along with sermons like the two in this news report, we are also very happy conducting seminars, discussions, and Q&A style events which meet the needs fo different churches.
What Does the Qu’ran Say About the Bible?
Perhaps it comes as a surprise to you that the Qur’an repeatedly affirms the Jewish Torah and Christian Gospels (Injeel) as holy books from Allah. Yet the Qu’ran denies some of the most important things contained in the Gospels—such as the crucifixion of Christ. So how can Muslims get out of this cycle of logic that cannot be resolved? Andy Bannister suggests that the Bible stands head and shoulders above the Qu’ran in its historic accuracy and reliability, therefore the Bible is where Muslims need to turn in their search for truth.
Share
Please share this video widely with friends or family and for more Short Answers videos, visit solas-cpc.org/shortanswers/, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit us on Twitter Instagram or Facebook.
Support
Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose a free book as a thank-you gift!
Celebrating 1,700 Years of the Nicene Creed
Growing up in the Pentecostal tradition, I learned much about God, Jesus, His death and resurrection the Holy Scriptures and the power of the Holy Spirit, but not too much church history; it was more about what God is doing right now, with the exception of the 1906 Azusa Street revival. I am very grateful for how that shaped me to be open and sensitive to the Holy Spirit.
Recently, I’ve begun diving more into church history and exploring how God has worked through believers over the last two thousand years. There are so many significant moments that have influenced our faith. The Council of Nicea in 325AD, The Edit of Milan in 313AD, The Reformation in 1517, the King James Bible in 1611, the revivals led by George Whitefield and John Wesley in the 1700s and 1800s all stand out. Also the Welsh and Hebrides revivals of the 20th century. Each of these events has played a crucial role in shaping the faith we hold today.
This year, 2025, marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, a cornerstone of Christian orthodoxy. Tonight, I enjoyed an evening lecture from Rev Canon Professor Trevor Hart from the University of St Andres was in Scotland at St. Mellitus College in London, sponsored by the MacDonald Agape Foundation. It was a fascinating lecture and I was delighted to see a dear friend, Dr. Joy Clarkson, who teaches theology and arts at Kings College London.
The Nicene Creed is a profession of faith that communicates the essence of Christianity. It reads:
We believe in one God, the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of one essence with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontus Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end.
This declaration was crucial in unifying the early Church and clarifying essential beliefs about Christ’s divinity, shaping the course of Christian doctrine for centuries. My theology professor at Biola once said that all false theology lies squarely on the wrong interpretation of the Holy Trinity and the nature of Christ; and every generation must contend for the true faith
The Creed (statement of faith) established vital affirmations of truth: that Jesus is “true God from true God,” “begotten, not made,” and “of one substance with the Father.”
It was written especially in response to Arianism (an interpretation of scripture which denied the full divinity of Christ). Arian refers to Arius, a Christian priest from Alexandria, Egypt, who lived in the early 4th century (c. 256–336 AD).
Here are five reasons why the Arian perspective is theologically erroneous:
- Biblical Witness to the Divinity of Christ: The New Testament provides compelling evidence of Jesus’ divine nature. For instance, John 1:1-14 states that “the Word was God” and became flesh in Jesus, directly contradicting the Arian assertion that He was merely created.
- The Doctrine of the Trinity: Central to Christian orthodoxy is the doctrine of the Trinity, which teaches that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in essence yet distinct in persons. The Nicene Creed emphasizes the co-equality and co-eternity of the Son with the Father, while Arianism undermines this unity by claiming Jesus is of a different substance.
- Christ’s Redemptive Work: The effectiveness of Christ’s atoning sacrifice relies on His divine nature. As the God-man, Jesus has the authority to reconcile humanity with God. If He were merely a created being, His sacrifice would lack the infinite worth needed to satisfy divine justice and holiness.
- Early Church Consensus: The rejection of Arianism reflects the consensus of the early Church, as articulated in the Nicene Creed. The Council of Nicaea affirmed the deity of Christ as foundational to Christian belief, highlighting the theological significance of this understanding for orthodoxy.
- Nature of Worship: Worship is due to God alone, and the New Testament clearly indicates that Jesus is worshiped (e.g., Matthew 28:17, Revelation 5:12-14). If Jesus were a created being, worshiping Him would violate the first commandment, which emphasizes exclusive worship of God.
While Arianism itself is not widely held today, some contemporary religious movements and groups may share similar beliefs regarding the nature of Jesus. Here are a few:
- Mormonism: Mormons believe Jesus is divine and the Son of God, viewed as the firstborn spirit child of God the Father, which aligns with the idea of Jesus being created in a spiritual sense.
- Jehovah’s Witnesses: Jesus is the Son of God and a created being, distinct from God the Father. They hold that Jesus is not part of a Trinity and that he was created before the world began.
- Unitarian Universalism: While this movement encompasses a wide range of beliefs, some Unitarian groups reject the notion of the Trinity and view Jesus as a significant prophet or teacher, but not as co-eternal with God.
- Islam: While Islam does not align directly with Arianism, it shares some similarities in that it regards Jesus (Isa) as a revered prophet and messenger of God, but not divine or the Son of God in the Christian sense. In Islam, the unpardonable sin is known as shirk, which is the act of associating partners with Allah or attributing divine qualities to anyone or anything other than Him. From an Islamic perspective, the Trinity cannot be reconciled with the belief in God’s oneness; the two views represent fundamentally different understandings of the divine nature.
Athanasius of Alexandria, an influential early Church Father and theologian, provides profound insights into Jesus Christ, particularly in his work “On the Incarnation.” Key points about Jesus according to Athanasius include:
- The Incarnate Word: Athanasius emphasizes that Jesus is the Word (Logos) of God made flesh. He argues that the Word is not merely a messenger but fully divine, embodying God’s essence, which is essential for humanity’s salvation.
- True God and True Man: He asserts that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human, eternally begotten of the Father, not a created being. This dual nature is crucial for understanding how Jesus mediates between God and humanity.
- Saviour and Redeemer: Athanasius teaches that Jesus came to save humanity from sin and death. By assuming human nature and suffering, He reconciled us to God, demonstrating divine love and justice.
- Victory over Death: The resurrection of Jesus is central to Athanasius’s theology. By conquering death, Jesus offers hope for eternal life and affirms the promise of resurrection for all believers.
- Revelation of God: Athanasius believed that in Jesus, the fullness of God’s character is revealed. Through His teachings, actions, and sacrificial death, Jesus shows us who God is and invites us into a relationship with Him.
In summary, Athanasius portrays (as did the apostles and writers of the New Testament) Jesus as the divine Word who became incarnate—fully God and fully man—who saves humanity through His death and resurrection, revealing God’s nature and love. Additionally, Hebrews 4:15 declares that we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses, affirming Christ’s full humanity and divinity, which highlights His unique role in our salvation.
As we celebrate the 1,700-year milestone of the Nicene Creed, let us reflect on its importance in shaping a cohesive Christian identity and fostering unity among believers. It’s a powerful reminder that every generation must contend for the true faith. The early Church stood firm in defending the divinity of Christ and the oneness of the Trinity, setting a foundation that still shapes Christian belief today. In a world where theological confusion persists and where groups still question Christ’s nature, it’s more important than ever to know what we believe and why.
Have you ever explored the history of the faith beyond what you were taught growing up? How has learning about church history or studying the Nicene Creed deepened your understanding of Christ? Do you see parallels between the theological debates of the past and challenges facing believers today? Do you have questions about these key Christian ideas? We’d love to hear from you at Solas, or contact Angela, the author of this article here.
This article was first published on Angela Mackenzie’s website, angela.org here. and is republished by Solas with her kind permission. We are very grateful to Angela Mackenzie for allowing us to republish this article – as well as for her many years of service as a Solas trustee. Her website contains lots of articles as well as information about her extensive music ministry and TV programmes.
Is faith blind? Steve, young people, and big questions in Ayr.
The evening before our major Confident Christianity conference in Riverside Church, Ayr – I was invited to speak at a Friday night youth event. At Solas one of our ambitions is to do an outreach event every time we do a training event for Christians, and Riverside wanted something for their young people. Combining those two aims, made for a very enjoyable Friday evening youth outreach.
The title I was given was “Is Belief in God Just Blind Faith?”, a topic I looked at from various scientific, philosophical, historical, and biblical perspectives. Around fifty teenagers were there, from several churches around the town, because the churches seem to have good relationships with one another in Ayr! Judging by the questions and conversations I had, most of the people who were there, were already Christians, or at least in churches. One or two responses were definitely from young people who were still in the process of checking-out the Christian faith for themselves.
We had a good and very wide-ranging Q&A session with the young people, which lasted about 25 minutes, following my 20-minute talk. It was interesting to see that they focussed in on the ‘science’ ‘part of my talk more than anything else. One young man then asked a very deep and profound question, which was a real challenge – but a joy to respond to. I tried to directly engage his question, but also to weave the gospel into my answer as it’s really the framework which it provides which is a ‘better story’ in these contexts. It was really encouraging to hear from several people on the Sunday how much that young man had appreciated having his question taken seriously and responded to in depth. This is a reminder, that we really must engage with people’s genuine heartfelt questions, and not dismiss them – and that it is vital that we address the mind as well as the heart. We are often told that young people want things ‘dumbed-down’, but it isn’t true. They have serious and important things to say, and big questions which are worthy of thoughtful responses which they invariably appreciate. It certainly mattered a lot to this one young man.
We’d love to come to your church and your town to do some evangelism and some evangelism-training too, like this event in Ayr. We work all over the country – and no church is too small! So please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about what we can offer.
PEP Talk with John Ghanim
Today’s PEP Talk comes from a former Muslim who encountered Jesus in a powerful way. He gives us important reminders of the cost that can come from following Jesus – losing family, job and country. Whilst his journey to faith is full of passion and joy, it is also a great reminder to appreciate our freedoms and blessings in the West. How can we then use these freedoms to reach Muslims and support those who convert, often at great personal cost?
With John Ghanim – PEP Talk
Our Guest
John Ghanim is a passionate Christian influencer, evangelist, and full-time missionary. After leaving Islam in 2014 and spending three years as an agnostic, his life was transformed at the end of 2017 when he encountered Jesus. Called to be an evangelist, John now dedicates his life to sharing Christ with all nations. With a background in business administration from his time in Yemen, he uses his experience and unwavering faith to inspire and equip believers worldwide. Follow him on social media here.
About PEP Talk
The Persuasive Evangelism Podcast aims to equip listeners to share their faith more effectively in a sceptical world. Each episode, Andy Bannister (Solas) and Kristi Mair (Oak Hill College) chat to a guest who has a great story, a useful resource, or some other expertise that helps equip you to talk persuasively, winsomely, and engagingly with your friends, colleagues and neighbours about Jesus.
Lab Notes From the Faithful: Dr. Anke Ardern-Arentsen
Steve: Anke, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you based? And, when you’re not busy working in the sciences – which we’ll talk about in a moment – what keeps you busy?
Anke: Sure. I’m based in Cambridge where I work as a postdoctoral researcher, which means I spend most of my time at the University doing research. Originally, I’m from the Netherlands, so I’m still getting used to the different cultures in the UK compared to the Netherlands. Outside of work, I enjoy singing. I sing in a choir, the Cambridge University Gospel Choir, which is loads of fun! I also spend time at church and attend a Bible study group at church during the week. I enjoy playing board games online to kind of turn my brain off.
Steve: I’m always really fascinated by how people, especially in the sciences, get into the fields that they do, especially when it’s very specialized things. Reading your bio, it says that you are an observational astronomer in the field of galactic archaeology. I think that’s probably the best job title I’ve ever heard! I’d love my business card to say ‘galactic archaeologist’ – it’s brilliant.
What led you into pursuing astronomy in particular? And where did your studies begin?
Anke: I think one of the first things I remember related to astronomy is looking through a big telescope – well, actually a smallish one – for the first time and seeing the rings of Saturn and looking at Jupiter and seeing its beautiful cloud bands. That just really stuck with me. I remember talking about it at school – I think I was 10 – and telling everyone about it. In high school I was good at maths and physics, I really enjoyed solving the puzzles of the equations and finding the right answer, which is so satisfying. I think a lot of people have a very romantic view of astronomy, but it’s just physics with application to the universe. At first I didn’t think I wanted to make astronomy my job, because I thought I would stop loving it if I did. I really like languages as well, and I considered studying something language-related, but I went to some university open days and realized I really felt at home among scientists, and science was truly the thing I enjoyed doing, so that’s why I decided to study astronomy, and I’m very glad I did.
I studied my undergrad and masters in the Netherlands at the University of Groningen and then I went off to do a PhD in Germany in Potsdam. That’s when I really started working on the field of galactic archaeology. In University, I became fascinated by stars and the laws that govern stars to be the way they are. I remember learning about a very famous diagram in astronomy which shows the colour versus the brightness of stars, and there’s a very clear sequence where stars live, and they typically cannot be outside of it. And it’s purely fundamental physics that determines this, which I thought was so interesting. So, I went around asking for a project with the Hertzsprung Russell diagram and ended up working on stars and the history of stars and how that connects to the history of the Milky Way – which is what galactic archaeology is.
Steve: It’s such an interesting area of research. When I was growing up in South Africa I remember going on trips out into the bush and spending just hours and hours looking up at the starts on these beautifully clear nights. It’s really something that moves us to a sense of awe at the sheer size and beauty of the universe. Can you think of one highlight of your career so far?
Anke: During my PhD, I started building a new project from the ground up together with my supervisor, which is called the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey, or ‘PIGS’ for short. It has taken many years to develop this project and see the harvest – getting the observations, doing the hard work, and then all the papers that that come out of that – has been incredibly rewarding. And I think it’s also the thing I’m known for within the field…PIGS! I’m not sure that’s the thing you want to be known for, ha-ha.
Steve: And what’s the main focus and goal of that project?
Anke: The purpose of the project is to find the oldest stars in the in the centre of the Milky Way. We typically can recognize them by their atmospheres being quite pristine in chemical elements, because when these stars formed in the early Universe, there were not many elements around yet. The Big Bang only produces hydrogen and helium, and the heavier elements get slowly built up over time after stars start forming and exploding and spreading their nuclear fusion products. The Sun for example is quite rich in elements. I am looking for the most element-poor stars. Mostly we look for these in other regions of the Milky Way, because the centre is quite difficult, but that’s where we expect the very oldest stars to be. We undertook the PIGS project to find these stars in the centre, and that has been quite successful.
Steve: I’ll ask you a little bit more about that in in a moment, but changing the subject for a moment, you mentioned that outside of the sciences work you’re quite involved with your church and even sing in a gospel choir! Tell me a little bit more about your Christian faith. How did you become a Christian, and what does that look like practically, is it a big part of your life?
Anke: So, I grew up in a Christian family, which I’m very grateful for, and have called myself a Christian as long as I can remember. There have been phases where I’ve started to think more deeply about various aspects of my faith. For example, when I started studying, and started interacting more closely with Christians from other backgrounds and people who did not believe in God. It was very helpful to be able to think through various questions with peers in the Christian student group I joined at my university.
I also started to think about science and faith a bit more at university, which continued during my PhD and is still ongoing! Growing up I felt a tension between mainstream science and the Christian faith. But then over the years, really studying astronomy and the history of the Universe for myself, I changed my perspective. Science tells us how God made it all, and it’s amazing – the way He set up the long and complex history of the universe from the beginning. Being a scientist, I very much think of God as the creator, as the Person who holds the universe in His hands. It’s also so amazing to have this really, really big picture of God, the Creator, and then seeing Jesus as God in human form. And that contrast, I think, enhances the beauty of the Christian story for me even more.
Steve: Thanks so much for sharing that. You alluded to the different ways that different Christian understand and interpret some things. Sometimes Christians can hold to certain interpretations that end up being wrong, but then again, so do scientist a lot of the time. So, I guess we all need to try being humble and keep learning and doing the best we can in interpreting the Bible and also interpreting the world around us with the tools of science. But sometimes that can lead to the idea that, well, science and faith must be at war. And that leads to my next question, specifically about your experience in the sciences. Many people have this idea that as a Christian you simply switch your brain off, and you should be in the sciences. Have you ever experienced that attitude in the workplace or in the world of research?
Anke: I have very rarely experienced any direct antagonism, and especially when people know I’m a Christian. If they don’t know you’re a Christian, they might make jokes about Christianity or faith, assuming that there’s no Christians in the room because we’re among scientists. I have experienced loneliness in thinking I’m the only Christian, and sometimes maybe a bit of the fear that people are going to be hostile against me if they find out I believe in God. But I very rarely actually experienced that. When I tell people, they generally are surprised but also intrigued in that I am a Christian and a scientist, and think I think they kind of respect that in some way.
Steve: I think the whole idea of there being a war between faith and science is really just promoted by a few very loud individuals in the popular media who’ve painted the picture. What about the idea that you have to switch your brain off? it’s almost like here’s the sciences – and, sure, you can have your faith – but it doesn’t touch on the sciences side of things at all?
Anke: In conversation, I would start by asking people why they think faith and science cannot go together. This will likely be based on their assumptions about the way the world works, their “worldview”. Then we can discuss those assumptions. And assumptions can be challenged, they can be changed, and they can be supported by evidence in various ways. I think science, in that sense, can be used as a tool to support or question different worldviews, but it’s not itself a worldview. Thinking about worldviews and science as a tool in that sense is quite helpful.
Steve: Yeah, that’s fantastic. And that, I think, is the difference between ‘science’ and ‘scientism’. You seem to be saying there that science can be a tool that can even, in a way, point to God – would you agree with that? Personally, I’m no great astronomer, but it’s something that I’m very interested in – especially as I engage with university students on the question of God’s existence. I’m sure you’re aware of the idea of the fine tuning of the universe to sustain life. With your background, what are your thoughts? Do you think there’s something useful there for Christians to use that data when they’re engaging with friends who are maybe a little sceptical?
Anke: Yes, I’m quite familiar with those arguments and the data. I think it can be summarized as the idea that the universe looks like it’s been set up very precisely. So, if you change some of the fundamental laws of nature, or the way that the ratio of matter to certain forces has been set up, that you wouldn’t get a Universe allowing life to exist.
For example, the speed of the expansion of the universe after the Big Bang. If it was slightly lower, the universe would have collapsed back in on itself due to gravity. So, there would not be a universe, and it’s kind of hard to get life in that case. Or if the universe expands too quickly, you’d have an empty universe. You would just get atoms so separated from each other they will never interact with each other, and you’d have the most boring universe possible. But what we actually have is that the expansion is very, very precise, and if it was even slightly different, we wouldn’t have this universe where you can get matter to clump together and form stars and galaxies and planets, etc.
Another example that’s close to my research area is the fact that we have the elements of the periodic table that we need for life to exist. If the balance of the fundamental forces was slightly different, you could end up with just hydrogen (protons), which is very boring! Or you can also have a scenario where you actually have no hydrogen at all. You only have the heavier elements, which is an issue in various ways but for example you wouldn’t have any water in that case. So again, that is the fundamental forces have been set up very precisely. But also, the fact that you have this long history in the universe of stars forming, they make all the elements. They explode. There are different types of explosions that make different elements. And we need all of these different things and billions of years of history of the universe to build it all up. I find that amazing.
So, we’re looking at all these things together. It was quite surprising to physicists who first discovered that everything was so precisely set up, and there’s no fundamental reason that the universe should be this way. So, it seems to be extremely unlikely if it happens at random, but it makes a lot of sense if there’s a designer to the universe who intended for there to be life inside the universe. Of course, in that case the designer would make a universe that can host and make life. So, I think the way this argument is helpful is to acknowledge it’s not proof, but it could be used as evidence. We never prove anything, except maybe in maths. But you can look at the evidence and see which scientific theory or which worldview it supports best. I think it all fits extremely well with the worldview in which there is a Creator God.
Steve: I like that approach – you’re looking for the inference to the best explanation, which is part of the scientific method.
Anke: Yes. And if people are interested in fine-tuning, I would recommend a book titled ‘A Fortunate Universe’ by Lewis and Barnes, which really goes into the physics of fine tuning. It’s written by a non-believer and a believer, both physicists. For many chapters they discuss all the different examples of fine tuning and exactly how fine-tuned all these different things are. Then in the final chapter they have a discussion with each other about the interpretation. So, I would recommend that if people are willing to sit in the detailed examples of fine tuning as well as the interpretation of it.
Steve: So, here’s a related question: what do you think for you personally is one of the strongest arguments for the existence of God?
Anke: I think for people like me, people interested in the sciences, it’s quite helpful to use arguments from science. We all value science very much, and it’s useful to establish this shared basis and then point out that there are some surprising things in science that are a bit puzzling if you have a worldview that is not theism. For example, the fact that the universe is fine-tuned, that it’s orderly, that there are laws of nature that describe the universe in a very simple way, and that it results in a cosmos that is stable and predictable. It definitely didn’t need to be this way. To me, that reflects the reliability of the Creator. It tells us something about the character of the Creator, as well as the fact that there is a Creator.
Adding something for me personally too, I think for Christianity specifically, the thing that I keep coming back to is the trustworthiness of the Gospels. As just one example, there are some very surprising things in the Gospels that wouldn’t make sense if they were made up stories, supporting that they were written by eyewitnesses. There is so much good material related to this, which I’m glad I can rely on.
Steve: You’re right when it comes to engaging with those in the sciences. Starting from the science side of things and building your way up from there – that’s very helpful.
What would you say to young Christians who are maybe looking to enter the sciences, but they have some questions. They’ve maybe heard this idea that you have to either choose faith or science – but you can’t have both. How would you encourage them?
Anke: If you’re interested in the sciences, I would say go for it! I find it such a privilege to be able to study God’s creation during your studies, and now, even as a job I get paid to study God’s creation, which sometimes blows my mind. I think there’s nothing to be afraid of. God made the world, so it must be consistent with His character and what He revealed about himself in other ways. So, we should study it in in all of its beautiful detail. That’s what we’re called to do, especially if we have talents in in the sciences. Maybe that’s the way that God is hoping to use you in the future. One thing I would recommend is to look out for other Christians in science – look for other students and look for mentors and support each other.
Steve: Other side of the coin then: what would you say to someone who has been in the sciences, and maybe they’ve started seeing all of this data and felt a niggling and wondering if maybe it’s all pointing to something beyond the material physical realm. Maybe there is this God out there.
Anke: I guess the same thing. Go for it! What do you have to lose by looking into it, and what might there be to gain? What we do as scientists is to look at all the different evidence and weigh it up, to see what theory is best supported. So, you could just explore the evidence and the stories. You could investigate the assumptions that you have that might be preventing you from believing in God and ask if they really have to be true – or maybe there is another way of thinking about the world that might be more consistent!
Steve: Anke, thanks so much for taking the time to chat to me – it’s been really fascinating and encouraging.
Anke: My pleasure! Thanks for having me.
Student Mission in Aberdeen
I’m back home from Aberdeen after doing two events with Aberdeen University Christian Union (AUCU). The first was a lunch bar, on the topic of ‘Cancel Culture’ and ‘Is there any hope for forgiveness?’ It’s an important question which is highly relevant in today’s culture – including in higher education. This came about because the UCCG staff worker Sam Moore, had heard me speak at the CU at RGU.
About thirty students came along to the lunch which was good, including a good number of people who aren’t Christians but were interested in exploring this topic with us.
I looked at cancel-culture and asked if there was a better way? Examined what promotes actual change and asked the students to consider how we might all become better agents of reconciliation. I used the example of Nelson Mandela from my native South Africa to illustrate some of these points.
The Q&A that followed was interesting. It took a while for the conversation to get ging, so I offered a free copy of Have You Ever Wondered? to whoever asked the first question! It worked, someone asked the excellent question, ‘How can we forgive without excusing sin?’ It was phrased in terms of do we need to forgive and forget. But I don’t think we need to do that, if we forget sin, we don’t need to forgive it! Forgiveness acknowledges the wrong, and doesn’t say we allow it to continue either. It begins with an acceptance that we are all in need of forgiveness, and that there are consequences for our actions. On the part of the one doing the forgiving, it begins with a decision and a disposition, and the feelings come into line with that later – and may take some time. Forgiveness assumes an offence, and certainly doesn’t’ deny it! The phrase in South Africa was Truth and Reconciliation. Truth names the sin, reconciliation brings the parties together and you can’t have one without the other. Reconciliation without Truth is cheap grace and denial, and Truth without Reconciliation leads to a bloodbath, cycles of revenge. A talk I found very helpful on forgiveness is from Everett Worthington, and can be seen below:
I also spoke at an Aberdeen University Christian Union Accousitc night which was also at the Mission Church on the edge of the campus. It’s a great venue which the church are happy to see being used for student mission. About sixty students came along, many of whom had no Christian faith at all.
The topic I was given was “Is God the greatest activist?” So I began with the deliberately provocative statement “If God doesn’t exist we have no basis for activism” and that got us off to a lively start. I then unpacked that statement! The feedback at the end was that that opening salvo had made people think more than anything else that evening.
While people gathered for refreshments, the first acoustic band played. Then I did two ten-minute talks, followed by five-minute discussion times. My talks had used PowerPoint, and then I put up discussion questions on the screen too. During the Q&A time we were accompanied by an amazing string-quartet! And then we were entertained by a third band, who are hard to classify, but played kind-of contemporary acoustic hippie-music!
I was amazed at the quality of the music on offer. All the musicians were members of the Christian Union and were seriously good performers in three different genres. It was great to be part of it!
I Want to Know More About Christianity – Where Do I Begin?
We are seeing intriguing evidence, both anecdotal and surveyed, of increasing interest in spirituality and faith in the UK. Things like Bible sales and church attendance are surging, especially among young people searching for answers to life’s big questions. If you’re one of the curious, where can you begin to find out more about Christianity and the message of Jesus? Andy Bannister provides seven recommendations for you to try.
- Try praying. Give prayer (speaking to God) a chance. Visit the Try Praying website for a free guide to help you out.
- Take a careful look at the biographies of Jesus found in the Bible. We suggest starting with the Gospel of Mark. Explore this great introduction from UCCF.
- Lean into your questions. Jesus loved answering (and asking!) questions, so don’t be afraid of yours. Have a look at more of our Short Answers videos to see if we’ve addressed yours.
- Talk to a Christian friend. If you don’t think you have one, ask your colleagues or classmates – one of them might be an undercover Christian!
- Read and research. There are lots of great books out there to introduce you to the Christian message. We might be biased, but Have You Ever Wondered? is a pretty good one!
- Take a course. Churches up and down the country often host short, informal sessions to help people learn more about Christianity. Two of the most popular are the Alpha Course and Christianity Explored.
- Give church a go. If you are struggling to find one near you, contact us and we will do our best to help!
Share
Please share this video widely with friends or family and for more Short Answers videos, visit solas-cpc.org/shortanswers/, subscribe to our YouTube channel or visit us on Twitter Instagram or Facebook.
Support
Short Answers is a viewer-supported video series: if you enjoy them, please help us continue to make them by donating to Solas. Visit our Donate page and choose a free book as a thank-you gift!
Revisiting the ‘Fine-Tuning’ Argument
In the past few decades a broad consensus has emerged among physicists that a number of aspects of the physical cosmos appear to be ‘fine-tuned’ for life, which is to say, various aspects of its basic structure and of the fundamental laws that govern it are balanced on a knife-edge. If any of them had differed by only a very tiny amount, the universe would not have been capable of supporting life at all. Some of these ‘fine-tuned’ features of the universe are such that had they differed only very slightly, the universe would not even have contained galaxies and stars, let alone complex conscious creatures like ourselves.
There are many specific examples of fine-tuning.[1] Let’s look at just a couple. It’s been estimated by physicists that if the strength of gravity were different by just one part in 1060, there could be no stars and galaxies. A tiny bit stronger and all the matter would have collapsed back in on itself; a tiny bit weaker and the matter would have spread out too quickly for anything like galaxies or stars to be able to form. Another example is what’s known as the cosmological constant. The cosmological constant governs how fast space itself expands or contracts. A tiny bit too strong and the universe would have collapsed back on itself; a tiny bit too weak and the universe would have expanded too quickly for galaxies to be able to form. It’s estimated that the chance of the cosmological constant having a value that would permit life is roughly 1 in 1053.
To be sure, whilst physicists are broadly agreed that the universe exhibits fine-tuning, they don’t agree on the interpretation of this fact. Is it evidence that an intelligent mind stands behind the cosmos? Or does it even call our for explanation at all? These sorts of questions, I would suggest, fall not within the domain of physics but of philosophy.
Here’s one reason that someone might suggest that fine-tuning doesn’t call out for any explanation at all: “If the universe hadn’t been fine-tuned for life then we wouldn’t be here to notice that fact; there’s no other kind of universe we could have observed other than a fine-tuned universe; and so we shouldn’t be surprised to find ourselves in a fine-tuned universe.” The philosopher John Leslie has responded to this objection by way of an analogy.[2] Suppose that you’re about to be executed by a firing squad made up of fifty of the world’s finest marksmen. Each one of them has a live round in his rifle, and each of them has a fantastic aim. They raise their rifles, take aim, and fire, but to your amazement, you’re still alive — every single one of them has missed.
Obviously, you’d think, “this cries out for explanation; there must have been a setup; they must have all missed on purpose.” But suppose someone said to you, “Actually, you shouldn’t be amazed, after all, if the marksmen hadn’t all missed then you wouldn’t be here to wonder about it.” This is a flawed line of reasoning. It’s true that the only scenario you could witness is one in which the marksmen all miss. But the fact that they all missed is very improbable given the hypothesis that they all intended to kill you, and so you should look for another hypothesis to account for what happened. Similarly, it’s true that the only kind of universe we could observe is one which is fine-tuned, but the existence of a fine-tuned universe is very, very improbable given the hypothesis of sheer chance, and so we should look for another hypothesis.
What other hypotheses are on the table? One is that the fine-tuning of the universe is not the result of chance, but rather, the deliberate choice of a rational mind who stands behind the universe. Let’s call this the design hypothesis. But recently another hypothesis has received considerable attention. This is the multiverse hypothesis. The multiverse hypothesis postulates that our universe isn’t the only one, but that instead there exists a whole vast ensemble of universes, differing from one another with respect to their fundamental laws of physics and initial conditions. Given enough universes, the thought goes, at least one of them will have physical laws and initial conditions which make possible the emergence of life.
So the question is: does the multiverse hypothesis account for fine-tuning at least as well as the design hypothesis? The philosopher Robin Collins has written extensively on this question, suggesting that the multiverse hypothesis faces the following dilemma.[3] Either the multiverse is unrestricted — containing every logically possible universe — or it is restricted — containing only some of the logically possible universes. If the multiverse is restricted, then there remains an unanswered question about why the multiverse contains this set of universes rather than any other set, and so the fine-tuning problem is simply pushed up a level. On the other hand, if we appeal to an unrestricted multiverse to explain fine-tuning, this poses serious problems for the very idea of scientific explanation. In a nutshell, the problem is that if the unrestricted multiverse hypothesis is true, then every event that is logically possible is 100% probable — that is, if something is logically possible, then it actually happens somewhere in the multiverse. Suppose you roll a die 100 times and it lands on six every time. Normally, we would regard such an event as calling for an explanation in terms of the die being rigged. But if the unrestricted multiverse hypothesis is true, everything that is logically possible actually occurs, and that includes a fair die landing on six 100 times in a row. It seems like whenever something very surprising happens, the explanation will always just be “oh well, everything that is logically possible actually happens in an unrestricted multiverse, so don’t worry about it.” And that spells the end of scientific investigation. In short, the multiverse hypothesis has serious flaws that render it doubtful whether it really does rival the design hypothesis.
Finally, it’s important to note the limitations of the fine-tuning argument. Just taken on its own, the fine-tuning argument doesn’t show that the God of the Bible exists. But it does, arguably, give a fair amount of support to the hypothesis of an extremely powerful and extremely wise designer, and as such, the fine-tuning argument can form part of a wider cumulative case for Christian theism.
Dr Max Baker-Hytch received his doctorate in Philosophy from Oxford University in 2014. He is Tutor in Philosophy at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University.
Further reading:
Neil Manson (ed.), God and Design: The Teleological Argument and Modern Science (London: Routledge, 2003)
John Hawthorne and Yoaav Isaacs, “Fine-Tuning Fine-Tuning,” in Knowledge, Belief, and God: New Insights in Religious Epistemology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018)
Robin Collins, “The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Universe,” in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, ed. William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland (Oxford: Blackwell, 2012)
[1] For an overview, see Martin Rees, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces that Shape the Universe (New York: Basic Books, 2000)
[2] John Leslie, “Anthropic Principle, World Ensemble, Design,” American Philosophical Quarterly, 19 (1982), pp. 141-51.
[3] Robin Collins, “The Teleological Argument: An Exploration of the Fine-Tuning of the Universe,” in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology, ed. William Lane Craig and J. P. Moreland, (Oxford: Blackwell, 2012)
This article comes from our popular series entitled “A Beginner’s Guide to Apologetics” in which a range of authors present different compelling arguments fpor the existence of God and for the Christian faith. Explore more from this series here.
