Hyrum Lewis, BYU-Idaho faculty member in the History, Geography, and Political Science Department and author of “There is a God: How to Respond to Atheism in the Last Days,” makes a compelling argument.
He spoke with BYU-Idaho Radio about his book and a debate about atheism he participated in at a Las Vegas-based convention called Freedom Fest.
Lewis shared the arguments he used during the debate and his general strategies for addressing atheism from a Christian perspective. His philosophy is more or less a work of apologetics of Christianity.
“The only way you know you have free will is through feeling, through internal introspection,” he said. “And if scientists want to say feeling is not a valid source to know something exists, then your very own consciousness, you can’t know it exists, your very own freedom, you can’t know it exists.”
While his book does lean into the unique understanding that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have through belief in modern revelation, Lewis said he spoke from a broadly Christian view at the Freedom Fest.
“I do think we have resources, as Latter-day Saints that other traditions—it’s not that they don’t have them, it’s just that they don’t use them because they’re scared of them,” he said.
One of Lewis’ most wide-reaching arguments is that the assertion that scientific knowledge can only be bred through empirical evidence is itself a contradiction. The professor makes the argument, reasoning that no one can prove pragmatically that scientific evidence is the only source of verifiable truth.
Admittedly, the logic can be difficult to follow.
“They have to draw on revelation in order to dismiss revelation, ironically enough,” he explained.
Lewis’ book “There is a God: How to Respond to Atheism in the Last Days” is available on Amazon.