Does religion do you harm or good?
June 11th, 2015
Famous atheists have said that religion is harmful to the believer and to society. Religious belief is “poisonous”, making believers “delusional” and anti-social. And internet sceptics have followed them in repeating the allegations until they have some sort of authority. These accusations may trouble some christians. But the thing is, the scientific evidence shows otherwise. […]
Finding Truth
June 2nd, 2015
I had never heard of this book or its author until a friend bought it for me as a present. (Thanks S!) But it proved to be a really worthwhile read.
Sometimes we need to be reminded
May 28th, 2015
God cares about the poor, the suffering and the victimised. I don’t know why he made a world where so many suffer, but I do know he expects his people to do something about it – to ease the pain and to bring justice to the systems that cause the pain. Sometimes we forget. But […]
Face to face with the Old Testament
May 22nd, 2015
The Old Testament presents a number of problems for many christians. We are taught it is the inspired Word of God, yet it contains many things we find difficult – Genesis 1-3 is contradicted by evolution, God commands his people to invade and kill, and there are some strange events that are hard to swallow […]
Old Testament God angry, New Testament God loving. Right? Or wrong?
May 15th, 2015
In the Old Testament, God, who is variously known by names like Elohim, Yahweh, Adonai and El Shaddai, is active, angry and violent – talking to Moses, defeating armies, guiding by pillars of smoke and of fire, and threatening those who disobey. But in the New Testament, God seems to be more relaxed – a […]
Knowing God's will – do we have to learn Greek?
May 4th, 2015
It was an argument about women preaching in church. The first guy was a moderate and a historian, and he wrote a book about why women should be allowed to preach. The second guy was a pastor and a conservative, and he argued against this view. The first guy replied, the second guy responded. Each […]
State of the earth, 2015
April 25th, 2015
I used to work as an engineering hydrologist, and an environmental manager. Multi-syllable words, but they meant I spent a lot of time collecting, analysing and using climate data, mostly rainfall and streamflow. And so I also did some reading on the then fledgling science of climate change. I am also a christian, so I […]
Which New Testament scholars should we trust?
April 18th, 2015
I was asked by a reader recently to outline why I recommend and refer to certain New Testament scholars and not others. I refer to historical scholars often enough, and other websites do too, she said, so how do we know who to trust? I thought this was a good question. So here’s how I […]
Cosmology, philosophy and theology – what more could you ask for?
April 11th, 2015
Apparently there are about a quarter of a billion blogs in the world, so it’s a special pleasure when you find one that’s really good. Of course it depends on what you’re interested in. But one blog I never fail to appreciate is Undivided Looking. Let me introduce you.
When the Bible becomes a reason to disbelieve
April 3rd, 2015
I began this blog almost 4 years ago with a post that included this comment: “In recent years I have met, mostly on the web but also in person, many believers who struggle with some aspects of their faith that they feel no longer seems right. They don’t have significant doubts about Jesus, but they […]
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.