June 25th, 2011
Jesus is no longer a sacred subject in our culture. Scholars feel free to cast doubts on almost any aspect of his life and construct counter-hypotheses to explain his life. Internet ‘instant experts’ confidently state that he didn’t exist. Some christians are deeply disturbed by these claims and doubts. And we may all find it […]
June 24th, 2011
If you spend time on online religious discussion forums, you’ve probably heard someone say: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence!” Ever since Carl Sagan said it, this aphorism (often abbreviated to the acronym ECREE) has been used to critique claims of miracles or the paranormal. It sounds neat and logical, and it can help you feel […]
June 19th, 2011
David Sloan Wilson is an eminent evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University in New York. He is an atheist “but a nice atheist”, he assures us, and he is interested in the study of religion from an evolutionary viewpoint and the use of evolutionary principles to develop community development programs. You may be surprised to know […]
June 16th, 2011
Most of us have heard stories of people being healed after they were prayed for. They encourage our faith and encourage us to keep praying for those we know who need healing. But are they also useful in helping non-believers to believe?
June 13th, 2011
If you’ve spent any time on the internet this year, you probably know that Rob Bell is a much-loved and much vilified US pastor whose latest book Love Wins has caused a great deal of comment and even anger. The cause of the anger is many commentators’ fears that Bell has subtly espoused a doctrine […]
June 12th, 2011
A long time ago I read a book which (primarily) examined a bunch of Biblical prophecies which had come true in verifiable history, and attempted to estimate the mathematical probability of this happening by guesswork. The book was Science Speaks, by Peter Stoner, a college professor of mathematics and astronomy, and I have just found […]
June 11th, 2011
If you’ve trawled the internet for very long, you’ve probably come across unbelievers who say Jesus never existed, the stories are simply myths. How to answer them (if we choose to)?
June 10th, 2011
A couple of post back, in Good news?, I reflected on how some aspects of the teaching and example of Jesus seemed to be missing from modern “gospel” presentations, and suggested “we could improve our presentation of the good news to be more positive, forward looking and reflecting ‘God’s favour’”. I’ve now had a go […]
June 9th, 2011
In Worshipping the Irrational Jesus in the Huffington Post, Prof Mark Osler offers three approaches to those aspects of christianity we find uncomfortable or difficult to understand or accept.
June 8th, 2011
Is belief in God dying out, in the western world at least? Some recent surveys give some answers, and some challenges for christians.
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.