Errors in the New Testament?

December 30th, 2012

Lord's prayer in Bible

You don’t have to read the gospels for long to find things that don’t seem to fit together. Sceptics argue that these prove that the gospel stories can’t be trusted, and probably aren’t true. Is this a reasonable conclusion? Is it the only reasonable conclusion? How do historians deal with these apparent discrepancies?

Read more .....

Atheism: reality or illusion …. or both?

December 26th, 2012

I’ve long thought that one of the reasons for believing in God is the fact that without God, it is hard to make sense of ethics and human freewill. But here’s an atheist (and a philosopher) who turns a lot of things on their head – he agrees it is hard to make sense of […]

Read more .....

The human mind – a challenge for materialism?

December 19th, 2012

Materialism can be defined as the belief that everything that exists is material or physical. It implies that science, which observes and measures material things, is potentially able to explain all facets of existence. Thus materialism is closely associated with science. Materialism leaves no place for God or supernatural beings. But, some argue, it also […]

Read more .....

The burden of proof?

December 15th, 2012

When believers and unbelievers discuss, someone or other is likely to say something like: The one making the claim has the burden of proof! What is the burden of proof in this case, and who has it?

Read more .....

More on the New Testament documents

December 8th, 2012

A couple of weeks back I posted some information on the surviving documentation for a number of ancient texts including the New Testament (Revised dates for ancient documents). Now, in the comments to that post, I have been asked some more questions about the New Testament documents. So here’s the answers to those questions, as […]

Read more .....

Atheists vs christians: does it have to be war?

December 1st, 2012

Disagreements between christians and atheists seem to have heated up in the last decade or two. Whether it is because atheists have become more convinced of the evils of religion, or there are just more of them these days, or whether it is because christians are feeling more under threat, I don’t know. Or perhaps […]

Read more .....

Revised dates for ancient documents

November 28th, 2012

A common theme in the discussion of the reliability of the New Testament documents is the number of copies we have and the dates of these copies, compared to other ancient writings. And of course, the details change as new discoveries are made. Here is an update.

Read more .....

Is there really a consensus of scholars on historical facts about Jesus?

November 18th, 2012

Akhenaten has been attacking statements I have made here, and on my other blog theWay?. The latest comment on Christians and cathedrals questions whether “there exists a scholarly consensus that a reasonable if modest amount of facts about Jesus can be known”. I decided this question required a longer answer … (and I apologise for […]

Read more .....

Scientific fraud

November 17th, 2012

Once upon a time, people trusted religion. They believed the Bible, they believed their priests, they believed in God. But slowly things changed, for many people at any rate.

Read more .....

The evidence for Jesus: a case study

November 14th, 2012

I think this deserves a separate post. A few weeks back I posted on the historical evidence for Jesus and how some sceptics refuse to accept the conclusions of the best scholars that Jesus existed and the gospels present some reliable historical information about him (Jesus – assessing the evidence). Akhenaten has been discussing the […]

Read more .....

A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.