thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
May 26th, 2015
Can we choose our beliefs? Can we choose anything, or are we prisoners of the electro-chemistry in our brains? How do we choose? Pondering these questions can change the way we think, and how we understand ourselves and others. I am beginning a series of posts on these questions. This post looks at free will […]
May 16th, 2015
I had never heard of this book or its author until a friend bought it for me as a present. But it proved to be a really worthwhile read.
May 9th, 2015
We all interpret events different ways, depending mainly on the beliefs we bring to the question. So what are we to make of stories of large scale conversions of Muslims to Christianity, and a smaller number of stories going the other way – and visions associated with both?
April 28th, 2015
I think about belief, and the reasons I believe, quite a lot. And I sometimes ponder, if I cut it down to just one reason, what would it be? What is it that I just can’t go past? I don’t think I really can simplify it like that, but if I could, this would maybe […]
April 23rd, 2015
The resurrection is obviously a central part of christian belief – some say it is the amazing event that explains everything else, others that it is an impossible to believe event. So is it something that makes christianity harder to believe, or easier?
April 16th, 2015
This post combines two of my interests – the statistics of belief and people’s stories. Are there many adult converts to christianity? Why do they convert? Were they really unbelievers beforehand?
April 8th, 2015
I came across it yesterday, not for the first time, but maybe the 21st. Quoted as if it was significant and telling. You have almost certainly seen it too. I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other […]
March 31st, 2015
U2 on the Rattle and Hum tour way back in 1987, sang their old song Sunday Bloody Sunday, in response to an IRA bombing. It’s long been one of my favourite pieces of concert footage as Bono, outraged by the killing, emotes on stage, while the Edge, ever the steady rock around which the band […]
March 25th, 2015
Let’s say at the start that this isn’t the most important question in the world! But I think it is interesting. The background is this. The New Testament (Acts 1:15) records there were 120 disciples in Jerusalem a few weeks after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Three centuries later, historians estimate that there were somewhere between […]
March 18th, 2015
In my previous post I made the following comment: “Religious believers, overall and with many exceptions, have better health and wellbeing, are more prosocial and less antisocial than non-believers.” A reader questioned this statement, in two ways: “I see that despite my previous prompting about the silly “religion is good for your health” surveys. You […]
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.