Did Jesus’ followers worship him as divine?

July 2nd, 2012

Christians believe Jesus existed, the gospels record his words and deeds with reasonable accuracy (at least), and that the best way to understand Jesus is that he was divine, God’s son establishing God’s kingdom. Non-believers contest some, sometimes all, of these claims. Sometimes scholars give definitive answers to these questions, sometimes they don’t.

Read more .....

The global food crisis – 1 billion hungry

June 24th, 2012

Almost one billion people, an eighth of the world’s population, are hungry as you read this. Why?

Read more .....

The moral argument for God

June 19th, 2012

Most people believe some things are right (e.g. helping others or being honest) and other things are wrong (e.g. rape, genocide or pedophilia). And if you tried to defend any of those “wrong” behaviours, most people would think you had lost your humanity. They think those things really are wrong. But what makes them wrong? […]

Read more .....

One thing I believe

June 11th, 2012

In a previous post (7 things I ‘know’ about God) I said I was convinced of the following as truths about God and the universe: Science tells us truths about our universe Only God can explain the universe I trust Jesus Reason and ethics give true insights The world is not always a safe place […]

Read more .....

New ways of looking at things

June 7th, 2012

You have probably noticed that the appearance of my blog has changed, and possibly keeps changing. I wanted to have a different design, and I wanted the blog, and eventually the entire site, to be easily read on mobile devices with smaller screens. The easiest way to achieve these two aims was to buy a […]

Read more .....

7 things I ‘know’ about God

June 6th, 2012

I’ve been a christian discussing belief with atheists and agnostics on the internet for about 7 years now. Many times I’ve been asked why I believe, what possible evidence could I have? These discussions have led me to re-examine many things that I believe, and while I haven’t changed all that much, I have certainly […]

Read more .....

Ethical chocolate update

June 1st, 2012

I have previously reported on the ethical dilemmas posed by eating chocolate, due to the trafficking and exploitation of children in growing cocoa in West Africa (see My pleasure, their misery? and Easter eggs and slavery), and on the responses to my letters to chocolate manufacturers (see Fair Trade chocolate – report 1). I have […]

Read more .....

Did Bethlehem and Nazareth exist in Jesus’ day?

May 28th, 2012

Not so very long ago, many internet critics of christianity were pointing out that there was no archaeological evidence of settlements at Bethlehem and Nazareth in the first century. This demonstrates, they said, despite the fact that few scholars agreed with them, that these towns didn’t exist, and that therefore the Bible accounts are not […]

Read more .....

The Jesus myth wars heat up

May 24th, 2012

In the nineteenth century, some writers (not generally qualified historians) argued that Jesus didn’t actually exist, and the gospels stories are legends. These views were generally discredited in the twentieth century as historians developed better methods of analysing ancient historical information. But the movement began a resurgence in the latter part of the twentieth century, […]

Read more .....

Michael Ruse on why is there something rather than nothing?

May 17th, 2012

Michael Ruse is a philosopher specialising in the philosophy of science, especially biology and evolution. He is an atheist, but one with more respect for religious belief than many prominent atheists today. Ruse has some interesting things to say about science, belief in God and his more militant atheist colleagues.

Read more .....

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