thoughtful info & ideas on life's big questions
August 29th, 2011
Archaeology can tell us a lot about the world of first century Palestine, where Jesus lived, and this is a great help in understanding the New Testament. But can it tell us much about one of the most basic questions of all: are the New Testament gospels accurate accounts of Jesus’ life, based on eyewitnesses? […]
August 25th, 2011
In what ways does belief in God change the way people think and respond to situations? Some recent university research studies are shedding some light on this question.
August 18th, 2011
Last post I referenced a newspaper editorial that suggested that the recent civil unrest in England was symptomatic of a much larger malaise – a lack of ethics in public life generally. Now a leading UK thinktank (and not a conservative one as far as I can gather) has come out arguing that English society […]
August 13th, 2011
In my last post, Why try to be good?, I discussed ethics in our secular postmodern western societies, and ended up with ethicist Peter Singer’s reflection that faith in a good God is the only way to provide a complete answer to the question, Why act morally? Today’s editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald, Britain […]
August 4th, 2011
For most people throughout the world and throughout time, being good has been related to belief in God. God defined what is good and evil, and offered positive or negative incentives for following his decrees. But in our secular western society, what is ‘good’ and what is the motive for being good?
August 1st, 2011
I have twice before (here and here) blogged about my favourite band at the moment, The Middle East. I am now devastated to report they have announced they are quitting.
July 31st, 2011
‘Sea Change’ was a popular Aussie TV series a few years back, in which a city lawyer quit her job and opted for the supposedly more laid-back life of a small coastal town. The term ‘sea change” became common usage to describe the increasing number of people who decided to leave the rat race and […]
July 28th, 2011
If you want to check out well-prepared and easy-to-read arguments for the existence of God, I recommend Existence of God. Tim was an atheist until he studied philosophy at university to post-graduate level, but he found the evidence and the philosophical arguments so persuasive that he was convinced of God’s existence. He is now a […]
July 22nd, 2011
People may hold their political, religious or ethical beliefs for all sorts of reasons, but we all like to think that we are very rational in the way we come to our own views. But some recent studies suggest few of us are as logical as we might think, as historian John Dickson reported in […]
July 18th, 2011
The Hong Kong walled city The Walled City of Kowloon in Hong Kong was an accident of history. No-one was sure who had jurisdiction over this area as it was on the border between China and Hong Kong, which until a decade ago was administered by Britain. So police and the authorities turned a blind […]
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.