Tag: Christianity

Is God a Jokerman?

If you are sometimes troubled about the apparent actions of God, or if you are interested in the songs of Bob Dylan, this post may strike a chord.

Strong evidence of God?

What would be strong evidence for God? Some look outwards to the universe or inwards to ourselves, and argue that God is the most plausible explanation for the beginning and the design of the universe, or for human consciousness, freewill, rationality and ethical sense. Others point to Jesus, the man who was God, his miracles, […]

Does christian belief make you a better person?

I’m a reasonably self critical person (some would say too much so), and I’m no fan of much of what goes in in churches and christian circles. So I’m not really interested in defending modern christianity as a social entity. But at the same time, when sceptics criticise “religion” for poisoning lives and emotionally warping […]

Do healing miracles prove God exists?

Which side are you on? The idea of divine healing is a polarising one. Non-believers are generally fairly suspicious, feeling healing is against medical science. Many christians are highly supportive of the idea that God heals today, and quite possibly have a personal story of healing to tell. But other christians are made of sterner […]

“The implications of my atheism were incompatible with almost every value I held dear”

This post told the story of Sarah Irving-Stonebreaker. I have now moved this information to this page: “The implications of my atheism were incompatible with almost every value I held dear”.

So who’s dogmatic and intolerant?

Religious people, especially conservative and fundamentalist believers, are often stereotyped as dogmatic and intolerant. Do the facts support this stereotyping? How do other people compare? And what is the cause?

Changing ideas about the death of Jesus

There’s a quiet but dramatic change going on within christianity, about our understanding of the death of Jesus. Critical non-believers often seem to be unaware of it. Many christians seem to be unaware of it too. But it is making a major difference to how christians see God, the scriptures and their faith. And Easter […]

Making sense of God

Tim Keller is well known these days. A Reformed pastor who is hip. An insightful commentator and a successful writer of books for christians. Eight years ago he published The Reason for God, a thoughtful book of what we might term “soft apologetics” – that is, he didn’t try to present strong arguments for the […]

Do we need God for life to have real meaning?

I’ve been reading a little about meaning in life. Psychologists tell us we need to have meaning and purpose in life for our psychological wellbeing. With a sense of meaning, we are more likely to be happy, have a positive sense of our own identity and be more resilient under stress But what gives our […]

The historical evidence for Jesus seems to be getting stronger

The Pool of Bethesda – model in the Israel Museum Picture taken by deror avi on 18th August 2006 (Wikipedia) Fifty years ago, when I was a young christian, there was a clear division in New Testament studies between scholars who defended historic christianity and more secular scholars who took an extremely critical view of […]