thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
I’ve been away on a short holiday for the last week, at a beautiful spot on the NSW coast. Our holiday unit is right on the beachfront, with views over the Pacific Ocean. We sleep just inside large glass doors, so we hear the sounds of the surf during the night, and wake as the […]
The headline said “Former Pastor Decides To Spend A Year Without God”. A christian pastor was going to try living as an atheist for a year, and see what happened. Like many, I was interested in what led to this radical step, and where it would lead. Not long ago, a year later, he announced […]
I enjoy hearing people’s stories, especially when they have a happy ending. So here’s three more …. three individuals finding a new purpose in life through God.
I suppose most of us have looked up at the night sky and wondered at some time – is there any other life out there? Another way of framing the question is to ask – is the earth unusual in supporting (supposedly) intelligent life? I have investigated this question in the past (see A rare […]
I like to collect stories, especially stories of people finding God. (He wasn’t lost of course, just lost to them! 🙂 ) I enjoy reading (or hearing in conversation) people’s stories simply to get to know them better, but also because I like to learn from others’ experiences. These two stories both concern Professors of […]
We human beings are aware of ourselves in ways that robots and computers are not, we can think in ways they cannot, and we firmly believe some things are truly right or wrong. Granted humans have evolved by natural selection, science finds it difficult to produce an explanation of these facts – how does a […]
Benjamin Corey’s Formerly Fundie blog is one I read regularly. Benjamin mostly writes, from a slightly radical perspective, about christianity and church in America. But his latest blog (Why I Just Couldn’t Be An Atheist, Even If I Wanted To) discussed how he and an atheist friend sometimes discuss their respective beliefs.
The christian religion has lost numbers in most western countries over the past half century, but there are still people becoming christians too. But what leads them to believe in Jesus? Do they just believe what they were brought up to believe? Do they sift the evidence? Or do they experience God in some way? […]
Not long after christianity began, a critic named Celsus argued that Jesus couldn’t have been divine, for he missed the opportunity to prove his divinity by disappearing from the cross. I find this an unsatisfactory argument, because it assumes that Celsus knew what God’s purpose was. And I find similarly unsatisfactory arguments being used today.
Many of my fellow bloggers, some friends, some more like protagonists, have written up the story of their spiritual journeys, mostly from christian belief or a christian upbringing to disbelief or atheism. I decided it was time I did the same thing. So here it is, a reflection on 69 years of life and more […]