thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
If God exists, why is he so hard to see? Why is evidence so hard to find? If he wants us to believe in him, why doesn’t he show himself more? I’ve heard many atheists ask these questions, not so much because they want answers, I think, but as an argument against the existence of […]
“When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours” So goes one of the arguments against christianity, or any other religion (quote attributed to Stephen Roberts). There is no more reason to believe in christianity than to believe in any other faith, it is said, so […]
Alvin Plantinga is an eminent philosopher, and a christian. He recently released a new book, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism Thomas Nagel is an eminent philosopher, and an atheist. He recently reviewed Plantinga’s book. Judging by the behaviour on both sides of much discourse between atheists and christians, you might expect […]
Objective truth is something that is really true, it corresponds with reality, and can in principle be verified by others. Subjective truth, on the other hand, may be true for you but not for me, and cannot be verified by another. “Dogs have four legs” is an objective truth, but “I like dogs” is subjective. […]
Why do christians believe? There must be many reasons. Why do I believe? That’s a much easier question to answer. Here’s the briefest summary I can make.
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? […]
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 […]
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.
The Cosmological argument attempts to show that God exists by considering what caused the universe. The universe couldn’t cause itself to exist, the argument says, nor could it exist for no reason, so an external agent must have caused it. And what else could that external agent be than God? Despite various attempts to refute […]
It is almost a truism that atheists in western countries have ‘come out of the closet’, and are now enthusiastically pressing christians and other believers to recognise that their faith is unjustifiable. So what are the arguments they mostly use to support this conclusion? Over the past 6 years, I have engaged in discussions with […]