thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
“Why does the world exist?” is one of the most fundamental questions about life. It may be a clue to deep truths about life and perhaps about God. And it can make all but the most ardent theist squirm for lack of a satisfactory answer. “Why does the world exist?” is also a book which […]
Conventional ‘wisdom’ says that religion and science are at war, or at least opposed. Certainly you’ll find many atheists and many believers saying that. But there is another side to the story. Some scientific discoveries seem (to some) to support belief, and many scientists are believers. And in recent times, the scientific study of religion […]
I am a bit of a maths nerd – I enjoy using spreadsheets and graphs to analyse and illustrate. But I can’t claim much expertise – I did once obtain a Distinction in Statistics at Uni, but I’ve forgotten all of that now. So while writing up some material on healing miracles (see Healing miracles […]
I have had an interest in the question of free will ever since a long and friendly email discussion with an atheist and determinist almost a decade ago. He was a researcher in artificial intelligence, and strongly believed that human beings had no free will, and that the only way we could have it was […]
In October 2012, 14 eminent scientists, philosophers and other thinkers met for 3 days in a workshop entitled Moving Naturalism Forwards. Why did they meet and what were the outcomes?
For many people it is virtually an unquestioned assumption – science and christian belief are incompatible. But this book by eminent philosopher Alvin Plantinga turns that on its head – he argues that science and theism are very compatible while it is science and atheism/naturalism that are incompatible. Does he succeed?
It seems like it has happened a hundred times, and maybe it has. I get into a conversation with a non-believer about Jesus, and the conversation takes a familiar path.
It is a curious thing, and it seems inconsistent. Scientists tend to argue that we should only believe what can be established by the scientific method, or something like it. Since God’s existence cannot be established scientifically, belief in God cannot be justified. And yet sometimes they use very flimsy arguments that seem to have […]
In many of my discussions with non-believers, especially those who once were believers, I find a common thread – that christian belief does not stand up to critical analysis, and that is sufficient reason to disbelieve. And, commonly, they feel surprised, sometimes even angry, that some christians refuse to be self-critical. Recent examples include my […]
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 […]