thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
April 7th, 2017
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 […]
March 22nd, 2017
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 […]
March 7th, 2017
Recently I came across a magazine article about the discovery of the remains of a 3,500 year old burial in Greece, dating to the time of the Mycenaean civilisation (about 1650-1200 BCE). I knew little about the Mycenaeans, so I read on, looked at a few other online sources, and made some interesting discoveries. Interesting […]
March 2nd, 2017
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 […]
February 17th, 2017
I have been waiting for this book for a long time, and while it isn’t perfect, it doesn’t disappoint. The so-called “fine-tuning”note 1 of the universe has been the subject of much scientific investigation and philosophical thought since it became apparent less than 50 years ago. Aussie cosmologist Luke Barnes has written and talked about […]
February 6th, 2017
The New Testament gives us a lot of information about Jesus, but there aren’t many other historical references to Jesus in the first century to support the New Testament information. Some sceptics claim this indicates Jesus was an invention or a legend. So there has always been great interest in two references in the writings […]
January 27th, 2017
More than half a century ago, christian apologist CS Lewis presented a simple argument for belief in the divinity of Jesus. The argument wasn’t original to him, but it went like this. We cannot think of Jesus as merely a good moral teacher for good moral teachers don’t claim to be the son of God. […]
January 19th, 2017
Blogging and commenting on other blogs exposes me to many different viewpoints. And it makes me think …. Some questions I’ve heard before, thought about, and know what I think. Other questions require thought, research and more thought. But all the time I’m considering, reviewing, pondering. I’ve also “met” many people, each one on the […]
January 8th, 2017
I have several times blogged on how christians and atheists relate to each other on the internet, because I think courtesy is better than rudeness, and attitudes on both sides can be improved. So I was interested in christian author Benjamin Corey’s thoughts on this.
January 1st, 2017
I don’t usually review my blog in a post, but ten years is a milestone worth marking.
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.