thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
September 7th, 2016
Australians have had a polarised and sometimes ambivalent attitude to the threats to this planet, and to our comfortable Aussie way of life, from climate change. Most people, most of the time, want to make positive changes, but a sizeable minority follow the shock jocks and the Murdoch press in mocking climate change. Governments have […]
August 25th, 2016
Before we read a book, we will often want to know who wrote it and whether we can trust them to give us accurate information. It is therefore understandable that people might wonder who wrote the 27 books of the New Testament. Last post I discussed the writings of New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman. One […]
August 14th, 2016
Bart Ehrman is an eminent New Testament scholar, a successful writer and a thorn in the side of conservative christians. I have been reading a few more of his books lately (those shown in the picture above), to see what makes him simultaneously so popular and unpopular. Some clear themes emerge, and I think they […]
August 7th, 2016
Definitions of words can be boring stuff, but sometimes they are important. Sometimes people get quite excited, perhaps even angry, over them. The words atheist and agnostic have been examples of this in recent years.
July 28th, 2016
This page in brief For years I had a self-coded HTML website with a blog attached. Late last year I made the decision to make it entirely built on WordPress, which necessitated converting about a hundred HTML pages to WordPress pages, and solving quite a few problems along the way. I am not a professional […]
July 19th, 2016
Mark Bauerlein is Professor of English at Emory College. He has written books on modern culture, and written articles for several popular American magazines. He has been called one of the Independent Women’s Forum’s “favorite intellectuals”. And five years ago, after more than three decades as a comfortable atheist, Mark converted to christianity. What happened?
July 4th, 2016
A lot of christians struggle with the idea of biological evolution because it seems to leave God out of creation. But I think evolution points to God if we consider some of the findings of neuroscience and psychology.
June 21st, 2016
It is good, every now and again, to reflect on what we believe and why, and to review if there is any reason to change our minds. I think it is good, too, for a blog author to remind their readers of what the blog is all about. So here’s my summary – what I […]
June 12th, 2016
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in his poem Maud wrote: Ah yet, we cannot be kind to each other here for an hour; We whisper, and hint, and chuckle, and grin at a brother’s shame; However we brave it out, we men are a little breed. Most of us, upon reading that, would probably smile ruefully and […]
June 5th, 2016
Most of us have experiences, both positive and negative, about religion and God. In each of our lives there have likely been religious people and institutions that have left a positive impression, and others that have hurt us. And if we look at the world around us, now and through history, we can easily form […]
A list of all blog posts, in reverse chronological order, is on the Blog archive page.