thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
It was billed as a “three-part conversation” between two well-known, respected and accomplished speakers, across three Australian cities, on the theme Life, the Universe and Nothing. I attended the second “conversation” in Sydney last night, but found it disappointing.
One of the most common things I find myself discussing with non-believers on the internet is evidence. Unfortunately, the discussions tend to be frustrating for both sides, and rarely reach any consensus, for several reasons.
How do people get to be christians? Do many convert by their own choice, or do most just get born into christian families or christian countries Critics of christianity sometimes point to the “fact” that most people in the world follow the religion of the country they were born into. Therefore, they argue, most people’s […]
Christians and atheists are often at “war”, especially on the internet. Most people are not all that interested, but things sometimes get a little contentious online. Claims and counter claims are made, often with insufficient or no justification. Is truth a casualty? Unfortunately it seems that, often, it is.
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 […]
A few days ago I looked at the number of christian denominations with different beliefs, as a first step to examining the argument that 40,000 denominations (as some said) showed that God couldn’t exist, or couldn’t get his act together. I concluded that there were not nearly so many differences in beliefs as that figure […]
It’s another common statistic and argument by critics of christianity: there are 30,000 to 40,000 christian denominations in the world, which shows that the christian God doesn’t exist, because he would communicate better. How good is the argument, and the statistics?
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?
When believers and unbelievers discuss, someone or other is likely to say something like: The one making the claim has the burden of proof! What is the burden of proof in this case, and who has it?
Disagreements between christians and atheists seem to have heated up in the last decade or two. Whether it is because atheists have become more convinced of the evils of religion, or there are just more of them these days, or whether it is because christians are feeling more under threat, I don’t know. Or perhaps […]