thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
Why do you believe what you do – about religion, politics, ethics or life itself? Many sceptics about religion are evidentialists, that is, they believe we should proportion our belief according to the evidence. Different disciplines (e.g. law, science, history, journalism and everyday life) require different types of evidence, but the principle seems reasonable. But […]
I’ve been blogging for about 8 years and discussing the existence of God for even longer. From that experience, it is clear the christians are generally pretty sure that God exists, and atheists even surer that she doesn’t. Genuine agnostics are much thinner on the ground. The strange thing is, each side believes they have […]
Last post I looked at one aspect of the historical evidence for the life of Jesus – Were the gospels written a long time after the event? Another question often asked, or a claim often made, relates to how much evidence there is for the events and teachings outlined in the gospels, and how much […]
I was asked recently, in the comments section of another blog, about how long the gospels were written after the time of Jesus’ death. I said it wasn’t long by ancient standards, so I thought it might be worth outlining the facts on this matter.
I came across another story of an apparent healing miracle recently, so I investigated it.
This comment was made on a blog I was visiting recently: “None of us are born with any smattering of whether or not there is a god, or for that matter, even what a god is (or is not) – we have to be taught that” I was interested, for I knew of some scientific […]
I didn’t have high expectations of this book. I’m not that much interested in the so-called new atheists, nor in those who argue against them. And I think the world probably has quite enough books about CS Lewis. But I am interested in the philosophical arguuments generally. And I am a great fan of Lewis […]
My friend Howie has a blog, Truth is Elusive, and his latest post discusses the philosophical arguments for the existence of God, and whether they are effective or even useful. His broad conclusion is “not very” – that is not for him, not for many people, only for a few. I mostly agree with Howie […]
Most of us like to think we are reasonable people. Most of us think we have good reasons why we believe in God, or disbelieve. But we all probably know people who think quite differently to us, and yet they think their reasons are reasonable and ours are not. How can we understand what’s going […]
Last post I referenced 20 arguments for the existence of God by philosopher Peter Kreeft, some of which I find convincing, others less so. So this post I thought I’d put my head on the chopping block and rate 7 theistic arguments and 7 atheistic arguments. I’d be interested to hear how others rate them.