Death, pain & predation
A biochemist considers why predation and death are an inevitable part of the world we live in.
Tag: Evolution
Can humans be reduced to atoms and electro-chemical processes?
An article by a prominent neuroscience researcher argues against a materialistic approach to brain and mind. What can we learn from him?
People are precious?
People matter more than things, we sometimes say. But do we matter more than animals? Our laws say so. What can we learn from this?
Understanding the Old Testament
The Old Testament is a strange book – well a collection of dozens of books actually. How can any twenty-first century person understand it? Can any thoughtful person really believe all of it? What do the experts say? These are questions I have grappled with for much of my life. I feel, finally, I have […]
Free will, evolution and human rationality
Most people agree that we cannot answer the question, is there a God? with a clear proof, either way. So most arguments for or against the existence of God start with observable features of our world, and try to show that these are compatible with the belief we ourselves hold, but incompatible with the opposite […]
The wrong way to attack and defend evolution?
The biological theory of evolution has been the subject of argument ever since it was first proposed, especially from those christians who believe that the Bible teaches that animals haven’t evolved from simple life forms, and thus evolutionary science must not only be wrong, but also evil. But their arguments are often naive and misleading. […]
When is it right to trust the experts?
Last post (I’m beginning to see a pattern here) I looked at a number of scientific and historical facts where a bunch of non-experts challenge the consensus of the real experts. These areas were: evolution vs creationism; whether Jesus was a historical person and Nazareth was where he lived; climate change; the medieval church vs […]
Neuroscience, psychology and God
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.
Evolution as a surprising source of faith
Andy Gosler is an ornithologist at Oxford University who specialises in bird ecology and ethno-ornithology (how people relate to birds). He is a christian, but didn’t start out life with any belief. An adult convert, it was, strangely, evolution and wildlife conservation that led him to faith. Here is how that happened.
DNA, evolution and challenges for all
Food for Thought It is easy for human beings to become set in our thinking, quite satisfied that we know the truth about some matter, and therefore quite unwilling to change, or even consider other ideas. We can become quite “tribal” about our viewpoints, and defend even small differences quite vigorously. It can be as […]