thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
Christians, and followers of other religions, believe that God listens when they pray, and answers them, sometimes with very helpful results. Sceptics scorn the idea and ask for proof, and some scientists try to test the idea. But sometimes the results are quite surprising!
Last post I looked at some of the ways science and religion interact without conflict in western culture. Today – what psychologists have found about how people in the US think about science and religion. You may be surprised at some of their findings (I was).
Phil Hemsley has a blog, Thoughts from a Minimalist Christian. Since I have discovered it, I have enjoyed reading Phil’s thoughts, but I wondered how a 40 year old atheist (as he once was) came to convert to christian belief. So I asked him.
In a discussion on another post (on archaeology at Nazareth), a reader referred to first century Jewish historian, Josephus. He suggested that Josephus had not mentioned Jesus in his history, and that this was “telling”. I felt the comment merited a separate post. Did Josephus refer to Jesus? What is the current consensus of relevant […]
It’s more or less a stereotype, especially in the US: christians are thought to be anti-science. Except the evidence apparently says something different.
This website has been online, in one form or another, for almost 7 years. In that time it has mostly been about evidence and reasons for believing in the God of christianity. My idea was to offer readers food for thought from a reasonably fair-minded viewpoint. But I haven’t indicated what people might do with […]
We all know that the number of committed religious people is dropping in most western countries (see, e.g. Who believes in God?). And it’s not too hard to find stories on the internet of people who were brought up religious, but now disbelieve. It may be less well known that, at the same time, a […]
I think this deserves a separate post. A few weeks back I posted on the historical evidence for Jesus and how some sceptics refuse to accept the conclusions of the best scholars that Jesus existed and the gospels present some reliable historical information about him (Jesus – assessing the evidence). Akhenaten has been discussing the […]
In many of my discussions with non-believers, especially those who once were believers, I find a common thread – that christian belief does not stand up to critical analysis, and that is sufficient reason to disbelieve. And, commonly, they feel surprised, sometimes even angry, that some christians refuse to be self-critical. Recent examples include my […]
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