thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
My friend Gordon is an atheist and a reader of this blog. Recently in a comment on a previous post, he made the above comment. It is still holiday time, I’m a nerd, and I enjoy a challenge, so I wondered whether I could analyse the science, and the belief. People with dedicated serious minds […]
Recently I was following a debate between a christian and a non-believer, and the non-believer said that he (I presume it was “he”) would require “irrefutable evidence” to consider changing his mind about God. It seemed like a rather stringent requirement to me, so I started thinking …. What things could we reasonably say we […]
It’s that time of year, when even non-christians think about Jesus, at least a little. But what do they think? What should they think?
CS Lewis was the most influential writer or teacher in my early christian faith, but it has become fashionable among both atheists and some christians to minimise his contribution and worth. How do his arguments for christian belief stack up today?
“Confirmation bias …. is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way …. [or] interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position.” (Wikipedia) Atheists often accuse christians of confirmation bias, […]
Bushfires have recently raged through parts of NSW, with some of the more severe burning on the fringes of Sydney, destroying more than 200 homes and taking 2 lives. Without good planning and preparedness, and some desperately hard work by firefighters, it could have been much worse. I live in the middle of suburbia, far […]
David Sloane Wilson has long been a critic of Richard Dawkins for having unscientific views about religion (and other things). He criticised him again in When Richard Dawkins Is Not An Evolutionist, but it is another of his comments I am more interested in. One of the things Wilson says he and Dawkins agree on […]
I came across this comment the other day on Victor Reppert’s blog, Dangerous Idea. It was made by ‘exapologist‘, an ex-christian philosopher. I thought it deserved to be repeated. I don’t see — I can’t see — how some theists and non-theists can be so “zero-concession” about evidence. Why can’t we be honest? Life is […]
I am a great fan of the Science on religion blog and website. I have gained much insight and information, and not a few blog topics, from these sites. I’ve bookmarked dozens of topics, some of them a little obscure, and I think it is time to introduce you to some oddities.
My post on Your brain, faith and disbelief generated some critical comment. The problem wasn’t so much with the main point of the post (that neuroplasticity appears to explain some of why believers and unbelievers are so polarised about God) but a side comment that there are demonstrated mental and physical health advantages in belief […]