thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
For millennia people have prayed to God, or the gods, for healing. No-one really knew if people were truly healed as a result, and there wasn’t really any way to check. But in recent decades medical scientists have tried to test whether prayer assists healing or can change the course of a disease or injury. […]
Christians believe that God is the most powerful being imaginable, and yet we can’t see him, and many people say there is nothing tangible to show he’s there at all. But has God left any clues for us to read?
I started my previous post with the observation that the internet is full of discussions between believers and unbelievers, and not all of them are civil, respectful and constructive.
Arguing about the existence of God seems to be a major part of the internet. But I wonder how much it achieves.
Victor Reppert is a philosopher. His book, CS Lewis’s Dangerous Idea discusses the theistic argument from reason. His blog, Dangerous Idea has long been a source of information and ideas for me, and many others. Recently he responded to the argument that there is no evidence for God, and summarised his reasons for believing in […]
In a recent internet discussion of fine tuning, I was referred to a 2014 debate between Sean Carroll and William Lane Craig, where Carroll made a number of criticisms of the fine-tuning argument used by Craig. He also included some other statements he regarded as showing that the universe looks like one NOT created by […]
It is clear that, whether we are believer or unbeliever, our choices about our belief in God are not always as rational as we might like to think. If there is no God, we probably cannot choose at all in any meaningful way. Sometimes (some would say always), we cannot choose our beliefs, they are […]
I reckon most of us like to think we make good decisions about what we believe – that is, ones that are based on good evidence and good reasoning, and which lead to true beliefs. Trouble is, there are people with quite different beliefs about God, morality and politics to what you or I believe, […]
People argue over religious belief and disbelief. Christians generally say everyone should believe in Jesus, and will be judged by God according to whether they believe or not. Non-believers criticise, and sometimes mock, believers for their belief. But can we choose what we believe? I discussed last post the question of whether we have free […]
I had never heard of this book or its author until a friend bought it for me as a present. But it proved to be a really worthwhile read.