thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
I am currently reading Hugh Mackay’s book, Beyond Belief, which addresses the question of how people find meaning in life with or without religion. Hugh is probably Australia’s leading social researcher and commentator, regularly appearing on talk shows and in newspaper article. He is neither a christian nor an atheist, probably best described as having […]
Mark Bauerlein is Professor of English at Emory College. He has written books on modern culture, and written articles for several popular American magazines. He has been called one of the Independent Women’s Forum’s “favorite intellectuals”. And five years ago, after more than three decades as a comfortable atheist, Mark converted to christianity. What happened?
Bithi started work in a Bangladeshi clothing factory when she was 12. Abject poverty and a sick father forced Bithi’s family to send the two oldest daughters to the garment factories to sew designer clothes sold mainly in North America. It was either that, or watch the girls slowly starve. Now 15, Bithi helps create […]
Terrorism is on many people’s minds at the moment, and many connect it with religion. Several years ago I wrote a page on this website about religion and terrorism, and it is one of the pages I have had to update most often, because of new understandings. I have just updated it again, with new […]
I’m not sure if I was a normal boy, but I always loved maps. So one of my favourite books was the Oxford University World Atlas. I loved it because of the diversity of its maps – it even included details on the solar system (I loved astronomy too!) and the exploration of Australia by […]
Sick people generally want to get better, and doctors work for that result. If there’s any way to improve the odds of recovery, then both doctors and patients want to know. Modern medicine can do amazing things, and the human body has amazing recuperative powers. But sometimes more is needed. Sometimes people ask God for […]
The good and harm done by christianity is a topic of much discussion and argument, and I have written on it many times (e.g. Does religion poison everything? and Do religious believers have better health and wellbeing, like, really?). Keith Parsons is a US philosopher and atheist who writes about the philosophy of religion, and […]
This post combines two of my interests – the statistics of belief and people’s stories. Are there many adult converts to christianity? Why do they convert? Were they really unbelievers beforehand?
Previously I wrote about recent research on Ways we can try to find happiness, but in the end they don’t seem to work. So psychologists have found that pleasure seeking and materialism may provide short term pleasure but they don’t make for a happy or satisfied life. So what does?
I’ve long been interested in the science of what makes people happy, and what doesn’t, and have written about it often on this blog and website. It’s a subject of important research, and new studies and reports are appearing all the time. Here’s the results of some significant studies that have been reported in the […]