Author Archives: admin

Does religion lead to violence?

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I’ve been listening to another of Premier Radio’s Unbelievable podcasts.

This one featured a debate between atheist Ed Turner (a lawyer) and Christian Meic Pearse (a historian).

The focus of discussion was Pearse’s recent book The Gods of War (IVP 2007).  His contention is that while religion can play a significant part in armed conflict, that point is often over-stated, and the main factors leading to warfare are cultural and economic.

The debate was, as is usual for this show, thoughtful and civilised. …

Apologetics and World View

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I’ve been pondering recently some of the limitations of evidentialist apologetics.  The problems become readily apparent when unsympathetic sceptics (Hitchens, Dawkins, Atkins et al) insist that apologists provide detailed and irrefutable evidence for this or that Christian claim (everything from the existence of God, say, to the reality of ‘miracles’).  But it seems that the a priori commitments of convinced atheists are such that no evidence would satisfy them.  They are either unable or unwilling to imagine their way into thinking about things from a theistic perspective.…

Science and scientism

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A scientific outlook becomes ‘scientism’ when it adopts the view that the scientific method is the only reliable way of knowing.  ‘Scientism’ leaves no room for other ways of knowing, including theological approaches.

There are, however, several limitations to scientism:-

1.  It is self-defeating.  The assumption that the scientific method is the only way of knowing cannot itself be derived scientifically.  It is internally inconsistent and must itself start with an act of faith.

2. …

To atheism – and back again

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The writer A.N. Wilson has recently been writing about his return to faith.  Associated in his earlier life in turns with the Church of England and with Roman Catholicism, he describes his ‘Damascus Road conversion’ to atheism, which took place in the 1980s.

I’m not sure what flavour of Christian faith Wilson has returned to, but I was struck with one statement in particular in his piece in New Statesman:-

When I think about atheist friends, including my father, they seem to me like people who have no ear for music, or who have never been in love.

…

A Unitarian ‘miracle’?

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Unitarians, as far as I can tell, don’t believe in miracles.  At least, they don’t believe in the kinds of miracles recorded in the Bible, including Christ’s Virgin Birth and resurrection.

However, while spending a bit of time exploring the beliefs and practices of Unitarians, I came across a rather extraordinary statement which, if true, would certainly have to be regarded as evidence for the miraculous.

I was reading the transcript of a sermon recently preached by Unitarian minister Rev Sarah Tinker. …

Debating inerrancy

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I’ve been listening to one of Premier Radio’s Unbelievable podcasts.

This one was held on 14th June 2008 between Dr Alex McFarland, President of  Southern Evangelical Seminary in the US, and agnostic Stephen Pilcher.

The topic of discussion was ‘biblical inerrancy’.  I found it one of the less satisfying episodes of this normally excellent show.

Stephen came up with a typical selection of supposed ‘contradictions’ – was there one pair, or seven pairs, of animals in Noah’s ark? …

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and John Shelby Spong

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Dietrich Bonhoeffer, it will be recalled, was the German Lutheran pastor who stood up to the Nazis and was hanged for his trouble.  During his short life – he died in 1945, at the age of 39 – he wrote a number of works of considerable insight and influence.  Among these are Discipleship and Letters and Papers from Prison.

John Shelby Spong (born 1931) is the retired bishop of the Diocese of Newark, New Jersey. …

Ryle, father and son

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Many of my readers will have heard of ‘Bishop Ryle’.  They will know something of the English clergyman who served churches in East Anglia for many years, before being appointed the first Bishop of Liverpool.  J.C. Ryle was considered something of a ‘conservative’ even in his own day (he lived from 1816-1900).  He defended expounded and defended evangelical churchmanship – the vigorous Protestantism of the Reformers and the Puritans – in the face of Anglo-catholicism and ‘modernism’.…

Jesus and the Eyewitnesses

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New Testament scholar Richard Bauckham appeared recently on Premier Radio’s ‘Unbelievable’ show.  He discussed his book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses with fellow New Testament scholar James Crossley.

Here are a few notes on some of the arguments presented by Bauckham:-

His book sets out new arguments in favour of the ‘traditional’ view of the authorship and historicity of the four Gospels, and, in particular, that they present reliable eyewitness testimony of the life and ministry of Jesus.…

The ‘Evangelical Universalist’

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I’ve been listening to some episodes of the Unbelievable podcast from Premier Christian Radio.

I really like the show.  It’s all about getting a discussion going – often between a Christian and a non-Christian – on a particular aspect of belief.  The host, Justin Brierley, is a calm and even-handed moderator, and the guests usually behave themselves with courtesy and thoughtfulness.

I appreciated the discussion of ‘The Evangelical Universalist’ between Robin Parry and Laurence M. Blanchard. …