Category Archives: Politics and sociology

Still on politics (and the Church)

Posted on 19/10/2018 by Jon Garvey

I’m not usually much of a political animal, but my last post has set me off on a track. I first encountered radical politics first hand when I saw this daubed over a shop front in my home town of Guildford, Surrey, probably in 1967: “Long Live The Great Victory Of The People’s Glorious Proletarian Cultural Revolution!”

Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology | 1 Comment

What the Bible should have said #13

Posted on 17/10/2018 by Jon Garvey

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 1 Comment

Classical, modern, postmodern

Posted on 21/05/2018 by Jon Garvey

A thread over at Peaceful Science started with the claim that postmodernism is atheistic, and developed into a free discussion as imprecise as is the definition of postmodernism, appropriately and inevitably, given what it is about. Someone’s mention of “classical thinking” reminded me of this quote by C S Lewis:

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology | 8 Comments

Armchair theodicy

Posted on 11/05/2018 by Jon Garvey

When I was writing my forthcoming (promises, promises) book, God’s Good Earth, I added a disclaimer in the introduction that I was not going to attempt the kind of theodicy (following Leibniz) that is so often used to argue that the world itself must be evil through human sin, or through the autonomy granted by God to a demiurgic Nature.

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Theology | 2 Comments

Convergent evolution of origins discourse

Posted on 05/05/2018 by Jon Garvey

On Thursday I drove two hundred miles across England to attend a meeting on Christian approaches to origins – only to find the meeting had been cancelled and the organisers forgot to tell me.

Posted in Creation, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 12 Comments

Even the simple stuff is hard

Posted on 22/04/2018 by Jon Garvey

Genesis 1:28 says: “Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” I recently mentioned a book I’d read called Silent Fields, which documents how the wildlife of Britain has been systematically wiped out over the last five hundred years, leaving a number of species extinct, many more in an endangered state, and much of the rest depleted.

Posted in Creation, History, Politics and sociology, Science | 1 Comment

Natural selection is a choice – 2

Posted on 06/04/2018 by Jon Garvey

I left off last time  by mentioning that the “time honoured status of natural selection,” which habitually appears as the basis of evolution’s incontrovertibility in discussions, is in fact a historical myth. It’s an easily documented one, too. My source in this piece is principally the Wikipedia entry on “The eclipse of Darwinism,”  which nicely summarizes the authoritative history by Peter Bowler.

Posted in Creation, History, Politics and sociology, Science | 8 Comments

Learning from uncertainty (according to William Briggs)

Posted on 28/02/2018 by Jon Garvey

Uncertainty – the Soul of Modeling, Probability & Statistics by William Briggs (Springer, 2016). The world really does need a book on the philosophy behind probability, and this is it.

Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Science | Leave a comment

Cheddar lives matter

Posted on 19/02/2018 by Jon Garvey

Last night Channel 4 aired the documentary on the genome sequencing and facial reconstruction of Cheddar Man, the 8,000BCE mesolithic skeleton discovered in Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge a century ago. It was interesting and well done, though of course the “Hey Presto” effect of unveiling the reconstruction was lost because his photo has been splashed over every newspaper and TV channel for the last fortnight.

Posted in Genealogical Adam, History, Politics and sociology, Science | 7 Comments

Institutional abuse

Posted on 16/02/2018 by Jon Garvey

The revelation that senior figures from the major relief charity Oxfam, whose income is £400m annually, engaged in prostitution and possibly the abuse of minors whilst doing relief work after the Haiti earthquake, has shocked the nation. That’s especially so as it emerges just how many other major charities have experienced the same, and largely winked at it, over recent years. Some in the know speak of deliberate infiltration of the charity industry (sic) by abusers.

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