Category Archives: Politics and sociology

Francis Bacon and history

The last chapter of Richard Bauckham’s Jesus and the Eyewitnesses moves away from making the case that the four gospels record genuine eyewitness testimony to Jesus, and takes a look at the nature of testimony itself.

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

How the other half lives

I have little interest in the New Atheists, since their sole function on the kind of blogs I visit is to throw in irrelevant references to Jebus and Pixies, say “cheers” and disappear, except when they carp on about being treated in an unchristian way. But every now and again it’s good to be reminded of why so many people, especially atheists, are embarrassed by the Gnus’ ability to win such support amongst the mindless and to damage the cause of atheism, if there is one.

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 20 Comments

Statistics and divine action

In another context Gregory linked to an article by Steve Fuller. In this post the argument of the article itself is not important. But part of what it said was to point to the work of the physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Of Maxwell Wikipedia says: Maxwell is considered by many physicists to be the 19th-century scientist having the greatest influence on 20th-century physics. The Biographical Dictionary of Scientists says he is generally considered: …the greatest theoretical physicist of the 1800s, as his forbear Faraday was the greatest experimental physicist.

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

Another way of looking at it…

For your edification, let’s attempt a synthesis of economics, free will and Intelligent Design. Maybe it will kick off a whole new academic discipline. Or maybe not.

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

Money evolves too

I caught a trailer for this year’s BBC Reith lectures on the way to a rehearsal yesterday. Apparently they are being given by Niall Ferguson on “the evolutionary approach to economics.” As far as I can see from Google, they’ll be based on his book The Ascent of Money, which clearly alludes to Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man, which in turns refers to Charles’ Darwin’s The Descent of Man. None of them, it seems, depends on my first boss’s political slogan, “Sideways with the People.”

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science | Leave a comment

Teleology already has a foot in the door

I’ve just read a lecture by Steve Fuller, in which he mentioned that, at around the time of the Scopes trial, it was pretty well impossible to find a scientist working in a Christian institution (and I assume this largely means US denominational universities) who would accept the reality of either miracles or the physical resurrection of Christ. I would suggest it would have been almost equally hard to find a theologian in the same institutions who believed in them either, at that time. I’ve not checked any sources, but it makes sense – even when I was young there was a strong feeling that science and the supernatural were … Continue reading

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

Easter changed everything

Didn’t it?

Posted in Creation, Medicine, Music, Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | Leave a comment

Evidence for our loss of cosmic consciousness

There have been a few scattered discussions on BioLogos recently about the question of the “obsolete” cosmology in the Bible, and especially in Genesis 1, and I’ve done a recent blogĀ  on that subject. One of the things that becomes quickly obvious is how very hard it is for moderns to see the theological content of ANE texts as other than add-on stories to mistaken science, rather than as the expression of a worldview that had very little interest in the purely material qualities of the Universe. Or rather, that saw the material aspects of the Universe from a theological point of view.

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

Roots of racism

We have some issues with racism in football over here. Not many, it should be said – the Football Association has worked hard to root it out both amongst supporters and players. But the (now removed) England captain is now awaiting trial on charges of racially abusing a fellow-player. It was also reported that at a European game (where to be frank crowd racism is far worse) spectators were chanting abuse at one of the black British players. The roots of race-hatred are complex. At one end are fairly primitive human impulses like xenophobia. There are also genuine social antagonisms caused by immigration, unemployment and terrorism attributed to racial minorities. … Continue reading

Posted in Politics and sociology, Science, Theology | 3 Comments

Who’s in charge of the asylum anyway?

I’ve been too slow to comment on the decision by a British court that the holding of a time of prayer in local council meetings is illegal. The case was brought by an ex-council member from a place not far from here, who was following the New Atheist agenda of claiming that his (evolved?) human rights were being abrogated by others praying, even though he had been quite at liberty to absent himself. The judge actually decided that his rights were not breached at all, but rather like the Dover Trial judge decided that he’d answer a question he hadn’t been asked for free, and said that councils had no … Continue reading

Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology | 1 Comment