Search
-
Recent Posts
- Cognitive dissonance – the midwife of wisdom 08/07/2026
- Conceptual divergence 02/07/2026
- Gillick competence and sexual abuse 24/06/2026
- The Church in Ezekiel’s shoes 20/06/2026
- A rose by any other name is still a rose… 14/06/2026
Recent Comments
Post Archive
Category Archives: Theology
Cognitive dissonance – the midwife of wisdom
Cognitive dissonance is usually seen as the enemy of reason. For example, in the science-faith field, the old trope is that the Christian indoctrinated in the superstitions of the Bible, when confronted by the facts of science, becomes mentally scrambled and simply fails to perceive obvious realities. This criticism extends to the highest levels, for example in Jerry Coyne’s attempt to exclude Francis Collins from becoming head of the NIH some years ago, on the grounds that he was a Christian and therefore not scientifically reputable. But in fact, cognitive dissonance can often free the mind to pursue truth.
Posted in Creation, Science, Theology of nature
Leave a comment
Conceptual divergence
A couple of decades ago, when I still lived in the world of general medical practice, one of the local GP appraisers persuaded me and another GP, John, to run a course on spinal manipulation for the next generation of medics. Both of us had learned the same stuff, from the same pioneering doctors, John Paterson and Loic Burn, when we were young GP partners in the early 1980s.
Posted in Creation, Science, Theology of nature
Leave a comment
The Church in Ezekiel’s shoes
Rupert Lowe’s Rape Gang Enquiry has been published, and is here. Where it isn’t is anywhere in the Main Stream Media, nor under passionate discussion in Parliament, where a sparsely populated House of Commons seems to have received it with a general sense of ennuie. They’ve heard it all before… or at least, have studiously missed debates on the matter to avoid hearing about it.
Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology
Leave a comment
A rose by any other name is still a rose…
…but the rose itself can mutate I watched a video, by a YouTuber I’d not encountered before, with some hesitation. It is entitled Why I’m no longer evangelical, and I can live without another apostasy story, or even another defection to Rome or Constantinople. But given that the provider goes by the name “Reformed Pastor,” the contradiction intrigued me.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
Leave a comment
Some brief new thoughts on Genesis 6
In my Generations of Heaven and Earth (pp.36-39) I deal with the odd story of the sons of God marrying the daughters of men, related (but not necessarily genealogically) with the mysterious nephilim, often translated “giants” and much beloved of YouTube fantasists.
Posted in Genealogical Adam, Theology
11 Comments
Ideology as brain surgery
The Henry Nowak murder has rightly drawn attention to the Critical Race Theory underpinning and infecting police training, and much more, within our institutions. But perhaps the focused coverage is in danger of missing that the same cult ideology governs every aspect of what passes for British institutions now.
Posted in Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology
2 Comments
What turns Evangelicals Catholic?
Prompted by my last post I have dug into Elliott-Binns Religion in the Victorian Era. It confirms my understanding that the re-moralising, and re-spiritualising, of Victorian Britain was quite complex in causation, but did indeed seem to begin with Nonconformist and Anglican Evangelicals campaigning on the abolition of slavery. Maybe Asa Briggs just read Elliott-Binns and took the credit.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
2 Comments
British values were Evangelical Christian values
We live, now, in a low trust society. We now expect our governments to deceive us into compliance using psychological manipulation. We assume our insurance company will be rewarding our loyalty by quietly escalating our premiums. We have no way of negotiating the cashless world without a bank account, but the banks are free to freeze our account without explanation at any time. And, of course, we take it for granted that abortions, divorces and STD will increase exponentially, that schools and universities will teach our kids perversion and political propaganda, that real wages and jobs will decline as corrupt oligarchs prosper, and that the police and courts will routinely … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
2 Comments
Speech suppression more contagious than COVID – and certainly deadlier
Thames Valley Police have (through some legal device or other) cancelled an Oxford Union Debate, promoted by the Union’s female Muslim president, on whether Islam is compatible with Western civilization. She had invited Tommy Robinson, Laurence Fox and Rev Calvin Robinson, and reportedly even Jacob Rees-Mogg, to speak.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
4 Comments
Unite the Kingdom May 16
I suppose many of my UK readers will be up to speed on the rally in London yesterday, organised by the infamous Tommy Yaxley-Robinson, originally known as Stephen Real-Name. But I attach a few remarks, partly for overseas readers wondering what England has become.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
1 Comment