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- The lab-leak is slowly leaking out 26/07/2026
- Another reminder that genre is crucial to biblical interpretation 17/07/2026
- Faith in feelings 14/07/2026
- Cognitive dissonance – the midwife of wisdom 08/07/2026
- Conceptual divergence 02/07/2026
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Category Archives: Theology
Christians outsourcing persecution?
To follow up on my last-but-one post, consider this.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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Christians hindering revival?
The time has come for judgment to begin, and God’s own people are the first to be judged. 1 Peter 4:17 The thing that upset many people most during COVID, and in the permacrisis since, was the total failure of a majority of people to comprehend that there was anything fundamentally wrong. That blind attitude has persisted into the most recent manifestation of the crisis (if you don’t count monkeypox and the NATO invasion of Russia at our expense), that is the protests and riots that have many US commentators wondering what has become of English justice, and even caused a friend in the impoverished and violent state of Sri … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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Plugging more gaps in the God of the gaps
Last Thursday I was interviewed for a podcast on God’s Good Earth by geologist Gregg Davidson, co-author with Ken Turner of the excellent Manifold Beauty of Genesis One, as well as writing an excellent sci-fi trilogy. The podcast should be online in about five weeks, Gregg says, so I’ll let you know about it when it happens.
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology of nature
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Fifteen minute Ĩitties
My basic mental schema for the industrial revolution has been that it eventually brought great benefits, but only at the initial cost of millions of working people (including my Garvey ancestors) living in squalid and unhealthy conditions in city slums. Oliver Twist and all that. But I’m having to revise my ideas.
Posted in History, Prometheus, Theology
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Providence meticulous, mysterious and momentous
I’ve just re-read Luther’s classic The Bondage of the Will, in which he refutes the ubiquitous belief that the (fallen) human will is balanced between good and evil, able to choose either. I’ve only just got it back after an Arminian friend borrowed it to refute it twenty-two years ago, seeking to achieve against Luther what Erasmus failed to do, and not succeeding, kept it on his shelf.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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The deep roots of Englishness
I’ve recently re-read Beowulf, which has been described as the foundation of English literature. And that’s partly true, but partly also it’s a record of what the English abandoned in order to become a nation worth celebrating.
Posted in History, Philosophy, Politics and sociology, Theology
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WeAreNotWorship
I play in, but am no longer in oversight of, our church’s music group. Regular readers will know I am somewhat underwhelmed by the state of the “Christian Worship Industry” nowadays, and I’m unashamedly returning to that theme today. It’s better than thinking about the election.
Posted in Politics and sociology, Theology
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Mind the gap
I’ve written a bit on the “God of the Gaps” fallacy (ie that the accusation is itself a fallacy!) in the past. This post still covers most of the bases. But hearing a recent interview with Denis Alexander, of the Faraday Institute, in which he repeated the fallacy with pejorative reference (as one would expect) to the Intelligent Design Movement, made me think about it again after nine years.
Posted in Creation, Philosophy, Science, Theology
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Teach your children well
I’ve been considering another unhealthy feature of Charismatic theology, but realised that it largely arises from a wider modern misunderstanding of the whole human condition. And that feature is the prioritisation of unrealistic supernatural expectations in children. In particular, I’m remembering how our kids were taught at a Well Known Bible Week held in Spring. Our bad for acquiescing in it.
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology, Uncategorized
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Tell me the old, old story
If I look back over the thirteen years of this blog, its various preoccupations might be summed up in the idea of “threats to the Christian faith.” Being a Christian, I might also interpret that as “threats to the human soul” or even as “threats to the well-being of mankind.” Even Richard Dawkins seems to be on board with that last conclusion now!
Posted in History, Politics and sociology, Theology
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