fulfilled prophecy in the bible?

A long time ago I read a book which (primarily) examined a bunch of Biblical prophecies which had come true in verifiable history, and attempted to estimate the mathematical probability of this happening by guesswork. The book was Science Speaks, by Peter Stoner, a college professor of mathematics and astronomy, and I have just found it is now available on the internet.

osama, obama and jesus

The death of Osama bin Laden is now old news. The US Government's wish to eliminate him is understandable. Whether it will change the terrorism equation much is questionable, but beyond my ability to answer. But what should be a christian's response to these events?

connecting lives

We all know that Africa is a troubled continent, often a legacy of European colonialism - poverty, AIDS, civil war and genocide are some of the worst problems. But most of us don't know what it is like to live with poverty.

Yet there is another side. Africans often seem to be such happy people. And there is hope for those in the grip of poverty.

church is a heavy trip, man

We have seen that those who attend church or have a religious belief have generally better wellbeing in terms of health and longevity. But some things don't work out so well - at least in the US.

prayer vs anger

Jesus said his followers should avoid anger and make peace with enemies (Matthew 5:21-24); in fact we should love our enemies and pray for those who hurt us (Matthew 5:43-44). But does it work? It seems it does.

christianity has always opposed science, hasn't it?

It's one of the hottest topics on the internet, and so many people know the answer. Christians oppose evolution, and they've always opposed science, even persecuting and executing scientists who opposed the church in the Middle Ages.

But it seems the conventional wisdom is badly distorted, sometimes even outright wrong.

believers live longer

(or does it just seem that way?)

In the last post I mentioned that, statistically, believers have greater than average health and wellbeing, as indicated by a number of measures. Here's some data from the US that shows that churchgoers live longer.

horror and forgiveness

When I wrote about forgiveness a week ago, I didn't know I was going to so soon come across a story of deep grief and amazing forgiveness.

historical jesus for ordinary people

Most books about Jesus by scholars are long and detailed, with many footnotes. They are not always either succinct or readable.

Most books about Jesus aimed at the ordinary reader don't worry too much about what the expert historians have concluded.

Historian and author John Dickson has always been very readable yet also historically reliable. His latest book hits the mark again.

who needs god?

The western world is in the process of deciding that it doesn't need God. Well, most of us that is, or at least, most of the time. But here's one atheist who thinks other people truly need God, even if he doesn't.

does religion poison everything?

Atheist Christopher Hitchens subtitled his book "How religion poisons everything". But does religion, specifically christianity, merit this comment? What is the evidence?

visions of jesus

After my last post on why believe?, I remembered some other interesting stories I had read. People from non-christian backgrounds, mostly Muslim, having visions of Jesus which led to their conversion.

So I did a bit of searching, and came up with these:

why believe?

About 2 billion people around the world believe in christianity. Even if some belief is just nominal, there are still many millions who believe. But why do they believe?

Well-prepared arguments for christian truth

This book (Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig) is the best I have read on the arguments for the truth of the existence of God and the truth of the christian faith.

The arguments between believers and non-believers have hotted up in the last decade,

drug addicts, triad gangs, and one of my heroes

The Walled City of Kowloon in Hong Kong was an accident of history. No-one was sure who had jurisdiction over this area as it was on the border between China and Hong Kong, which until a decade ago was administered by Britain. So police and the authorities turned a blind eye to what was happening - except when bribes were on offer.

Over a decade or two, multi-story illegal building on a large scale led to a 3 dimensional rabbit warren of darkness and squalor, with limited and unauthorised water supply, electricity and sewerage. Gangs, crime, drugs, prostitution and protection rackets grew and thrived.

is burning the Koran a good idea?

In a month it will be 9 years since Islamic terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Centre in the US, with the loss of about three thousand lives. News reports say a church in Florida plans to commemorate the event by publicly burning copies of the Koran. Is this a good idea? Is it a christian idea?

who are our enemies?

I spend quite a bit of time on the internet, on blogs and forums, reading and making comments. And it doesn't take too long to find that it is an angrier culture than we find in "real life".