is the universe designed?

The facts are not scientifically in doubt. There are a dozen or so physical constants (the strength of gravity, the size and charges of fundamental particles, etc) which control how our universe has developed since the big bang, and if some of them had been even a little different, the universe would have collapsed back in on itself long before now, or flown apart, or have remained a thin soup without stars or planets.

It makes some people think that the probability of all this occurring by chance is so small that it must have been designed. But others argue that the logic is all wrong and probability doesn't make sense in this case. How does the argument go?

the middle ages - more interesting than you think

For many people, history is boring - just a succession of dates and wars. I think it is probably often taught very badly at school.

But here is a history book which is anything but boring.

is it possible i'm wrong?

Have you ever considered something you believe in and asked yourself: "Is it possible I'm wrong?"

If you're an atheist, have you truly considered whether there might really be a God despite what you think? If you're a christian, have you ever considered that you might be fooling yourself?

How would we ever know if we are really being honest with ourselves?

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?

peter norman deserved better

(An old post re-visited)

I've never been a great fan of the Olympic Games, but I take an interest in the fortunes of Australians who compete. And so I can remember the silver medal won by Peter Norman in the 200m sprint in the 1968 games. And of course I can remember the "scandal" of him standing on the dias with two black American athletes giving what was said to be a black power salute. But I didn't know the rest of the story until two years ago.

Photo from Wikipedia

where is god in natural disasters?

Yesterday I posted some information on extreme weather events which seem to indicate that global warming is having an increasing effect. But these natural disasters also raise the question of where is God at these times, and why does he allow them?

extreme weather

Australia has been experiencing some extreme weather lately.

In December, the first month of summer, we had a heat wave in Perth, with some bushfires, light snow in Tasmania, a cool Christmas in Sydney and torrential rain and flooding in Queensland.

hope

This beautiful video is worth watching if you have 6 minutes.

Hope from SNC CreativeArts on Vimeo.

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?

the rich get richer and the poor get the picture?

We all know that there is a wide gap between the world's richest countries and the world's poorest. For a while that gap was widening, but in the past 50 years, many of the formerly poor nations, especially in Asia, have been catching up. The big challenge remains Africa, where many of the poorest nations are, because while more people around the world are getting a fairer share of the pie, things haven't improved much for them

This excellent short video sets it out graphically.

does religion cause terrorism?

It's a common charge these days. Nobel Prize winning Physicist and atheist Stephen Weinberg said: "for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." And this atheist certainly seems to thinks so: "we see religion regularly used for war, mass murder, terrorism, and even genocide"

Are there any facts on the subject?

It turns out that there are.

putting Armatree on the map

Armatree is a small town, or village, in central western NSW. It consists of a handful of houses, a large country pub, and a railway siding with grain storage. It has a nominal population of almost 400, but most of these would live on farms in the area around the town. I only know about it because I used to have relatives at nearby Gilgandra.

Armatree is close to the Castlereagh River, a generally dry and sandy stream that occasionally erupts in floods which pour water over the surrounding countryside, revitalising the soil, but also sometimes destroying wheat crops. And that's what happened recently.

But Aussie farmers are a resilient breed, and so three cockies (slang for farmers) from Armatree hit back at the floodwaters with this short video of "Baywatch, Armatree". Check it out.

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,

japanese prisoners and reconciliation

I visited Cowra in the NSW midwest recently. During World War 2, Cowra was the location of a camp for internees and prisoners of war, including more than a thousand Japanese prisoners. In the early morning of 5th August 1944, more than 500 of the Japanese prisoners stormed the perimeter fences

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?

a surprise for the infidel guy!

They say you should never interview someone unless you know what they are going to say. But in a radio interview last year, the "Infidel Guy" interviewed Bible scholar Bart Ehrman and got a number of surprises.

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".