In the Media

Articles relating to popular media.

Unmasking Issues Among Believers

Man in church service wearing a mask
Read time: 11 minutes

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a period of acute stress for many people. Pastors and Christian congregants—who are to set their minds “on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Colossians 3:2)—have not been exempt. Community, fellowship, the coming together of people, and sharing together in one another’s lives are important in Christian living. Many Christians took (and still take) exception to governments enacting restrictions on gatherings and preventing them from meeting together for worship. This, in turn, has led to divisions within churches. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

A Religious Perspective on the Vaccine: Part 3, Should I Take the Vaccine?

Person receiving an injection
Read time: 25 minutes

There is a remarkably recent and consistently recurring phenomenon of scepticism towards new vaccines. This should not be a surprise: it is wise to be cautious of putting things into our bodies that we do not know or understand. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

A Religious Perspective on the Vaccine: Part 1, What is a Vaccine?

Read time: 13 minutes

I recall clearly, aged six, going for my vaccinations. It was necessary for me to be able to go to school—the next phase of life I was eagerly anticipating. My uncle was our doctor and administered the shots. I did not cry, but put up a brave face through the pain and discomfort. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

Dictators and Democracies

Bust of Julius Caesar
Read time: 12 minutes

The Romans were in trouble. The small nation, still confined to only a small patch of land in western central Italy, was being threatened by its neighbours. War was looming. Less than a decade before, the Romans had abolished the monarchy and banished their king, vowing never to be ruled by a tyrant again. They instituted a republic. With the new system of governance came many freedoms. But the decision making machine sometimes moved slowly. Now was a time for action. They decided to elect a man called Titus Lartius as dictator. For a limited time, he was given absolute authority over the Romans. By doing this, the Romans had a man who could make quick decisions and take the swift action necessary to steer them through the crisis. War passed without casualty as Lartius worked to strengthen Rome's position, making their enemies less eager to attack. Before his six month term as dictator expired, Lartius stepped down from the position, and life returned to normal in the Republic. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

A Temporary Suspension

SARS-CoV-2
Read time: 5 minutes

An unbelievable amount has been written and said about the situation which SARS-CoV-2 (the 2019 “Coronavirus”, a.k.a. COVID-19) has caused globally. Even within Christian circles there has (even if mostly only initially) been a wide variety of opinions and responses (many of them being “biblical”)1. The reason is, simply, that everyone has been confronted by the pandemic, and therefore everyone has a opinion on it. What is more, many people have been asking questions and looking for answers, so many pastors have stepped in to try and answer as best as they can. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

Rapid Fire: Responding to Antitheist Memes

Man at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park (edited)
Read time: 13 minutes

I have written before about being thoughtful when reading and responding to satire. I also showed that a picture with a silly caption can defame, perpetuate a falsehood, and oversimplify a complex issue, such as the cause of the Dark Ages.

While it is easy to say that one should be thoughtful about such things, knowing how to analyse them is a skill which needs to be developed. I am still in the process of personally developing in this manner. One step is to identify a category within which the satire falls. Often objections or criticisms can fall into broad categories, and once a specific objection can be linked to such a broad category, it is easier to respond to the criticism with insight.

This article will present three examples of responding to antitheist “memes”. Read more …

Categories: 

Good and Evil in Star Wars

Star Wars logo
Read time: 8 minutes

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... there was perhaps the most famous story (with an ardent following) of science fantasy that was ever known! It is an epic tale of good versus evil. But, many people may not realise that it is not the kind of good, or a kind of evil, which they may intuitively have expected. Indeed, while it superficially looks like the stories of good and evil familiar to Western lore, the story of Star Wars is rooted in a much different tradition, where the concepts of good and evil have a unique origin and different meaning. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

Responding to the Euthyphro Dilemma

Bust of Socrates
Read time: 8 minutes

Introduction

The Euthyphro dilemma is an argument meant to illustrate a difficulty which theism faces. This difficulty is, from where does goodness come? If something is good because God decreed it as such, we are in a precarious situation where God can command something truly horrible as being good, such as murder or genocide. On the other hand, if God knows what is good from a transcendent source and simply relays it to us, then God is not all powerful, but Himself dependant on abstract, transcendent truths.

The Euthyphro dilemma is the bane of Christian apologists. Not because it is an effective refutation of theism, but because it is a tired argument which has already been refuted many times. Yet, still, armchair anti-theists, and even philosophical scholars, believe that the Euthyphro dilemma is a death knell to theism1.

In this article I aim to undertake to refute the Euthyphro dilemma. The refutation is not anything new, but I aim to do it in a way, possibly novel, where the originator of this argument is turned upon himself. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

Did Christianity Cause the Dark Ages?

Medieval scribe writing at a desk
Read time: 11 minutes

What is in a name? And how does a name influence how we think about the thing that has been named? What conclusions do we draw from a name?

There is a period of time in the history of Europe which is known at the Dark Ages, although these days it is better known as the Middle Ages or, even better, the Medieval period.

A particular picture has been doing the rounds on the Internet which makes the following claim about the Medieval period:

You know, there was another time when science wasn't taken seriously and religion ruled the world. We called it the Dark Ages.

Atheistic Facebook pages and the like are fond of sharing images such as this. But does it hold any truth? Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

Christian: Beware Labels

Protesters marching
Read time: 5 minutes

The world seems to be becoming an angrier place. As tensions flare in the U.S.A., other countries become infected as people internalise what is happening there; a kind of life-and-death struggle for the soul of the Western world.

This is, of course, not so, and whether the U.S.A. goes off in a "good" or a "bad" direction, the course of human history has shown us that nothing is permanent and that whatever the outcome, that too, will eventually change.

But despite what happens across the Atlantic, my intention in this article is to warn the reader not to get caught up in this anger. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

A Thousand Words Too Few

Read time: 5 minutes

In an age where it is easy to find information—indeed, these days information comes to you unsolicited—and easy to propagate, how carefully do we think about the information that comes to us, and that we share? In this article I explore the pitfalls of "meme" culture. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

Can Justice Survive Modern Scepticism?

Bloody Knife
Read time: 9 minutes

In this article I am going to muse on what I think is happening to concepts such as truth and justice in the world such as ours. I am particularly going to consider that rise of extreme scepticism, and (almost contradictory) the possibility that pop culture can determine truth. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

A Year of Blood

The Eiffel Tower lit up in the colours of the French flag following the attacks of 13 November 2015.
Read time: 9 minutes

The year 2015 has been particularly bloody. In this article I reflect on what all this violence and turmoil should mean to us. I do this by considering two particular attacks. Read more …

Categories: 

Tags: 

Pages