Another day, another Prime Minister…
I was born in South Africa, am a New Zealand citizen, and live in Australia. Though living in the latter country for 12 years, its politics remain a mystery to me. On a day by day basis, life here is a little like paradise. Australia truly is a glorious country, with an indulgently comfortable standard of living. Yet we’ve just changed our Prime Minister. Again. The 5th in 5 years. Being a schoolkid here has just got a whole lot more stressful. Who can possibly remember the names of all Australian Prime Ministers? I was in two minds about writing on this. Against writing is my concern...
Read MoreMiracles, maths and mystery…
I can still remember the sneer from one of the panelists at an evangelistic atheist site. Desperate to convert others to her newly found atheism she declared: ‘Christians are really, really bad at maths. When doctors say your cancer is incurable, what they mean is that there is only a 1 in a 1000 chance that it won’t prove terminal. When it doesn’t, religious nutters happily proclaim, “a miracle”. No it’s not. It is the 1 in a 1000 cases which comes around, on average, once every thousand cases. Low odds come off in the ratio they are meant to. It’s...
Read MoreSugar, fat and all that…
I publish a monthly article in Perth’s Advocate newspaper, and as most readers of this blog don’t see it, I thought I would reproduce it here. September’s title was ‘Sugar, fat and all that.’ It comes as a bonus blog. The current ‘Why believe?’ series continues on Tuesday with a post ‘Miracles, maths and mystery.’ Sugar, Fat and all that… Due to a recent flight’s disappointing movie choice, I was reduced to watching Damon Gameau’s That Sugar Film which pontificates on the dangers of consuming too much sugar, and alerts...
Read MoreEaster Cancelled. They’ve found the body…
Graffiti was an art form during my university days. It adorned three of the walls of every toilet cubicle. One wall was devoted to political comment, another to the smutty, the third to the witty and clever. By and large contributors conformed to this unwritten guideline, and a few days before a now long past Easter the headline ‘Easter has been cancelled. They’ve found the body!’ appeared on the third wall. It has stuck with me through the years. In its own way, it is deeply insightful. Produce the body of Jesus, and whilst the impact of Christianity would not disappear...
Read MoreA world minus Jesus…
Ever imagined a world minus Jesus? There would be some obvious differences. The date for example. I’m writing in 2015 – 2015 since what? And though we might not have got the year of Jesus’ birth completely right, there is no doubt that our calendar has been structured to convey the conviction that the date of his arrival marked the turning point of all history. That’s to be more than a little famous. So what earned Jesus such accolades. The most striking is the claim that he conquered death and that his resurrection indicates to us something of what we can hope to...
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