Observations on life; particularly spiritual

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God and science

Is God obsolete? Has God been replaced by science?

Nobel prize medalNobel Prize winners

John Lennox noted that if science and God do not mix, there would be no Christian Nobel Prize winners. In fact, between 1900 and 2000 over 65% of Nobel Laureates were self-confessed believers in God.

The statistics were taken from Shalev (2005) and the number of theists may even have been higher still, as he records that just over 65% of the overall winners identified as Christian, whilst over 20% were Jewish and just under 1% were Muslim. Just under 11% of the winners had no belief in God (e.g. atheists and agnostics), although, interestingly, far more of them were in the field of literature (around 35% of winners), than in scientific disciplines (7% of winners in chemistry, 9% in medicine and 5% in physics). Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 9, 2020 | Categories: Answer, Christian, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Atheism and science

Atheism denies the existence of GodThe views of two scientists

Atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method. That’s the view of Marcelo Gleiser, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College.

He says that atheism is a statement that expresses belief in nonbelief. “I don’t believe even though I have no evidence for or against, simply I don’t believe”. Or “I deny something I have no evidence against”. It’s a declaration. But in science we don’t really do declarations. We say, “Okay, you can have a hypothesis, you have to have some evidence against or for that.” And, “the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence”. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 9, 2020 | Categories: Christian, Error, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Memory loss

Did you forget some thing?Do you ever forget where you put your keys, phone or glasses? Have you ever gone into another room at home and wondered what you went in there for? We all forget some things and forgetfulness can be a normal part of aging. We get memory lapses. Our brain doesn’t function as well as it used to.

Mary couldn’t find her car keys. She looked on the hook just inside the front door. They weren’t there. She searched in her purse. No luck. Finally, she found them on her desk. Yesterday, she forgot her neighbor’s name. She decided to see her doctor. After a complete check-up, her doctor said that Mary was fine. Her forgetfulness was just a normal part of getting older. The doctor suggested that Mary take a class, play cards with friends, or help out at the local school to help her memory. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 7, 2020 | Categories: Christian, Christian living, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Niagara 2020 declaration on religious liberty

A new statement on religious liberty

The Canadian flagBackground

In Canada, as blessed recipients of the gospel of Jesus Christ for generations and heirs of the Christian Parliamentary tradition and English Common Law, we have long been able to take our freedoms and liberties in the faith for granted. Tragically, those days have waned, and we all share culpability for the declining situation and loss of the pervasive influence of the Scriptures. In our generation, with the undeniably radical cultural shift over the last sixty years, we are confronted with increased political, institutional, and legal opposition to the faith. Christians are facing an attack on our historic liberties and Charter freedoms. These include (but are not limited to) various persecutions in the form of media propaganda, speech and human rights codes, Supreme Court decisions regarding Christian institutions and end of life issues, municipal and provincial bylaws regarding sexuality and gender, indefinite emergency restrictions and lockdowns, and proposed amendments to the Criminal Code that could radically curtail the freedom of Christian leaders, churches and parents (cf. the federal bill to criminally ban so-called “conversion therapy”). Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 6, 2020 | Categories: Christian, Christian living, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Entertainment trumps worship

Church closed becauese of COVID-19The COVOD-19 rules in New South Wales, Australia, favor public entertainment above public worship.

From Monday 28 September 2020, entertainment facilities including theatres, cinemas and concert halls across NSW were able to increase capacity up to 50%, to a maximum of 1000. Alternatively, entertainment facilities may allow one person per 4 square meters on the premises, with no maximum capacity. 

If a place of public worship has multiple buildings at a single location, each building can have as many people as allowed under the 4 square meter rule, up to a maximum of 100 people or 150 people for a wedding. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  October 5, 2020 | Categories: Christian, Church, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Converting ancient secular dates to biblical dates

There are two main explanations of the earth’s geological history. One (Biblical) is based on recorded history in the Bible and the other (Uniformitarian) is based on assuming that the present (processes today) is the key to the past (ancient processes) and on the hypothetical geologic time scale. The biblical explanation allows for catastrophic events (such as the flood of Noah), whereas the Uniformitarian explanation minimizes the role of catastrophic events (because it has a preference for gradual events). The biblical explanation mainly involves rapid processes over short periods of time, whereas the Uniformitarian explanation mainly involves slow processes over long periods of time. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  September 21, 2020 | Categories: Christian, History and prophecy, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Faith in the family

Brown family reunion - October 2001Family reunions bring relatives together to celebrate and share memories. I gave this message at a church service during the reunion of the Brown family at Bedgerabong, near Forbes in New South Wales, Australia, in October 2001.

When reading through the Brown family history, I noticed the following instances of Christian faith amongst our forebears. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  September 17, 2020 | Categories: Christian, Gospel, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Une nouvelle chronologie biblique

Comment lire la Bible dans l’ordre chronologique

Le gouvernement chinois a l’intention de réécrire la Bible pour «refléter les valeurs socialistes». Cette ordonnance a été proposée en novembre 2019, lors d’une réunion tenue par le Comité des affaires ethniques et religieuses du Comité national de la Conférence consultative politique du peuple chinois, qui supervise les questions ethniques et religieuses en Chine. Les nouvelles éditions de textes religieux ne doivent pas aller à l’encontre des croyances du Parti communiste. Toute partie jugée erronée ou contestée par les censeurs sera réécrite pour correspondre aux valeurs communistes. Ils affirment que cela empêchera les «pensées extrêmes» et les «idées hérétiques» d’éroder le pays. Dans cet article, nous examinons le contenu de ce livre «hérétique». Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  September 11, 2020 | Categories: Christian, History and prophecy, Spiritual | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Two ways to live

Raod sign - Our way or God's new wayThe choice we all face

The message at the heart of Christianity can be outlined in a few pages. It’s a message from the Bible about God and His Son Jesus that’s about life and death, and the choice we all face. In “Two ways to live” the message is summarized in contemporary language in six points (Appendix A).

This post is based on a blogpost by Tony Payne that proposed updating the “Two ways to live” booklet (Jensen and Payne, 2007; Payne 2020). Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  August 20, 2020 | Categories: Christian, Gospel, Spiritual | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

Coronavirus politics

This is an appeal for calm. The number one command in scripture is “Fear not” (33 times in the ESV Bible). But there is a lot of fear. A lot of what’s happening right now in Australia, especially in Victoria, and in the world, is driven by fear. And I think that the political response is also being governed by the fear that people have. Both of those things are not helping us.

This post is based on a message by Martyn Isles of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Martyn Isles, Australian Christian Lobby - The truth of itLock-down

Victoria has the toughest lock-downs we’ve experienced at Stage 4 in 31 local government areas in Melbourne. That’s over 5 million people! There are only four reasons to leave the house: necessary work, necessary goods and services, medical care and compassionate reasons, and exercise. But exercise is limited to one hour per day within 5 km of your home. Shopping is limited to one person per household per day, within 5 km of your home. A curfew applies between 8pm and 5am, which is astonishing in a free country. And it’s the usual stuff with non-essential businesses closed. And most who still have jobs are working from home. But as a result of these measures 500,000 workers have been stood down with more to come. All this is done to save lives. But I wonder whether there is more harm being done than good? Whether we are creating fear where we shouldn’t be? Read the rest of this page »

Posted by  |  August 13, 2020 | Categories: Christian, Spiritual, Trials | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment