I can’t remember who told me about these, but they’re fab. The Open University Religious Studies is obviously plugging its wares – but fair enough. The results are wonderful and very useable in all kinds of places I suspect – wryly humoured animation with the added bonus is the wonderfully-suited satirical voice of David Mitchell. (more…)
Mary Eberstadt has a wonderful turn of phrase and an impish wit, which are used to devastating effect in her 2010 book The Loser Letters. She boldly takes on the mantle of C S Lewis’ Screwtape, but instead of infiltrating the murky world of Wormwood’s diabolical apprenticeship, she joins the New Atheists in their quest to crush theism. So she writes 10 open letters, in the persona of A.F.Christian (i.e. ‘a former Christian’), to some of the leading lights of the movement like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. With great relish she writes to advise ‘The Brights’ (atheists) on how better to defeat ‘The Dulls’ (Christians), and above all to undermine belief in ‘The Loser’ (God). At times, the result is laugh-out-loud funny. (more…)
When a fellow-scientist brands Richard Dawkins naïve you sit up and notice. But that’s exactly what Emanuel Derman has done. I didn’t know anything about Derman before, but it seems that he has rather an intimidating CV: he is a theoretical physicist, economist AND successful businessman originally from South Africa. All of which gives him a rather unique angle on a topic to which I’ve frequently returned on Q: the nature of being human (e.g.see Fritz Kahn’s Industrial Palace or the Nothing Buttery Rant). (more…)
The UK's new Coalition government has recently announced plans to allow for so-called Free Schools. This means that charities and faith groups will be allowed to set up schools within the state sector and funded by the Dept of Education,…
It's been a bit of an experiment - but as part of our contribution to Passion 4 Life events at All Souls, 2 friends (pianists extraordinaire, Craig Hudson & Robin Stephenson) and I have put on a little evening's package…
One of the RSS feeds I follow is from a provocative little site called irReligion.org - and they never fail to come up with the most irritating and wretched examples of religious people doing really stupid things. Occasionally the site…
Sacred Treasure A friend of mine, who works running tours in Turkey, has set up this wonderful photo & graphic resource tracing Paul's ministry in the region. Fantastic. Jason Ramasami has a nifty site going of cartoons he's been doing…
Well, having had a well-plugged launch a few weeks back, the Camp Quest atheist camp has started. They're having a ball, it seems. Well of course they are - kids' activity holidays have to work hard not to be. Camping…
Alister McGrath is at his best (IMHO) when engaging with debates of science and religion. After all, he's a scholar of both. And he's got a really helpful and timely piece in this month's CT on Augustine's Origin of the…
I was a green and callow undergraduate in 1992 - present at a debate between A N Wilson (who'd recently produced his iconoclastic hatchet job, Jesus) and Anthony Harvey, who'd given the Bampton Lectures and subsequently written Jesus & The…