10.30 – 16:10, Sunday 25 September 2011 The British Humanist Association (BHA), Centre for Inquiry UK (CFI UK), and South Place Ethical Society (SPES) are pleased to announce a full day conference focusing on conspiracy theories. The first of its kind for the CFI UK, this event will explore why people are drawn to conspiracy theories, what the warning signs of a dodgy conspiracy theory are, and which conspiracy theories are actually credible. Get your tickets today! Tickets: £10 general public, £8 BHA and SPEC members, and students, Free to members of the CfI UK (please register at the BHA website). Speakers: Programme: 10.30 Registration 10.45-11.55 Chris French and Robert Brotherton “Conspiracy Minded: The Psychology of Belief in Conspiracy Theories” 12.00-13.10 Karen Douglas "A Social Psychological Perspective On Conspiracy Theories" 14.00-15.10 David Aaronovitch "Do Conspiracy Theories Have Common Characteristics Over Time And Space?" 15.10-16.10 Jamie Bartlett and Carl Miller “Truth And The Net” 16.10 End Full details and programme
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Conspiracy Theories Day Conference by Sara Passmore
Conspiracy Theories Day Conference by Sara Passmore
10.30 – 16:10, Sunday 25 September 2011
Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL
The British Humanist Association (BHA), Centre for Inquiry UK (CFI UK), and South Place Ethical Society (SPES) are pleased to announce a full day conference focusing on conspiracy theories. The first of its kind for the CFI UK, this event will explore why people are drawn to conspiracy theories, what the warning signs of a dodgy conspiracy theory are, and which conspiracy theories are actually credible. Get your tickets today!
Tickets:
£10 general public, £8 BHA and SPEC members, and students, Free to members of the CfI UK (please register at the BHA website).
Speakers:
- David Aaronovitch, author, broadcaster, and journalist;
- Jamie Bartlett, Head of the Violence and Extremism Programme at the think tank Demos;
- Robert Brotherton, member of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unitat Goldsmiths, University of London;
- Karen Douglas, Fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology;
- Chris French Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit Goldsmiths, University of London;
- Carl Miller, Associate at Demos and a researcher at King's College London.
Programme:
10.30 Registration
10.45-11.55 Chris French and Robert Brotherton
“Conspiracy Minded: The Psychology of Belief in Conspiracy Theories”
12.00-13.10 Karen Douglas
"A Social Psychological Perspective On Conspiracy Theories"
14.00-15.10 David Aaronovitch
"Do Conspiracy Theories Have Common Characteristics Over Time And Space?"
15.10-16.10 Jamie Bartlett and Carl Miller
“Truth And The Net”
16.10 End
Full details and programme
Round Up by Jamie Wallis (ed. C.J. Wilton).
With the neighbours whingeing dogs driving me completely insane I have deigned fit to take a little time out of hectically writing my final OU essay, to bring you this incredibly late edition of last weeks twitter round up (courtesy of Jamie Wallis). Indeed the lack of posts this week just goes to show how much we need more volunteers to man our various forts when my life gets even remotely busy, so if you're a blogger in need of an outlet get in touch and help us out!
Sunday, 28 August 2011
Round Up by C.J. Wilton and Jamie Wallis
This week's round up includes contributions from Professor Brian Cox, Peter Tatchell, Sam Harris, Kenan Malik, Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, Simon Singh, Eddie Izzard, Ellie Haycock, Jimmy Carr, Richard Wiseman and Rebecca Watson as well as posts from Guardian Science, The Freethinker Magazine, BHA News and many many more.
So for all you non-twitter users out there, enjoy this weeks round up; -
RT @queerresistance: http://t.co/nkDvCey | Be sure to log your MP's responses @skepticalvoter http://t.co/vzOtsw6 - keep voters informed.
RT @queerresistance: Anti-choice counselling: tell your MP to say NO! http://t.co/y8Sj0Yb
RT @AtheistChurch: RT @TheYoungTurks: Teachers Can Mock Creationism - Court http://t.co/B7CuhHK #TYT @anakasparian @stevenoh88
RT @ProfBrianCox: RT @jodrellbank: We've discovered a planet made of diamond orbiting a pulsar! http://t.co/R4yORPl
RT @PeterTatchell: Help us win #gay civil marriages & #straight civil partnerships. Sign the #Equal #Love #petition: http://t.co/s1XEZyg #lgbt #queer #pride
RT @SamHarrisOrg: How to Lose Readers (Without Even Trying) : http://t.co/9uL8qEE
RT @kenanmalik: Oh, the tangled knots of identity: Can you run the Jewish Museum if you're 'not too Jewish'? http://t.co/gZY7OOu...
RT @TheFreeth: The world’s in a mess, and Galileo is to blame says crazy Catholic group http://t.co/1gKVjrg
RT @BBCBreaking: A spokesman for Col Gaddafi telephones a news agency saying the Libyan leader is now willing to discuss a transition of power.
RT @rdfrs: Ricky Gervais on cover of Sept/Oct issue of New Humanist – on sale 25 August - New Humanist - RichardDawkins.net http://t.co/xMZhwxI
RT @BadAstronomer: Resupply ship to space station crashed in Siberia. It was unmanned, carrying 3.5 tons of food/fuel/supplies. http://t.co/ZsvY6Yz
Join/Support the Secular-OU Today!!! http://t.co/qF28MGr
RT @guardianscience: Republican candidate Rick Perry believes creationism should be taught in US schools http://t.co/ujFNwMx
RT @guardianscience: Fusion power: is it getting any closer? http://t.co/s6IhoNh
RT @SLSingh: RT @Indoncensorship: Care firm silences critics; @CarerWatch shut down after benefits test company threatens libel http://t.co/VsIIHDj
RT @eddieizzard: Sky News - BREAKING NEWS Rebels Raise Flag On Gaddafi's Compound. http://t.co/KD86fNK
Humanism and Peace a Review of the World Humanist Congress in Oslo by Ellie Haycock http://t.co/RKCDQmU
RT @CERN: RT @gagnonpauline: New results, same uncertainty! Higgs boson has less space to hide but is still not showing up. http://ow.ly/6ae9b
RT @OU_Community: Reading material hard going? http://bit.ly/oSDjXm #OU_Studies ^HB
RT @jimmycarr: Rioters say 'everyone else was doing it' & 'I needed more money'. We've heard [t]hose excuses before. From MPs.
RT @RichardWiseman: I am at the Edinburgh Book Fest tonight debating the future of faith http://t.co/i8E5pDk
RT @rebeccawatson: The Pope in Spain: nuns doing the wave & police charging secular protesters http://t.co/YMdn6fh
RT @guardianscience: Response: We must focus on Anders Behring Breivik's personality as well as his politics | Carine Minne and M... http://t.co/udYKmge
RT @guardianscience: Think globally, top scientists tell graduates as research funding shrinks in UK http://t.co/HOTPnsu
RT @guardianscience: Archaeologists discover Roman port in Wales http://t.co/V8HY51r
King Arthur Pendragon loses human remains legal battle http://t.co/bjyVzyr
RT @BHAnews: Our chief exec @andrewcopson's video for #seculareurope is now up. Watch, share, RT and support the campaign! http://t.co/9U79pvb
RT @TheFreeth: Canadian man discovers the folly of taking photos where Muslims lurk http://t.co/OcRxjRf
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Join/Support the Secular-OU Today!!!
If you are a member or a supporter of the Secular-OU be sure to fill out our fantabulous NEW membership form so that we have a good idea of how big our numbers our and where abouts we should start setting up society events. Remember supporters and faculty members are welcome so make sure you're all on board.
Scroll down, answer the questions and don't forget to click submit at the end or else nothing will happen and we'll be all the sadder for it. :'(
Alternatively you can use this very same form on the join section of this blog or simply e-mail your membership to us here.
(If you can't see the form below please click [ctrl]+[F5] or failing that go to the 'join' link provided, above.)
Humanism and Peace a Review of the World Humanist Congress in Oslo by Ellie Haycock
Earlier this month, I was fortunate enough to attend the 18th World Humanist Congress in Oslo, hosted by the Norwegian Humanist Association (HEF). The HEF is the largest association in the world, with over 78,000 members.
The tragic events in Norway on 22nd July added new meaning to the theme of the Congress, Humanism and Peace, and further highlighted that there was no better place to host the event than Oslo. In the wake of the attacks, the Norwegian Prime Minister said that "the Norwegian response to violence is more democracy, more openness” and this attitude was certainly evident throughout the event.
The Congress was attended by several hundred humanists from all over the world, representing countries such as Uganda, Azerbaijan, Malawi and India, and included talks by biologist PZ Myers, BHA’s very own Richard Norman, and the controversial Johann Gultung, who certainly got everybody talking!
European Member of Parliament, Humanist of the Year and Secularist of Year Sophie in t’Veld also delivered an inspiring speech about the role of the EU in conflict prevention.
The Norwegians treated us to an evening reception with the Mayor of Oslo at City Hall which, rather appropriately, is the venue for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony. And to top it all off, a wonderful evening at the Opera House with dinner and awards – President of the EHF David Pollock was recognised with an award for over fifty years’ service to humanism!
It was fantastic to see humanism working at an international level and we were reminded by Taslima Nasrin that in some parts of the world, rejecting religion means facing persecution.
I was also fortunate enough to meet the manager of the Isaac Newton High School in Uganda, which is one of three humanist schools created in the country. For anyone who saw the BBC’s documentary ‘The World’s Worst Place to be Gay’, the need for schools in Uganda to teach liberal, humanist values needs no explanation.
It was also great to see such passionate people from all over the world come together. Overall, it was a fantastic event and I am very pleased to say that the next Congress, to be held in 2014, will be in Oxford. I hope to see you there!
Ellie Haycock is the Secular-OU's NEW Events Coordinator and general jetsetting adventurer.
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Newsletter/Blog Some Policy Changes by C.J. Wilton
Newsletter/Blog Changes.
Up until now we have been collecting articles for the newsletter and broadcasting them on the blog after publication. This has resulted in topical articles being published ridiculously late, so from here on in we will prioritise the blog over the newsletter.
This means that the newsletter will consist largely of abstracts with links leading to the relevant blog posts as well as updates on events and society notes. This will also, hopefully, make the newsletter much easier to write each month. The editorial will most likely remain original to the newsletter as will any and all letters and opinion pieces that come in.
Submissions.
We’ll also be developing some submissions polices, including – in the first instance – a word count of between 750-1000 (max.). This month saw Secretary Jonathan Lomax’s first blog post, an interesting back and forth with a fundamentalist.
Worthy as this article was it nevertheless came in at 5325 words which resulted in it dominating the blog feed. In future, articles of such size should be divided up into several parts and submitted periodically (apart from anything else, this actually allows us to schedule new posts several weeks in advance).
It's also an idea to keep the text generously spaced with a line break after 3-4 sentences (i.e. - loads of short paragraphs), this helps prevent articles from looking like solid walls of text.
I'll always do some token proofreading and editing whenever I read through a new article, I am far from perfect when it comes to slapdash grammar and spelling errors, but that shouldn't prevent anyone from posting. If I notice any errors I'll change them, if the true rendering of the sentence is too obscure for me to correct, I'll get in touch.
(If anyone else notices any such problems or any broken links, then please get in touch here (or flag them up as a comment) so that I can fix them.)
Contributors.
As ever, we're looking for contributors who are prepared to volunteer some of their time to fill our blog with interesting and engaging content. The more the merrier (it's actually quite an onerous task keeping a blog up to date).
Blogs are not only forums for news, but also for the expression of opinion and the development of ideas. As students we do that all the time, so feel free to talk about your current coursework, recent essays or ideas that have fired your imagination, especially if they have a bearing on secularism and other related topics. If you're unsure as to whether an article is appropriate pass it onto me here and I'll give it a read through.
Twitter Round Up.
James and I also agree that we should have a weekly round up of the best tweets we’ve seen on our feed. It seems a bit of a shame that these interesting news links should be restricted only to those members who use twitter, so once a week we’ll post a list of them up on the blog for a wider audience.
Free Schools - Just When We Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse by Jonathan Lomax
Sunday, 14 August 2011
The British Humanist Association’s Presidential Reception by Marguerita Gillespie
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
A lay man's response to a fundamentalist
Yesterday I received an email from a religous person who claimed to offer scientific proof of god's existence. Below is his email and my rebuttal.
His email
If a person opposes even the possibility of there being a God, then any evidence can be rationalized or explained away. It is like if someone refuses to believe that people have walked on the moon, and then no amount of information is going to change their thinking. Photographs of astronauts walking on the moon, interviews with the astronauts, moon rocks - all the evidence would be worthless because the person has already concluded that people cannot go to the moon.When it comes to the possibility of God's existence, the Bible says that there are people who have seen sufficient evidence, but they have suppressed the truth about God. (Romans 1:19-21). On the other hand, for those who want to know God if he is there, he says, "You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you" (Jeremiah 29:13-14). Before you look at the facts surrounding God's existence, ask yourself, If God does exist, would I want to know him? Here then, are some reasons to consider...
1. Does God exist? The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today.
Many examples showing God's design could be given, possibly with no end. But here are a few:
The Earth...its size is perfect. The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter (R.E.D. Clark, Creation (London: Tyndale Press, 1946), p. 20). Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.
The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. If it were any closer, we would burn up. Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible. The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph. It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.
And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents (The Wonders of God's Creation, Moody Institute of Science, Chicago, IL).
2. Does God exist? The universe had a start - what caused it?
Scientists are convinced that our universe began with one enormous explosion of energy and light, which we now call the Big Bang. This was the singular start to everything that exists: the beginning of the universe, the start of space, and even the initial start of time itself.
Astrophysicist Robert Jastrow, a self-described agnostic, stated, "The seed of everything that has happened in the Universe was planted in that first instant; every star, every planet and every living creature in the Universe came into being as a result of events that were set in motion in the moment of the cosmic explosion...The Universe flashed into being, and we cannot find out what caused that to happen."
Robert Jastrow; "Message from Professor Robert Jastrow"; LeaderU.com; 2002.
Steven Weinberg, a Nobel laureate in Physics, said at the moment of this explosion, "the universe was about a hundred thousands million degrees Centigrade...and the universe was filled with light" [Steven Weinberg; The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe; (Basic Books,1988); p 5.].
The universe has not always existed. It had a start...and what caused that? Scientists have no explanation for the sudden explosion of light and matter.
If I told you that the watch on my wrist was designed by a team of engineers, skillfully crafted by a team of highly trained technicians, sent to a jobber, and from there to the store where my wife bought it as a gift for me, would you believe me?
Well, let me tell you what really happened: Millions and millions of years ago there were atoms freely floating through the universe. Cosmic winds drew them together, clustering them into various materials: silicon, crystals, metals, and other various parts. Through the random effects of chance, over millions of years, of course, these various elements were thrown together in to his interesting device that now adorns my wrist, and it has been keeping accurate time ever since!
Ridiculous, isn’t it. The notion that this complex little device “happened” by the caprice of chance alone is, of course, absurd. It is obviously the object of careful and skillful design. Strange that we reject the notion that this watch happened by accident, yet it is vastly simpler than the wrist upon which it resides.
The watch is a simple “open loop” design. The wrist is a “closed loop” servo system, which is vastly more sophisticated. It adjust to ambient conditions, fights off invaders, even repairs itself and involves design elements we are only just now beginning to understand! Why is it that we require a designer to explain the origin of the watch, yet are willing to ascribe the biological systems which it adorns chance?
3. Does God exist? Design parameters of the universe.
The limits and parameters of the universe have come within the measuring capacity of astronomers and physicists, the design characteristics of the universe are being examined and acknowledged. Astronomers have discovered that the characteristics and parameters of the universe, and our solar system are so finely tuned to support life that nothing less than a personal, intelligent Creator can explain the degree of the universe being fine-tuned It requires power and purpose.
Approximately two dozen parameters of the universe have been identified that must be carefully fixed in order for any kind of conceivable life to exist at any time in the history of the universe. Here are a few examples of these given below.
1.Gravitational coupling constant. If larger: no stars less than 1.4 solar masses, hence short stellar life spans. If smaller: no stars more than 0.8 solar masses, hence no heavy element production.
2.Strong nuclear force coupling constant. If larger: no hydrogen; nuclei essential for life are unstable. If smaller: no elements other than hydrogen
3.Electromagnetic coupling constant. If larger: no chemical bonding; elements more massive than boron are unstable to fission. If smaller: no chemical bonding.
4.Ratio of protons to electrons. If larger: electromagnetism dominates gravity preventing galaxy, star and planet formation. If smaller: electromagnetism dominates gravity preventing galaxy, star, and planet formation.
5.Ratio of electron to proton mass. If larger: no chemical bonding. If smaller: no chemical bonding.
6.Expansion rate of the universe. If larger: no galaxy formation. If smaller: universe collapse prior to star formation.
7.Entropy level of the universe. If larger: no star condensation within the proto-galaxies. If smaller: no proto-galaxy formation.
8.Mass density of the universe. If larger: too much deuterium from big bang hence stars burn too rapidly. If smaller: no helium from big bang, hence not enough heavy elements.
9.Age of the universe. If older: no solar-type stars in a stable burning phase in the right part of the galaxy. If younger: solar-type stars in a stable burning phase would not yet have formed.
10.Average distance between stars. If larger: heavy elements density too thin for rocky planet production. If smaller: planetary orbits become destabilized.
11.Solar luminosity. If increases too soon: runaway green house effect. If increases too late: frozen oceans.
12.Fine structure constant (a function of three other fundamental constants, Planck’s constant, the velocity of light, and the electron charge each which, therefore, must be fine-tuned) If larger: no stars more than 0.7 solar masses, if smaller: not stars less than 1.8 solar masses.
13.Carbon to Oxygen energy level ratio. If larger: insufficient oxygen. If smaller: insufficient carbon.
14.Decay rate of proton. If greater: life would be exterminated by the release of radiation. If smaller: insufficient matter in the universe for life.
The degree of the universe being fine-tuned for many of these parameters is utterly amazing. For example, if the strong nuclear force were even two percent stronger or two percent weaker, the universe would never be able to support life. More astounding yet, the ground state energies for He, Be, C, and O cannot be higher or lower with respect to each other by more than four percent without yielding a universe with insufficient oxygen and/or carbon for any kind of life. The expansion rate of the universe is even more sensitive, it must be fine-tuned to an accuracy of one part in 1055! Clearly someingenious Designer must be involved in the physics of the universe.
4. Does God exist? Origin of life
Life. What is it? Where did it come from? What makes it different from dust, the air and the water on earth? From the time we humans achieve self awareness there develops a fascination with the things that crawl, slither, walk, swim and fly. This fascination with the “living protoplasm” on earth is basic to our constitution. This fascination with living things leads us all to the point when we ask “where did they come from?” The question of the origin of life has bee debated by philosophers, theologians, scientists for thousands of years and is at the very core of the debate between the atheists and the creationists. Creationists see the creation of life as powerful, visible, manifestation of an awesome designer, creator, God. To the creationist, life is the product of the greatest chemist, biologists, mathematician and engineer in or out of the universe! To the atheist, life is viewed as incredibly lucky result of billions of years and countless violations of the laws of nature acting on non-living matter. As some have put it, life is “The fortuitous occurrence of accidental circumstances.”
Atheists assume that 3 to 4 billion years ago, non-living, inanimate, inorganic matter developed into highly complex living organism, by random chance. No one knows where it happened, but it generally assumed to have occurred somewhere on earth, in a “primordial ooze”, near hot oceanic vents or some shallow tidal pool. No designer, no blue prints, no instructions, no concept or purpose are allowed in the evolutionary scenario of the origin of life. Only the laws of nature, random chance and long periods of time are allowed to act on the raw materials of life.
5. Does God exist? The DNA code informs, programs a cell's behavior.
All instruction, all teaching, all training comes with intent. Someone who writes an instruction manual does so with purpose. Did you know that in every cell of our bodies there exists a very detailed instruction code, much like a miniature computer program? As you may know, a computer program is made up of ones and zeros, like this: 110010101011000. The way they are arranged tell the computer program what to do. The DNA code in each of our cells is very similar. It's made up of four chemicals that scientists abbreviate as A, T, G, and C. These are arranged in the human cell like this: CGTGTGACTCGCTCCTGAT and so on. There are three billion of these letters in every human cell!
Well, just like you can program your phone to beep for specific reasons, DNA instructs the cell. DNA is a three-billion-lettered program telling the cell to act in a certain way. It is a full instruction manual.
Why is this so amazing? One has to ask....how did this information program wind up in each human cell? These are not just chemicals. These are chemicals that instruct, that code in a very detailed way exactly how the person's body should develop.
Natural, biological causes are completely lacking as an explanation when programmed information is involved. You cannot find instruction, precise information like this, without someone intentionally constructing it.
6. Does God exist? Encyclopedia on a Pinhead: Chance or design?
At the moment of conception, a fertilized human egg is about the size of a pin head. Yet, it contains information equivalent to about six billion “chemical letters.” This is enough information to fill 1000 books, 500 pages thick with print so small you would need a microscope to read it! If all the DNA chemical “letters” in the human body were printed in books, it is estimated they would will the Grand Canyon 50 times!
The information on the DNA molecule is transferred to RNA and ultimately to proteins in the form of structural and functional proteins. A fundamental dilemma for the evolution theory is that the duplication and translation of the information on the DNA molecule requires the employment of proteins. However, living cells cannot make proteins until the DNA replication and translation machinery is in place! The only rational explanation for this dilemma is that the protein production and DNA replication and translation machinery system arose simultaneously! This could only happen by design.
Question: Would a DNA molecule that arose by chance posses any information, codes, programs, or instructions? According to the basic principles of information theory the answer is clearly NO!
7. Does God exist? A Complex Engineering Puzzle
Suppose you were asked to take two long stands of fisherman’s monofilament line, 125 miles long, then form it into a double helix structure and neatly fold and pack this line so it would fit into a basketball.
Furthermore, you would need to ensure that the double helix could be unzipped and duplicated along the length of this line, and the duplicate copy removed, all without tangling the line. Possible? This is directly analogous to what happens in the billions of cells in your body every day. Scale the basketball down to the size of a human cell and the line scales down to six feet of DNA.
All of this DNA must be packed so the regulator proteins that control making copies of the DNA have access to it. The DNA packing process is both complex and elegant and is so efficient that it achieves a reduction in length of DNA by a factor of one million. When the cell needs to divide, the entire length of DNA must be split apart, duplicated and repackaged for each daughter cell. No one knows exactly how cells solve this topological nightmare, but the solution clearly starts with the special spools on which the DNA is wound.
Each spool carries two “turns” of DNA, and the spools themselves are stacked together in groups of six or eight. The human cell uses about 25 million of them to keep its DNA under control. DNA is wound around histones to form nucleosomes. These are organized into solenoids, which in turn compose chromatin loops. Each element in this complex, yet highly organized arrangement is carefully designed to play a key role in the cell replication process.
8. Does God exist? Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us.
Why Jesus? Look throughout the major world religions and you'll find that Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius and Moses all identified themselves as teachers or prophets. None of them ever claimed to be equal to God. Surprisingly, Jesus did. That is what sets Jesus apart from all the others. He said God exists and you're looking at him. Though he talked about his Father in heaven, it was not from the position of separation, but of very close union, unique to all humankind. Jesus said that anyone who had seen Him had seen the Father, anyone who believed in him, believed in the Father.
He said, "I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12). He claimed attributes belonging only to God: to be able to forgive people of their sin, free them from habits of sin, give people a more abundant life and give them eternal life in heaven. Unlike other teachers who focused people on their words, Jesus pointed people to himself. He did not say, "follow my words and you will find truth." He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me" (John 14:6).
What proof did Jesus give for claiming to be divine? He did what people can't do. Jesus performed miracles. He healed people... the blind, crippled, deaf, even raised a couple of people from the dead. He had power over objects, and created food out of thin air, enough to feed crowds of several thousand people. He performed miracles over nature, walked on top of a lake, commanding a raging storm to stop for some friends. People everywhere followed Jesus because he constantly met their needs, doing the miraculous. He said if you do not want to believe what I'm telling you, you should at least believe in me based on the miracles you're seeing (John 14:11).
Jesus Christ showed God to be gentle, loving, aware of our self-centeredness and shortcomings, yet deeply wanting a relationship with us. Jesus revealed that although God views us as sinners, worthy of his punishment, his love for us ruled and God came up with a different plan. God himself took on the form of man and accepted the punishment for our sin on our behalf. Sounds ludicrous? Perhaps, but many loving fathers would gladly trade places with their child in a cancer ward if they could. The Bible says that the reason we would love God is because he first loved us.
Jesus died in our place so we could be forgiven. Of all the religions known to humanity, only through Jesus will you see God reaching toward humanity, providing a way for us to have a relationship with him. Jesus proves a divine heart of love, meeting our needs, drawing us to himself. Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, he offers us a new life today. We can be forgiven, fully accepted by God and genuinely loved by God. He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you" (Jeremiah 31:3). This is God, in action.
Does God exist? If you want to know, investigate Jesus Christ. We're told that "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
God does not force us to believe in him, though he could. Instead, he has provided sufficient proof of his existence for us to willingly respond to him. The earth's perfect distance from the sun, the unique chemical properties of water, the human brain, DNA, the number of people who attest to knowing God, the gnawing in our hearts and minds to determine if God is there, the willingness for God to be known through Jesus Christ.
If you want to begin a relationship with God now, you can.
This is your decision, but if you want to be forgiven by God and come into a relationship with him, you can do so right now by asking him to forgive you and come into your life. Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door [of your heart] and knock. He who hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him [or her]" (Revelation 3:20). If you want to do this, but aren't sure how to put it into words, this may help: "Jesus, thank you for dying for my sins. You know my life and that I need to be forgiven. I ask you to forgive me right now and come into my life. I want to know you in a real way. Come into my life now. Thank you that you wanted a relationship with me. Amen."
God views your relationship with him as permanent. Referring to all those who believe in him, Jesus Christ said of us, "I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27-29).
So, does God exist? Looking at all these facts, one can conclude that a loving God does exist and can be known in an intimate, personal way.
My responce:
Hi
1. Does God exist? The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today.
2. Does God exist? The universe had a start - what caused it?
5. Does God exist? The DNA code informs, programs a cell's behavior.
8. Does God exist? Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us.
Wednesday, 27 July 2011
Blood, Bombs and Bullets: Cowardice in the Face of Terrorism by C.J. Wilton
I suppose it’s time I offered an opinion on the Oslo massacre. I’m never been much of a devotee of contemporary, up to the minute, news articles as they have a tendency to be filled with conjecture and hearsay. Give me history any day, when the facts are more-or-less established and the experts have rendered their analysis to parchment.
As such, I enter this discussion with a personal air of intrigue and mischief, offering opinions so soon after the fact. Why? Well, because I have a personal and somewhat mercenary interest in the events of the last few days. Our own Ellie Haycock is already booked to attend the World Humanist Congress, that is (or was?) to take place in Oslo, in a few weeks time; and I myself – dithering as I do – have yet to make a decision on whether or not to go too.
This could be for any number of reasons, the most likely one being concern for my own safety, but as I’m not directly privy to that information, I can only conjecture. Indeed I haven’t been so unsure as to my own motivations (or lack of them), since I decided to become vegetarian several months back.
Personal cowardice seems the most primal and therefore the most likely cause, but there is also a sense of ambivalence over attending the congress that predates recent events. I am fast becoming an impoverished student and one that is – perhaps unusually – apathetic to travel. I have never caught a plane or lived in a foreign country on my own, which could itself be another source of fear, enhancing and inflating that of the terrorist attack.
Yet, if we let fear govern our actions we let the terrorists win, as a friend informs me. A glib sentiment when one is not the principle agent of the choice on the table, but a compelling one, nevertheless. I am a firm proponant of the sentiment - often attributed to Edmund Burke - that: all it takes for evil to thrive is for good men to do nothing. The trouble is, I was never wholly intent on going in the first place, but now – for ideological reasons – I feel compelled to attend, to show the flag and do what I feel to be right, regardless of all prior considerations. I'm staring into a deep chasm and am tempted to jump!
There is a real danger here analogous to that of Anders Behring Breivik himself, the danger of making a knee-jerk, irrational and polar-decision based on sentiment and ideological frustration. In his case it was to kill innocent people to highlight his ideological concerns, in my case I now feel compelled to reciprocate in the most obvious and formulaic manner to juxtapose this madness at the risk of expending resources that I can not afford to lose.
The comparison seems trivial but I think they are logically equivalent; we are both jumping to an extreme to ensure that our ideologies are acknowledged, the only difference is one of degree. I expend money to validate my views, where as Breivik expends lives. Of course, the latter is morally repugnant, abhorrent, diabolical; but that does not affect the logic of the respective scenarios.
It is this desire to assume the polar opposite position of people and ideologies we find despicable that drives us into folly. In an article today, neurologist and renowned horseman of New Atheism, Sam Harris speculated that this incident will be the trigger to a whole new round of apologetics in favour of Islam by moral relativists who call themselves liberals. People who will defend Sharia Law and the rights of Muslim extremists to belittle, beat, torture, maim and murder women, children and homosexuals in the name of cultural diversity. – A knee-jerk reaction to one deluded, right-wing, Christian, terrorist; who himself took a violent, knee-jerk reaction against those he saw as enemies of the Christian-West; expounding his own dogmas in blood, bombs and bullets in the best traditions of religious extremism.
In the words of Penn Jillette, “The lesser of two evils is still evil and the enemy of my enemy is not my friend.” – We need to recognise that swinging, pendulously, between extremes like some morally grotesque human-tabloid, may be easy, even intuitive, but that does not make it right. Reason and evidence, applied in the most unbiased and objective manner, is – as ever – far superior to decisions based on emotionalism, sentiment and faith. Had we been built by any sane creator, the former would naturally precede the latter; but we are not. We are evolved survival machines, prejudiced, simplistic and crude; but we have, through natural selection, developed faculties that outstrip those baser instincts. – It’s long past time they became ubiquitous throughout society.
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Then what are you for?!! by Stephen Fry.
A new animated short, created from the Intelligence Squared debate that took place on the 19th October 2009. It saw able humanists Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry square off against the truly baffled Archbishop Onaiyekan, who couldn't seem to comprehend why the Catholic Church was under fire from every morally minded person in the world; and the truly baffling tory MP Anne Widdecombe, whose infamous reputation precedes her.
(If you can't view embedding click here.)
The motion: "The Catholic church is a force for good in the world." This short is presented as a back and forth between Fry and Widdecombe which is not true to the formulaic format of the debate, but nevertheless gives an impression of the total arse kicking the Catholic quarter took that night.
The chairperson: Zeinab Badawi.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Walking the Ancestor’s Trail by Estelle Tidey.
The long May Bank Holiday weekend was just beginning, and I was setting off on a train heading into the unfamiliar territory of Somerset. Though I'd brought my OU textbooks with me with the optimistic intention of doing some revision for an upcoming exam, it wasn't long before I was absorbed in Richard Dawkins' book on evolution, The Ancestor's Tale. Dawkins takes the reader on an imagined pilgrimage, beginning at the tip of our particular branch of the evolutionary tree and progressing backwards through 3.5 billion years to the beginning of life itself. Along the way, the pilgrims encounter their common ancestors (“concestors”) with various living creatures; first the chimpanzees, our closest relatives, followed by other groups of primates, mammals, birds, fish, insects, plants and finally the bacteria.
I'd brought The Ancestor's Tale with me because it had inspired the event which I was on my way to participate in. First held in 2010, the “Ancestor's Trail” walk is the idea of a local science teacher and humanist, Chris Jenord. The trail represents the evolutionary tree described in Dawkins' book overlaid on the footpaths of the Quantock Hills (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), a secular pilgrimage for science enthusiasts, environmentalists, the non-religious and anyone who enjoys being outdoors in the natural world. As all of the above, it sounded like a perfect opportunity to take part in my first humanist event.
Participants could select their walk from trails of varying lengths, named after life-forms represented on the branches of the tree – rodents, butterflies, fungi – but I'd signed up for the full-day experience of the 13.5 mile Human Trail. After being dropped off by coach at the meeting point near Kingston St Mary, we were ready to set off for our first rendezvous – with our closest relatives, the chimpanzees and bonobos – but we'd hardly walked more than a few steps before a startling fact was revealed; each step was taking us back 10,000 years into the past. Not only this, but the trail was operating on three different scales in order to ensure enough spacing between encounters with our most recent concestors. By the end of the trail, our steps would have expanded to a million years in length - and after a day's walking, would feel like it!
We soon met up with the Chimps and were entertained by a short talk about our common ancestry and by singing from the BHA Choir, who performed the first part of a song specially composed for the Trail. Music was an important part of the trail experience – as we progressed we were rewarded by the gradual expansion of the choir as more singers joined the party, plus folk music from a local group, Soulcake, the rhythmic sound of an African/Brazilian harp played by Michael Ray with a chance to sing along and, in honour of the Butterfly Conservation charity for which walkers were raising money, Jonny Berliner's “Large Blue Butterfly Blues” (written from the perspective of an ant who'd fallen victim to the butterfly's extraordinary life cycle). Other living creatures were represented by Ian Heals' four birds of prey, which were waiting for us at our meeting point with the Birds, and by several enthusiastic dogs who'd come along with their owners.
As the afternoon lengthened into evening, the trail passed through Kilve village and, after picking up our last group of fellow pilgrims, the Bacteria, ended at Kilve Beach. There, the tired walkers were able to sit down, relax and enjoy more music from the trail performers before heading back for a party and dancing to the blues band the Treefrogs.
The next morning, sore feet got a rest as we heard Dr Dan Danahar speaking on the Large Blue Butterfly and the butterfly conservation project he'd been working on in Brighton. Rather amazingly, he had managed to persuade the school where he works to dig up large areas of the grounds to create a haven for butterflies, resulting in a massive increase in biodiversity. Dan's talk was followed by Dr Jon Bridle speaking on evolution.
Soon I was back on the train home with some great memories – the moment of realisation that all of recorded human history had passed by in my first step along the trail, the sun breaking through the overcast clouds over a stunning view from the hills, the music, the fascinating facts of evolution, being able to sit down and enjoy a slice of pizza at the end of the trail and most of all the welcoming atmosphere and friendliness of the other walkers. I even found out that a secular group exists within the OU. I'm looking forward to returning next year – hope you can join me there!