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Thumbnail image for Grayling’s Secular ‘Bible’ – A Good Book?

Grayling’s Secular ‘Bible’ – A Good Book?

In publishing his godless Bible for those with no faith, A. C. Grayling may have expected a mixed reception. The ‘religious Bible’ (as he calls the Christian original) often sparks controversy, so one might have assumed that his would prompt a powerful reaction.

But although there have been eyebrows raised, support given, and criticism levelled, I can’t help feeling that there is something a little flat about it all. Perhaps it is because we are in the midst of celebrating the 400-year anniversary of the King James translation of the Bible with its majestic impact on the English language, that one struggles to muster any strong reaction to this book. One of the repeated observations made about Grayling’s moral guide for atheists is that it just doesn’t seem to be as good or interesting as the original.

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Thumbnail image for Summer 2011 – Michael Writes…

Summer 2011 – Michael Writes…

As we reach the summer there is a great deal of excitement about the many activities that we are involved with. Our team has taken part in a number of missions across the UK, including Sheffield, Canterbury and Leyland, and it has been a delight to see people both coming to the Lord and signing up to the follow-up courses.

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One Way

Have you ever met someone and sensed that they are very suspicious of you? When my boys began their first year at school last term I made lots of new friends as I got to know the other parents. One mother seemed to take an immediate dislike to me and although I tried to be friendly, I struggled to make conversation.

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God are you there?

I found myself watching the Channel 4 programme One Born Every Minute this week. Over the course of an hour I laughed cried and winced as we watched an incredibly diverse selection of women giving birth to their babies in NHS hospitals. While the church in China sees someone become a Christian every 30 seconds and the hospitals in our own country see a baby born every minute I started to wonder how often new birth is occurring here in Britain.

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Does Prayer Make Any Difference?

There is an immense difference between a worldview that is not able to answer every question to complete satisfaction and one whose answers are consistently contradictory. There is an even greater difference between answers that contain paradoxes and those that are systemically irreconcilable.

Once again, the Christian faith stands out as unique in this test, both as a system of thought and in the answers it gives. Christianity does not promise that you will have every question fully answered to your satisfaction before you die, but the answers it gives are consistently consistent. There may be paradoxes within Christian teaching and belief, but they are not irreconcilable. To those who feel that Christianity has failed them because of prayers that went unanswered, it is important to realize what I am saying here.

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Thumbnail image for Does the Bible Condone Slavery?

Does the Bible Condone Slavery?

Every thinking reader of the Bible is bound to ask at some point in time, “Does this book actually condone slavery?”. To be sure, slavery is not the only issue the Bible causes us to question. The Old Testament is rife with palace intrigues, polygamy, divorce, violence and the like, and godly people are very often part of the problem. Although the New Testament is decidedly improved, it still seems to fall far short of that which twenty-first century human rights would expect. There are no women among the twelve disciples of Jesus and Christian masters do have slaves working for them.

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Thumbnail image for Lecture with Professor Alister McGrath – Lanier Theological Library

Lecture with Professor Alister McGrath – Lanier Theological Library

In his most recent book, The Passionate Intellect: Christian Faith and the Discipleship of the Mind, Alister McGrath discusses theology as a discipline that not only informs and sustains the Christian vision of reality, but also serves a passion of the mind to understand God’s nature and ways. While proposing that vibrant theology can have [...]

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Thumbnail image for Who Lit the Blue Touch Paper? God, Hawking, and the Big Bang

Who Lit the Blue Touch Paper? God, Hawking, and the Big Bang

If you are interested in science and religion then it will probably not have escaped your attention that Stephen Hawking, arguably the most famous scientist in the world, has recently written a new book (co-authored by Leonard Mlodinow), entitled The Grand Design. A number of commentators highlighted the physicist’s supposed shift in thinking from a position that theoretically left the door open to the possibility of there being a creator (when he hinted in A Brief History of Time that scientific developments might help us to “know the mind of God”), to now saying that a deity is no longer needed as an explanation for the universe, because the physical laws of nature themselves can explain how everything here began. Although his earlier reference to a creator was almost certainly meant in a metaphorical sense, this latest work leaves the reader in no doubt about his position, as he says “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going”.

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