The Inadequancy of Jesus’ Sacrifice

My TikTok has finally figured out that I am interested in religious debate. And the video it has presented to me today that has sparked a rebuttal in me is the claim that Jesus’ Sacrifice was not actually to done on the Cross, but to be born at all; it was the choice to become…

Pascal’s Wager is a lie

Pascal’s Wager is a lie. Here’s the issue: the wager is essentially a gambling matrix, with two options in reality and two options that you can believe in. The two possible realities are Christianity or Atheism (if you’re a Muslim, the options are Islam and Atheism ― continue to substitute your own God in as…

Is there a supernatural realm?

Watching a debate between Matt Dillahunty and Mike Licona on whether Jesus was raised from the dead was a weird experience. Licona’s approach relied heavily on the supernatural is real therefore literally anything could have happened. And his defence for the supernatural also helped a lot in defining the supernatural. And it is to that…

What is Beautiful about Determinism?

The beauty of determinism is hidden in the tragedy and injustice of freewill. I don’t believe in freewill (but I do believe it is one word). More importantly than that, I don’t see ‘no freewill’ (“determinism”) as a miserable or stale thing. The implicit assumption (and explicit in the full question asked: “God gave us…

No Contemporary Accounts of Jesus (nor Edith)

There are no contemporary accounts of the life of Jesus Christ. That matters. The normal rebuttal is to call that a lie and cite Josephus and Tacitus. However, Tacitus was born in AD 56 and Josephus was born in AD 37. Jesus died aged 33. The friendliest estimate of Jesus’ year of birth is AD…

How is Western Civilisation is Evidence of Jesus Christ?

Whether or not Jesus Christ existed is not that important a claim. After all, Muslims believe a historical character called Jesus existed, as do the Jews. Evidence that Jesus existed is not important, and without evidence of miracle it doesn’t begin to support any religion. I happen to believe that the Jesus narrative is a…

The Buddhist Christian, on LSD

Any moral message that can be taken from Christianity is immediately undermined by the fact Christianity holds the loophole to entire avoid moral judgement: faith. A good person receives no rewards if they are not faithful, and a bad person receives no punishment if they are faithful. I’ve argued before that this is the catastrophic…

xPrae: how I defeated you so soundly (part 4: What does Compassion Look Like?)

There are many Christians who read their Bible in an incredibly specific and generally good way. I argue this method is not Biblical, but it is good. This good method is to find Jesus’ command to “love thy neighbour” and to assume “neighbour” means “all fellow human beings”. Jesus, thus, commanded ‘universal love and compassion’,…

Confession: after 5 weeks working out of a Catholic school’s grounds

I am currently working in a managerial role in a Catholic School. I'm not actually working for the Catholic School, I am working for a separate organisation that is renting the site for during the Summer Holidays. And in the spirit on being in a Catholic environment, I thought I might give a small series…

“All religions are true, in that the metaphor is true”?

When responding to Stephen Fry’s prose on a “stupid God”, Russell Brand shared a quote that pops in and out of the public consciousness: all religions are true, in that the metaphor is true. The actual quote is “Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it…