Originally printed in Gair Rhydd, 28th April 2011. There are three kinds of lies, the saying goes: lies, damned lies and statistics. One statistic has proved particularly controversial: the 2001 census found that 72% of the population described themselves as “Christian”. With the 2011 census, the fight is on to get it changed. “If you’re […]
Article written for Gair Rhydd, published 11th October 2010:Cuts are everywhere, but the arts and humanities have their head against the block. With plans to cut its funding by as much as 25%, they are treated as an expensive luxury rather than a vital part of our national life. I’ve just returned to university to […]
The Pope’s visit is imminent, and on cue, The Guardian has more than its usual quotient of articles bashing religion and waving the flag for secularism. Polly Toynbee has a particularly entertaining specimen, Sex and death lie at the poisoned heart of religion. Here’s the opening paragraph: A dispute with BBC TV’s religious slot, Sunday […]
I’ve just finished watching the election debate between David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Gordon Brown, and I just want to get down some thoughts before reading the inevitable frenzy of analysis and having my impressions influenced by all the discussion. The first question is, did it work as a debate? The discussion wasn’t as in-depth […]
I’m always excited to see Christians engaging with contemporary issues, so I was very pleased to see that Evangelical Alliance Wales are launching the Cymru Institute for Contemporary Christianity (CICC for short – “Cymru” means “Wales” in Welsh, by the way). Kicking off CICC, a series of events was held across Wales, including a Question […]
Blaise Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher, wrote a fragmentary set of thoughts that he planned to develop into a defence of the Christian faith, but never finished called Pensées. He has many interesting observations and ideas on all sorts of subjects – it’s almost as if he’d written a blog! Part of Pascal’s brilliance […]
There are two mistakes people make about Muslims: one is thinking that every Muslim wants Islam to rule the world, and one is thinking that no Muslim wants Islam to rule the world. Islam is a missionary religion, and one that doesn’t allow the easy compartmentalising of life into sacred and secular. Even in Western […]
I listen to a lot of talks, lectures, sermons, podcasts and stuff on my mp3 player, so I was very annoyed when it stopped working a couple of months ago. Yesterday, I finally got it back in working order having sent it to be repaired, so I went online and downloaded around 50 mp3s to […]
Infamous Doctor Who novelist turned blogger and self-styled “uneasy conscience of fandom” Lawrence Miles has a fascinating blog post on the future, both the future as depicted by Doctor Who and “The actual future – the one where we’ll be spending the rest of our lives, unless Bill Gates’ new masterplan to save the world […]
Continuing my thoughts on faith and politics… Tom Price over on his blog A Better Hope asks some Worldview Level Questions About Secular Democracy: Hazel Blears said, ‘We live in a secular democracy.’ But does she live in an ‘outside, inside’ ? Let me explain. The concept of secular democracy that she has articulated, has […]
