Freedom had been hunted round the globe; reason was considered as rebellion; and the slavery of fear had made men afraid to think. But such is the irresistible nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
~ Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791 ~

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Morality and Atheism

If you have read any material from believers on the topic of morality you will no doubt be familiar with the idea that morality requires or implies the existence of a god, and the idea that we get our morals from God and/or the Bible. I disagree with both of these ideas, and in this article I will offer some reasons why.

Morality is a deep and complex subject, so consider this merely an introduction to my views and reasoning on this broad topic, at this point in time. I claim no particular expertise, and my views will likely continue to evolve over time.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Thinking On Purpose

As someone who no longer believes in some kind of afterlife, I quite often come across the claim that life without belief in God or an afterlife must be meaningless and without purpose. I think the fundamental problem with this claim is that it is self-fulfilling. It is only true if you believe it to be true. But you don't have to believe it. There are other ways to look at meaning and purpose, just as there are evidently many ways to live a fulfilling life.

In this article I want to explore some of my current thoughts on meaning and purpose, especially in the context of someone who has left a strict, dogmatic, fundamentalist religion and way of life, and who must now navigate a somewhat unfamiliar world, and a new set of challenges.

Tuesday, November 6, 2018

10 Signs Your Religion May Be Harmful

No one knowingly joins a cult and no group has ever admitted to being one. The cult label is so despised that even groups that are widely regarded as cults will go out of their way to explain why they are not a cult. Thus it is not helpful to speak of "cults" at all. Every cult in existence can point to one or more features of other cults that they do not share, and their members undoubtedly do not think they are members of a cult.

So instead I want to list some common features of groups that are generally considered harmful and potentially unsafe. There are several such lists online and many of them offer some combination of the features listed below.

If you recognise similarities between the warning signs listed below and your own ecclesia or even the Christadelphian religion as a whole, then perhaps it is time to ask yourself some critical questions or seek a second opinion from a counsellor or third party outside the religion.

Thursday, October 11, 2018

What if ... ?

“What if Jesus soon returns and you are left behind?
What if you are judged and your eternal life declined?
What if the kingdom really comes and loud you hear the shout?
What if the Christos enter in but you yourself miss out?”


Sunday, July 1, 2018

Divinely Inspired Iron Age Morals?

If a book really was inspired by an all-knowing, perfect god, how would we go about finding out? After all, several books from different religions make this claim, but how do we determine which of them, if any, actually live up to it?

In the case of the Bible, we know the individual books were literally written by humans. The only question we need to answer is about where they got their information from. Did a god really tell them what to write? or did their words have a rather more human origin?

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Why Do Christadelphians Believe?

Even though most Christadelphians might say they believe because of prophecy, or because of current events, I don't think that is actually the case. Most Christadelphians believe quite simply because they happened to be born into Christadelphian families, were taught Christadelphian doctrines from a young age, and were raised in a largely Christadelphian culture. The evidence is clear. Had they not been born into such an environment, it is almost certain they would not be Christadelphians today.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Why I Think The Christadelphians Are Wrong

Pardon the provocative headline. In this article I will show why I believe the Christadelphian religion is founded on falsehood, using several distinct lines of evidence.

It is my hope that, even if you still remain a Christadelphian, you will take the time to look into each of these areas in detail, and enrich your understanding of what you believe, why you believe it, and how well it aligns (or doesn't align) with the nature of reality.

Monday, April 16, 2018

Does It Matter If Christadelphians Don't Have The Truth?

As someone who grew up in a Christadelphian environment I understand how compelling the religion can feel, and how it all seems to make so much sense of the world and of life. It provides an all-encompassing narrative that informs not only your purpose but also the purpose of the entire cosmos as well as your place in it.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Bad Creationist Arguments: If you can't explain "how" it happened, then it didn't happen?

They don't know how the window
smashed. Does that mean it didn't?
One of the more common arguments used by creationists to try to undermine evolution is that if someone cannot explain every detail about how something evolved, therefore it didn't evolve, and by extension the theory of evolution is flawed.

This argument is invalid, and I will show you some reasons why.

Bad Creationist Arguments: If we find a flaw in evolution, creation wins by default?

Creationists typically resort to arguments to try to undermine evolution, thinking that if they can find flaws in evolutionary theory, creation wins by default.

This is a logical fallacy known as a False Dichotomy or False Dilemma, which is also a type of Non-Sequitur (meaning the conclusion does not follow from the premise). A "true" dichotomy would be one in which it is known that there are only two possible options. In the case of creation vs evolution, there may be a third possibility (and indeed other ideas have been put forward throughout history), or even hundreds of other possibilities (however unlikely), and thus the idea that, "if evolution is flawed then creation wins", is a false dichotomy.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Why doesn't prayer work?

I realise most believers argue that prayer really does work, but how many have considered how they might go about actually verifying the efficacy of prayer?

If it works better than blind chance, as many claim it does, then we should be able to measure and demonstrate that. If we measure it and find that it works at about the rate of chance, shouldn't we conclude that it doesn't work? If you're honest, you'll realise very quickly that this is exactly what we find!

Why do we need saving in the first place?

I sometimes think it would be nice if there was an all-loving, all-powerful being who was fully in control of everything that happened. I can see the allure in such a belief, as a way of consoling oneself about the seeming chaos and uncertainty that surrounds us at times. In a world that can seem so out-of-control, it can be comforting to imagine that there is an all-powerful mastermind at the helm, silently but calmly working out some great plan.

But as enticing as this view might be, it never translates to belief for me, and the illusion always vanishes as soon as I give it a moment's thought. The picture is too simplistic, too disconnected from reality, and the problems with it too numerous, to warrant serious belief. It's like a fairy tale, intended to bring comfort and reassurance but then failing to deliver on its promise.

Where is all the evidence?

Why is it that virtually all religions have moved towards belief in invisible, undetectable gods rather than visible, detectable ones?

In the Bible, God is often found on mountain tops or in the clouds. But he was suddenly relocated into space once we invented flight. Since then he has been moved further still after the discovery of other galaxies and an entire universe.