Recently Peter Cresswell published a guest post by James Valliant, which originally appeared on SOLO. The following series is a critique of this piece. Valliant’s basic thesis is that, Both science and freedom came about among European Christians despite the best efforts of pious Christians to prevent their development, and only on a foundation of […]
Entries Tagged as 'History'
Freedom, Science and Christianity: A Response to James Valliant Part I
February 12th, 2010 14 Comments
Tags: Christian History · Dark Ages · David Lindberg · Enlightenment · Founding Fathers · James Hannam · James Valliant · Libertarianism · Liberty · Peter Cresswell · Regine Pernoud · Science and Religion · SOLO
Sovereignty and The Treaty of Waitangi
February 6th, 2010 18 Comments
In the Theory of Morality, Alan Donagan has a concise discussion of the morality of contracts. At one point he makes the following plausible argument, Obviously, the normal conditions of the existence of a contract are not fulfilled if the promisee misunderstands what the promiser intends. … a promiser is morally bound to perform whatever […]
Tags: Alan Donagan · Jurisprudence · Sovereignty · Treaty of Waitangi
Tune in to Marae Tomorrow
February 5th, 2010 9 Comments
Yesterday Matt and I participated in filming a debate on the Treaty of Waitangi. The moot was “That the Treaty of Waitangi is holding NZ back.” There were four panelists, Stephen Franks, Tim Wikiriwhi, Matthew Hooten and Hana O’Regan and an active audience, of which Matt and I were asked to be members of to […]
Tags: Hana O'Regan · John Minto · Marae · Matthew Hooten · Shane Taurima · Stephen Franks · Tim Wikiriwhi · Treaty of Waitangi · TV One · TVNZ
Contra Mundum: The Flat-Earth Myth
December 1st, 2009 218 Comments
A while back I made a passing comment on my blog criticising an advertisement which claimed that, prior to Columbus, the Church taught that the world was flat. In response I received the following email from a high-school student in the US, I’ve been studying Christopher Columbus in my history class and my history books […]
Tags: Christian History · Contra Mundum · flat earth · Investigate Magazine · Science and Religion · Selection · Urban Myths
Guest Post: Dan Brown’s History of Science
October 23rd, 2009 135 Comments
This guest post was submitted by Dr James Hannam. Dr Hannam is a UK based historian with degrees in physics and history from the Universities of Oxford and London and a PhD in the history of science from the University of Cambridge. He blogs at Quodlibeta. The film adaptation of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons […]
Tags: Christian History · Dan Brown · Faith and Reason · Guest Post · James Hannam · Religious History · Science and Religion
Common Historical Myths About the Church
October 19th, 2009 5 Comments
This post is part update, part recycle. Earlier on in this blog’s life, I ran a small series of posts last year on common historical myths about the Church that are so pervasive in society that most Christians fall for them. Anyway, after receiving some correspondence, I have updated this post, More on the “Dark […]
Tags: Christian Blogs · Christian History · Dark · Dark Ages · Faith and Reason · Science and Religion
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
Guest Post: Tim Wikiriwhi Reviews The Great Waitangi Debate (Uncut)
February 10th, 2010 33 Comments
On Waitangi Day, Saturday 6 Feb, TV One aired “The Great Waitangi Debate” on their Marae Program in which Matt and I were audience members. Panelist Tim Wikiriwhi (who won the MandM award for being the most inflammatory speaker of the day) has submitted his review as a guest post. Other blogs have published bits […]
Tags: Eq · Guest Post · Mare · Tim Wikiriwhi · Treaty of Waitangi · TV One · TVNZ