Today I reflect, as do many, where I was and what I was doing when I first heard about the attacks on the World Trade Tower. Like my parents generation’s remembrance of where they were and what they were doing when Kennedy was assassinated and their parents remembrance of the news of V-Day this was […]
Entries Tagged as 'History'
The Foreshore and Seabed Repeal: The Inconvenience of Due Process
July 2nd, 2009 14 Comments
That the state is not above the law but also subject to it is surely one of the foundational concepts of any just and free society. This notion has found its place in the writings of many influential philosophers, jurists and theologians, it can be found in the constitutions and bills of rights of most […]
Tags: Foreshore and Seabed · Human Rights · Jurisprudence · Justice · Liberty · Māori Land · Ngāti Apa
ANZAC Day: Lest we Forget or Have we Already?
April 25th, 2009 8 Comments
In ‘MCMXIV’ Philip Larkin describes the queues to enlist at the start of the first World War: The crowns of hats, the sun On moustached archaic faces Grinning as if it were all An August Bank Holiday lark His late-century comment was “Never such innocence again.” When I read these words in Jonathan Glover’s Humanity […]
Tags: ANZAC Day · World War I
Maori and Pakeha are Not Partners to the Treaty of Waitangi
February 11th, 2009 20 Comments
[For the benefit of our international readership: Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand; Pakeha is a term used to describe Caucasian New Zealanders; The Treaty of Waitangi is a significant founding document of our nation over which many historical and current differences have arisen around its role, interpretation and application.] Recently I read […]
Tags: Jurisprudence · Role of the State · Treaty of Waitangi
Two Minutes Silence
November 11th, 2008 3 Comments
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we take two minutes silence to remember the armistice signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne, France for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, the end of World War One, effective at 11am, 90 years ago today. So many died […]
Tags: Winston Churchill · World War I
More on the “Dark Ages” and Other Propaganda
September 27th, 2008 13 Comments
Those of you who have followed my discussions with Peter Cresswell on the history of Christianity and the relationship between faith and reason in the middle ages may find this abridged article by Dr James Hannam interesting. Dr Hannam has recently completed his PhD on the History of Science at the University of Cambridge. UPDATE: […]
Tags: Christian History · Dark Ages · Faith and Reason · James Hannam · Science and Religion
The “Dark Ages” and Other Propaganda
April 22nd, 2008 12 Comments
Perhaps I am a glutton for punishment, but I have been having an interesting dialogue with Peter Cresswell about the history of theology. To sum up PC follows the 20th century novelist Ayn Rand. Rand’s followers view Aristotle as the “father of the enlightenment,” they appear to hold a view of history that is extremely […]
Tags: Christian History · Dark Ages · Faith and Reason · Peter Cresswell · 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.
