In a previous post, I addressed the claim that no star could exist that moves or behaves in the way described in Matthew’s Gospel. I argued that Matthew’s Gospel uses language found in Greco-Roman writings to describe comets, and that a comet could act in the way Matthew described. I also argued that we have good […]
Entries Tagged as 'Science and Religion'
Star of Wonder: Matthew’s Nativity Narrative and its Critics, part two
January 2nd, 2026 Comments Off on Star of Wonder: Matthew’s Nativity Narrative and its Critics, part two
Tags: Christian History · Christmas · Matthew's Gospel · Nativity · Star of Bethlehem
Star of Wonder: Matthew’s Nativity Narrative and its Critics, part one.
December 17th, 2025 Comments Off on Star of Wonder: Matthew’s Nativity Narrative and its Critics, part one.
Recently, I have been thinking about Matthew’s birth narrative. In particular, I want to discuss three claims that are sometimes made by critics of the narrative’s historicity. First, it is claimed that no star could exist that moves or behaves in the way described in Matthew’s Gospel. According to this objection, Matthew depicts a star […]
Tags: Apologetics · Bible · Matthew's Gospel · Star of Bethlehem
Hear Matt’s Three Talks on “Questions People ask”
October 29th, 2015 Comments Off on Hear Matt’s Three Talks on “Questions People ask”
Recently Matt spoke at Orewa Community Church, as part of their series on “Questions People ask”. His three talks: “How can there be just one religion?”, “How does God allow suffering?”, and “Hasn’t Science disproved Christianity?” are all available to listen online to here.
Tags: Apologetics · Pluralism · Problem of Evil · Science and Religion · Sermons
God or Natural Law: A False Dichotomy
May 30th, 2015 Comments Off on God or Natural Law: A False Dichotomy
A few weeks ago someone showed me a newspaper article entitled “New theory could prove how life began and disprove God”, which was published in the UK newspaper The Independent. Now I have, of course, heard media pronouncements of the nature published in this article frequently, reporters often seem to have a knack for making provocative pronouncements about […]
Tags: Atheism · Richard Dawkins · Science and Religion
Jerry Coyne on Deception and the Omission of Facts
October 21st, 2014 4 Comments
In 2011 I wrote a criticism of Jerry Coyne’s USA Today article, “As atheists know, you can be good without God.” My critique, “When Scientists make bad Ethicists,” attracted some attention motivating Coyne to write a response. I wrote a following up piece the next year, “Jerry Coyne on God and Morality Revisited,” my conclusions were not […]
Tags: Atheists · Divine Command Theory · God and Morality · Jerry Coyne · William Lane Craig
Comparing the Old & New Teleological Arguments
October 20th, 2011 78 Comments
The “New Teleological Argument” is a theistic argument which attempts to show that theism is more probable than the postulate of an “atheistic single universe”[i]. There are number of reasons why this argument is termed the “New” teleological argument. Chief among these reasons is that its explanandum i.e. the incredible fine tuning of the laws […]
Tags: Apologetics · Design Arguments · Evolution · Fine-Tuning · Natural Theology · Philosophy of Religion · Robin Collins · Teleological Arguments · The Likelihood Principle · William Paley
Religion, Science, 9/11 and the Moon: Dawkins’ Response to Copan
March 9th, 2011 107 Comments
Parchment and Pen, has an audio of a brief exchange between Paul Copan and Richard Dawkins who was speaking in Ft. Lauderdale at Nova Southeastern University on “The Fact of Evolution.” (The following week, Paul Copan spoke on “The Fact of God” at Nova Southeastern and gave a direct response to Dawkins.) This MP3 of Paul Copan and […]
Tags: Atheism · Bad Reasoning · Paul Copan · Richard Dawkins · 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.
