Doubts Aloud Podcast

Episode 31 – Show Notes We continue giving our Overview of Miracles ‘in the field’ as the claims really show up in the world. Then we use our latest chapter from the 50 Arguments for Faith book to launch discussion on Jesus’ miracles: “The Credibility of Jesus’s Miracles” (Chapter 28, see full book details at bottom)The links we mentioned along the way …Frances was on Unbelievable discussing Ken Fish who has a healing ministry and came along with his best storieshttps://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Is-miracle-healing-for-real-Ken-Fish-vs-Frances-Janusz-2-healing-stories Andrew’s Christian Diversity YouTube channelhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcGJKrkO1LQ A good talk by a cessationist in that he covers all there is:https://youtu.be/9o0z-J4RnwE Frances’ ancient Greek miracles: Asclepiushttps://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/opth/open-issue/article-10.1515-opth-2016-0006/article-10.1515-opth-2016-0006.xml And Epidaurushttps://www.greece-is.com/of-gods-and-dr

Episode 30 – Show NotesWe start another summer mini-series, this summer on miracles, in response to a letter from Christian in Germany. This episode, we focus mostly on actual miracle stories as presented by people seeking to provide the most compelling cases. The video from Lee Strobel who had done 2 years of research:.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y57VUN2TO5M&feature=youtu.be&t=2077 The most striking case is clearly that of Barbara C Snyder here is a link to it we discuss: http://searchingdeeper.com/SearchingForMiracles.html Frances mentioned two links on spontaneous remission from multiple sclerosis unrelated to religion.https://www.sharecare.com/health/multiple-sclerosis-ms/what-is-spontaneous-cure-mshttps://msandbeyond.com/category/spontaneous-remission/ Christian asked us to consider Dr Sean George on Unbelievable last April:https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Did-God-raise-Dr-Sean-George-from-the-dead-Sean-George-Hans-Vodder-and-Bradley-Bo

Episode 29 – Show NotesThis month we welcomed well known British apologist Jonathan McLatchie to share the show with us. Jonathan is a stalwart of the Unbelievable show and can be found here:www. JonathanMcLatchie.comhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/apologeticacademy/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6nvYFyoCk5DsRgYRrhC_gJonathan has seen the importance of demonstrating the reliability of the gospels and has researched the use of ‘Undesigned Coincidences’ to do this. It is where incidental details of a story given by two separate authors mesh together in an undersigned way. It leads to greater confidence that the authors are each speaking about the same factual event rather than a legend. Andrew and Jonathan talk first about the history of Undesigned Coincidences especially regarding the gospels, the approach dates back to the late 17thC and William Paley himself. There are dozens of these apparent coincidences that scholars and then apologists has used. But we go on a deep dive on just one, from the fe

Episode 28 – Show Notes We start by trying to track Christian responses to the virus from before it was known about at all. Were there any prophecies? We include the reasons given which fell to the two extremes of The Devil and God in Punishment mode. Here are Andrew’s links:Ed noted how this matched this discussion on Unbelievablehttps://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-2-views-on-suffering-Warfare-vs-Blueprint-Kurt-Jaros-Ken-Brownell We then started to see prophecies of when it would end, which turned out to be flat out wrong.We liked this one, Kenneth Copeland from March 13th.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys3CrUdxSGM The Psalm on protection from pandemics that we read out was Psalm 91 v1-8 This leads to the conflict between belief and good citizenship to save lives. We then moved onto the more serious apologetic responses to the pandemic, here is Justin Brierrley’s blog:https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Why-doesn-t-God-stop-Coronavirus-and-mend-the-w

Text for DA Podcast Ep 28 Episode 28 – Title SuggestionsResponses to Covid-19Christian Responses to Covid-19Christians in Pandemic Episode 28 – Show Notes We start by trying to track Christian responses to the virus from before it was known about at all. Were there any prophecies? We include the reasons given which fell to the two extremes of The Devil and God in Punishment mode. Here are Andrew’s links:Ed noted how this matched this discussion on Unbelievablehttps://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-2-views-on-suffering-Warfare-vs-Blueprint-Kurt-Jaros-Ken-Brownell We then started to see prophecies of when it would end, which turned out to be flat out wrong.We liked this one, Kenneth Copeland from March 13th.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys3CrUdxSGM The Psalm on protection from pandemics that we read out was Psalm 91 v1-8 This leads to the conflict between belief and good citizenship to save lives. We then moved onto the more serious apologetic responses to th

Episode 27 – Show Notes It is great to welcome Jared Byas from The Bible for Normal People podcast. We greatly respect his work and find it immensely informative. We each go through our stories of facing the Bible for what it is, and they are quite similar. But Jared and us have ended up in different places. His faith seems as alive as when he held conservative views and yet we have now abandoned ours. We discuss why and the approaches to the Bible left for us.Jared’s book CAN be pre-ordered already – “Love Matters More: How Fighting to Be Right Keeps Us from Loving Like Jesus” Paperback – September 8, 2020, by Jared Byas (Author) Zondervan Doubts Aloud Links:Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review.Or give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsaloud@gmail.comJoin the Facebook Group discussions:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/Meet us all in person at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in centra

Episode 26– Show NotesWe discussed how we got the Bible we have, with its 66 books .. or whatever number of books your Bible has. And then we turned again to our favourite Apologetics book for inspiration … this time on the Moral Argument. Heads up to John Humblestone from the Unbelievable Facebook discussion group for his list on reasons Christians give for morals being objective.Here is Frances’ link to an essay by Richard Swinburne, a Christian philosopher who rejects the argument from morality (because he considers all moral truths to be logical truths.)http://users.ox.ac.uk/~orie0087/pdf_files/General%20untechnical%20papers/God%20and%20Morality.pdf Doubts Aloud Links:The 50 Arguments for Faith book: “Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy and Science” by Mike Licona and William Dembski. (It can be found on Amazon.)Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review. Or give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsal

It is great to welcome Maarij and Farhan, Canadian Ahmadiyya Muslim Apologists, to the show. They share with us why their perspective on scripture. We aim for a non confrontational discussion to explore how they justify belief in their scriptures, how they interpret it and deal with various problems. In particular we use our critiques on Christian scriptures to understand how the Quran may be subject to the same ones. Maarij and Farhan podcast “The Conviction Project” which we recommend for a thoughtful apologetic approach on Islam. They can be contacted via: theconvictionproject@gmail.comMaarij and Farhan recommend reading the Quran here: https://www.alislam.org/quran/read/ Doubts Aloud Links: Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review. Or give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsaloud@gmail.com Join the Facebook Group discussions:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/Meet us all in person at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and

Episode 24 – Show Notes It is great to welcome Hassan Radwan to the show. He shares with us his experiences of coming to faith as a Muslim and then living as a Muslim. Eventually his experience was losing it and he talks us through some of the issues that led to him now being an ex-Muslim. His experiences had may parallels with Andrew and Ed’s journeys through faith. Here is Hassan’s YouTube channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ0sIFZ0VnZ5ta9vxC9PyUA Hassan has great answers on why he continued in debate and discussion on Islam, rather than just walking away completely. This was a topic Frances, Andrew & Ed had promised to include this month. They add their answers as well. Ed referred to this blog he wrote, which itself gives links to WK Clifford’s work:https://www.patheos.com/blogs/tippling/2018/02/23/doubts-aloud-asking/ Doubts Aloud Links: Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review. Or give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsal

Episode 23 – Show Notes This is our first ever Christmas special. We do our best to be seasonal in the middle of a wet November General Election season. First we mull over the changes that come over us all during Christmas, we call it communal madness like when football fever strikes us when the World Cup comes round. Is it good? What does it say about us all as humans? Then we take the opportunity of a Christmas Special to have a look at the nativity stories in Luke and Matthew. Our line is not so much the details and contradictions, rather how they fit in the overall picture of narratives in the gospels and how the gospel authors derived their material. The implications end up being as much about the Easter narratives as the Christmas ones. Links we mentionBart Erhman & Peter Williams on Unbelievable?https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Peter-J-Williams-and-Bart-Ehrman-Are-the-Gospels-historically-reliable BBC one-off podcast series “The missing cry

Episode 22 – Show Notes We take two topics connected the beginning of the world, at least as presented early in the book of Genesis. Firstly for “Reason and God” we turn to an argument not covered in the 50 Arguments for Faith book but nevertheless well-liked by apologists: the Kalam Cosmological Argument. It will be familiar to many of our listeners so we discuss it in general and make a few personal observations on it rather than cover all the many problems its detractors identify. For example:Frances discusses a possible conflict with a belief which is cherished by many theists: libertarian freewill,Andrew enjoys comparing this pure philosophy to Genesis chapter 1, and Ed hones in on definitions of the term Universe and how this, for him, undermines the whole enterprise. Here are some links we mention:Skydive Phil on Unbelievable on the beginning of the universe:https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Has-the-Big-Bang-gone-bust-Phil-Harper-Jeff-ZweerinkTha

Episode 21 – Show Notes This is our third and last episode from our Summer of Slavery, after looking at slavery in the Old and then New Testaments in the first two episodes, here we got going on the impact of all this on Church History. That is one of Steve Tomkins’ areas of expertise, especially the Abolition movement in Britain and its colonies.First off we needed to cover Frances’ last Myth, no.10: “Christianity Was the Source of the Idea That All People Shared a Common Humanity and This Was What Ultimately Led To the Abolition of Slavery”. What does Steve make of that?We also had a forlorn attempt at covering things sequentially, starting with the early Fathers. See these links we used:The early Fathers on punishing slaveshttp://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1015-87582016000200014Christian slave trade in the medieval Mediterraneanhttps://www.historytoday.com/justifying-slavery Of course, the British slave trade was discussed with loads of input from Steve: its origin, early

Last time we covered the 5 myths that related to what the OT text says. Frances was keep that we should share this apologists’ talk on Episode 20 – Show NotesThis is our second episode from our Summer of Slavery, we started by recapping on the list of 10 myths that Frances prepared regarding slavery in the Old Testament. Here is its link:https://drive.google.com/open?idslavery (David Winger) –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlzSF0YjrIkThe recap is summarised by audio from a cartoon sketch we took from YouTube, here is that link https://youtu.be/2MFmC6BD1B4Then we quickly got our teeth into the presentation of slavery in the NT. There was both material emphasising the equality of all, in a more spiritual sense, and a comprehensive acceptance of the status quo on the institutions of slavery. We found that the letter to Philemon, which is just about the return of a runaway slave, summed up both these themes nicely. We moved on to the apologetics responses to biblical material, relying largely on the remainin

After a chat on this year’s London Unbelievable Conference we get going on our joyful summer season … on slavery. Central to the first episode is a list of 10 myths that Frances prepared a few months ago regarding slavery in the Old Testament. We promised to share the list with its references, and here is the link:https://drive.google.com/open?id=1SAnnRkcSRoYyfE4Y2Lr2oELY1NaCvgGS Actually we only got through the 5 myths that related to what the OT text says. That in itself is a slight problem as there is a degree of different voices, as we would expect and do see in such texts. Overriding all this is an important distinction that runs through much of this discussion. There were different rules for Hebrew slaves and foreign slaves in the OT Law. Doubts Aloud Links: Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review. Or give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsaloud@gmail.com Join the Facebook Group discussions:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847

Episode 18 – Show Notes We give Andrew space to set out some of his thoughts as he prepares to give a talk and lead a discussion on Christian Diversity at the London Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group. He explains the problems and provides his conclusion: A Failure to Communicate. The slightly dodgy verse used in the ‘Is That in the Bible?’ is: 1 Cor 14:33 RSV “For God is not a God of confusion but of peace”. We mentioned that Andrew was on the Show itself on this topic, back in 2015, on 11th July, with Nabeel Qureshi: https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Can-Christianity-be-true-if-Christians-can-t-agree-on-doctrine-Andrew-Whyte-vs-Nabeel-Qureshi Andrew’s Christian Diversity YouTube Channel is behind this as well:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC46_vlosspJ-yLFqEK9j8LQ Next we picked up on the chapter on Eugenics in our 50 Arguments for Faith book:“Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy and Science

Episode 17 – Show Notes Austin Fischer joins us this month. He is a pastor in Texas … but he has thought deeply about troubling issues in his faith and does not dismiss his doubts with pat answers. We tap into his thinking and give him space to present ideas surrounding suffering. We cover the ancient book of Job in the Old Testament, trying to have hearts/emotions big enough to embrace the suffering out there and the two theological narratives in the Bible on this: a broadly Calvinist approach and one seeing spiritual warfare behind tragic events. We know of Austin as he was a co-guest with Ed on Unbelievable last year:https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-A-tale-of-two-doubters-Austin-Fischer-Ed-Atkinson He has written an excellent book on doubt, largely targeted at Christians:“Faith in the Shadows: Finding Christ in the Midst of Doubt” 2018. Find it on Amazon etc We launch the discussion on the theme of doubt because Andrew has just been on Unbelievable

Episode 16 – Show Notes We thought that it’s time we had another dip into our 50 Arguments for Faith book (full details below). This time an interesting chapter on Naturalism. We had to discuss what Naturalism is, how it can be defined and whether we own it as a label. Then we could look at the critiques of Naturalism the book provided for us to consider. The recent Unbelievable Show with our friend Chris Date (episode 9) seemed to cause a bit of a stir. It was on Calvinism and got us intrigued. Andrew gave us a bit of the history, doctrine, etc of Calvinism to put it in context and set us off. Doubts Aloud Links: Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review. Or give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsaloud@gmail.com Join the Facebook Group discussions:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/Meet us all in person at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:https://www.meetup.com/Unbeli

Episode 15 – Show Notes We enthusiastically mention the Unbelievable Discussion Group in London fairly often (see link at bottom of the notes). This episode we chat over the first 3 of 2019, which have each been corkers. January - Cambridge scientist & Christian Denis Alexander and his well known work on theistic evolution, such as the book “Creation or Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?” (the answer is ‘no’). We see if his theological work convinces us as much as we respect his science. February – A friendly Abortion Debate between our Frances and Christian Bruce Blackshaw who is doing a PhD on the Ethics of Abortion at Birmingham University. How did they do? Listen out for that famous pianist and how humans uniquely have ‘rational substance’. March - James Crossley on Mark’s Gospel. James is an Unbelievable regular, an agnostic and nowadays from St Mary’s University in London. He wrote on Mark (most famously on its dating) and now has developed his thinking somewhat. The talk and Q&A is availab

Or give feedback and ask questions using : doubtsaloud@gmail.com Join the Facebook Group discussions:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847We spent the show chatting with Frances’ long standing friend Richard Morgan. He tells us his story of faith which has had more turns than anyone else we have met. He has been an atheist several times as well as Mormon, evangelical, full-on Catholic and cultural Catholic. We explore the way it has left him with a view of knowledge in metaphysics that has all hubris and sure-fire confidence driven out. He challenges Ed on his more optimistic and moral view of gaining knowledge. Find Richard on facebook, especially by joining the closed Unbelievable discussion group there:www.facebook.com/groups/unbelievablejb/ Doubts Aloud Links: Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the review.Meet us all in person at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:https://www.meetup.com/Un

Episode 13 – Show Notes It was a great privilege to spend time talking with Climate Scientist and Campaigner, Katharine Hayhoe, who is an evangelical Christian based in Texas. (Though, to be fair, she is Canadian!) We asked Katharine questions related to each aspect of her work and outreach – as a Climate Scientist, a Campaigner and an evangelical in the Bible Belt. Here are some great links that arose from the discussion:On a possible positive feedback loop that could accelerate global warming:https://science2017.globalchange.gov/chapter/15/ Katharine’s great TED Talk – “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change talk about it”https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_hayhoe_the_most_important_thing_you_can_do_to_fight_climate_change_talk_about_it?language=en#t-1430 And as a Christian - “The Bible doesn’t talk about climate change, right?”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpjL_otLq6Y Doubts Aloud Links: Please leave us a review on iTunes and we will respond to any question asked there with the r