Show Notes
We looked at Design Arguments in our Episodes 82 & 85 but avoided diving deep into Fine Tuning, waiting for our discussion with Phil. It was worth it! We covered questions such as what are the actual physical observations which we call Fine Tuning? What are the main explanations for the observations that cosmologists/physicists generally think most likely and how popular are they among the scientist? Phil’s survey results on that are fascinating.
Apologies for some technical difficulties with the podcast, Andrew was ill at the last minute, (he’s now recovering).
 
Links:
Don’t miss Phil’s book:
Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins Hardcover, by Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Halper. May 2025

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Big-Bang-Cosmic-Origins/dp/0226830470

 
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Show Notes

We welcome again our great friend John Nelson as our guest. John has started an excellent academic blog, “Behind the Gospels”, which we discuss at length. We cover individual issues that John has covered, especially whether Matthew the disciple was the author of Matthews Gospel. We couldn’t hold back from asking about some hot topics, such as whether ‘John’ knew the synoptic gospels or ‘Luke’ had read Josephus. The discussion also extended to wider issues like the cultural influences behind the Gospels, what we can say on the degree of factual material in them and the authority that traditions about Jesus’s words and deeds may have held in the period before the gospels were written.
 
Links:

www.BehindtheGospels.com
 
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Show Notes
We welcome a new guest Jim Paul, a Christian thinker from the UK L’Abri community. He introduces us to a view of Heaven which is in contrast to the familiar ethereal heaven in our culture.  The familiar view is centuries old with its fluffy clouds and plump babies with wings, but it is a corruption of the Bible’s view, which is more earthy and on reflection more attractive.  Jim has written a book on this, “What on Earth is Heaven?”, which we discuss at length.
 
Links:
Jim’s book “What on Earth is Heaven?”:
https://www.amazon.com/What-Earth-Heaven-James-Paul/dp/1789742218
 
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Design Arguments Part 2
 
Show Notes
In episode 82 we started our discussion on Design Arguments and got up to the start of the 19thC.  Later in that century the argument was turned on its head by Darwin and his Origin of Species. We discuss this and move on to modern creationism (a little) and Intelligent Design (a lot), selecting by our design – not at random - two more chapters from the 50 Arguments for Faith book which is heavy on Intelligent Design.
 
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.)
 
Frances mentioned this by a practising Jew who rejects the Intelligent Design concept of irreducible complexity:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3721655/
 
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Show Notes

We start from an informative update on the Flat Earth movement. Their model for the earth usually includes a wall of ice round the rim – Anarctica, that implies the 24 hour sunshine in the Anarctica summer is impossible and their claims often include that it does not occur.  So what happens when a group of prominent Flat Earth advocates are paid to visit Anarctica during its summer? That happened this month.
 
For the rest of the show we discuss another story doing the rounds. It is prompted by the Museum of the Bible putting on display a mosaic from Israel which was uncovered in 2005 and was discussed back then. It dates to around 230AD and includes the phrase “God Jesus Christ” in one of its inscriptions. We deal with the context both in terms of the developing doctrine of the Trinity and in terms of apologists jumping on the latest ‘thing’.  
Links:
 
A full video on the update on a Flat Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEc86p1vgLM
 
Short one:
https://youtube.com/shorts/HTSvI--ZVYg?si=jsEoFYmlLpHIzdXc
 
CBN (The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc) on the ‘Jesus Mosaic’:
https://youtu.be/C_fTfAsJ5Lc?si=KdeNMfBMspCUfHfh
 
Cameron’ Capturing Christianity video
https://youtu.be/zFPHoLFijUs?si=oKxGbVKKRK3REwnY
 
A qualified academic Professor Christopher Rollston is Sean McDowell’s guest here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4lme5eLmA
 
And here is a blog by Prof Rollston of George Washington University
http://www.rollstonepigraphy.com/?p=1004
 
Past excitements:
Curse Tablet – our episode 68
 
First-century fragment of Mark
Wallace’s online announcement
https://danielbwallace.com/2012/03/22/first-century-fragment-of-marks-gospel-found/
His apology blog:
https://danielbwallace.com/2018/05/23/first-century-mark-fragment-update/
The Wikipedia article
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papyrus_137
 
The mummy mask papyrus, Craig Evans:

https://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/21/living/gospel-mummy-mask/

https://www.northridgerochester.com/theology-1/mummy-mask-may-reveal-oldest-fragment-of-the-gospel-of-mark

Piece by Richard Carrier
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/13935

Claims of it being a front for getting fragments without need for provenance
https://art-crime.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-gospel-truth-how-laundering-of.html
 
Searches for Noah's Ark
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searches_for_Noah%27s_Ark
 
Egyptian Chariot Wheels in the Red Sea
https://biblearchaeologyreport.com/2018/10/11/fake-news-in-biblical-archaeology/
 
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Show Notes
We start with the recent UK Parliament decision in favour of assisted dying and the religion and secular division that it brought out. Then we enjoy discussing Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at length.  There’s a debate among academics on whether it is a fully secular story, or if it is a Christian allegory.  We wade in.  The question on what Dickens’ own beliefs were has relevance and it seems that he had a “works not faith” view of Christianity, especially with reference to A Christmas Carol (or in Ed’s words “a wishy washy Anglican”). We see a message similar to Jesus’ in Luke’s gospel in particular as well as the synoptics in general, which is in conflict with material in the rest of the NT.
 
Links:
The BBC documentary on assisted dying “Better Off Dead?” with actress Liz Carr
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001z8wc
 
A short academic resource on Dickens and Christianity
https://dickens.ucsc.edu/resources/faq/religion.html
 
We recommend the wikipedia page on the novella
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Christmas_Carol
 
And the Melvin Bragg BBC Radio 4 “In Our Time” episode on it
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012fl5
 
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Show Notes
We start with the next chapter selected by the randomiser in our 50 Arguments for God book.  “Can We Be Certain That Jesus Died on a Cross? A Look at the Ancient Practice of Crucifixion” We agree that the answer is Yes, and enjoy ourselves on the way.  Then we move on to another random chapter which is on how our planet is ideal for doing astronomy – “Designed for Discovery”.  This leads to a wider discussion on Design Arguments. We look at their history and cover Aquinas, Hume and Paley, but run out of time at the start of the 19thC.
 
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.)
 
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Hume and The Argument from Design:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/#ArgDes
And on Design Arguments generally:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/#Int
 
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Show Notes
Ed continues relating the history of the remote isolated Scottish island of St Kilda and its amazing community.  We had finished Part 1 at about 1700 AD with a kind of Utopia and a gentle folksy religion.  Here we discuss its decline (our take) into a harsh, puritan, rule-bound and Calvinist kind of religion. And we ask how it could have happened and whether it’s a case of Hitchen’s “Religion poisons everything”.
 
Links:
 
That key book:
Tom Steel, The life and death of St Kilda, 1975, Fontana. 
 
French website on St Kilda translated –
www.kildaprojet.com

 
That Napier Commission on the Outer Hebrides – interviews:
https://napier-outerhebrides.blogspot.com/2010/05/st-kilda-2-june-1883-i.html

 
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Show Notes

Ed shares from his longstanding interest in the remote isolated Scottish island of St Kilda and its amazing community that survived for 1000s of years up to 1930.  In part 1 we cover its geography, community structure and social conditions, and then its religious history finishing around 1700 which was when outsiders began worrying about their souls.  How did a small isolated community work in beliefs, morals and even economic arrangements?
 
Links:
 
Do a google-images on “St Kilda Scotland”
 
That key book:
Tom Steel, The life and death of St Kilda, 1975, Fontana. 
 
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Show Notes

We covered the book of Daniel in episode 44 explaining it’s likely ‘forgery’ status and we briefly discussed his 70 Weeks prophecy in that episode.  Here Andrew leads us into a deep dive, plunging the murky waters.  Indeed, studying the prophecy has been called a ‘dismal swamp’. We discuss how all approaches, apologetic or scholarly, lead to difficulties making “Daniel’s” weird maths fit with historical dates. Needless to say, apologetic claims that the fulfilled prophecy of the 70 Weeks are amazing, arresting and should convert an open minded sceptic don’t convince us.
 
At the start of the episode we discuss the prophecy made in April 2024 of the near-miss shooting of Donald Trump. In some respects, this is a good match to the church’s treatment of the 70 weeks prophecy.
 
Links:
 
Richard Carrier on Daniel (he includes a section on the 70 Weeks):
 
https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/18242
 
Key verses: Daniel 9.24-27. (It’s worth reading more for context.)
 
The clip Andrew gave claiming the 70 weeks verses will convert you:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWiJCH07kAg&t=29s
 
A great scholarly paper from “The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures” by George Athas which outlines the difficulties in trying to get a fit to historical events and suggesting a theory of what the author of Daniel was doing:
 
https://jhsonline.org/index.php/jhs/article/download/6231/5259/13824
 
Trump shooting original April 2024 prophecy (start 11 mins in):
 
https://youtu.be/Ey0qVzG8_vU?si=5b2U1I8oDSYVFFq8
 
An apologist discussing the shooting after the event:
 
https://youtu.be/vsidOPEAERE?si=Js-Gy2UuicT7VwPS
 
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