Doubts Aloud Podcast

Episode 34 – Show Notes
We started with a quick update on our Atonement series from 2018 with a discussion arising from the recent Unbelievable Show
https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Debating-Wrath-Sin-and-Penal-Substitution-William-Lane-Craig-and-Greg-Boyd
We applaud WLC for giving it a go to explain Penal Substitution rationally, but Frances’ legal mind unpicked his arguments based on precedents in US/UK law: employer’s liability and legal fictions.

The we got stuck into hell with Andrew giving his story of anguish, research and discovery on it as a Christian. This led into a discussion on the emotional aspects of holding a belief in traditional hell.

Then we started the long story of hell and afterlife beliefs with the early Old Testament, where there seemed to be no belief in the afterlife, through to Jesus who did teach frequently on hell in Matthew, Mark & Luke, together with useful material in John’s gospel.

Of relevance here is Bart Ehrman’s new book: “Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife” (2020)
And see Andrew’s Christian Diversity on this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V8d-AG8QMk&list=PLIyesuRCrlRFYCYs_XMDKhd_MAyeF8esH&index=10

Doubts Aloud Links:

Please leave us a review!
Or give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/
Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Episode 33 – Show Notes

We discuss how morality really is in human society and whether that fits better with an evolutionary outlook or typical theism. Theists usually appeal to morality as coming from God and expressing His moral nature. So what is morality like ‘in the field’?

Some links we mentioned:

That famous experiment with monkeys and fairness using grapes and cucumbers’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meiU6TxysCg

And the video of a monkey trying to revive a fellow in the group at an Indian train station:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVWPbd1UykY

The Netflix series “Orthodox” on escaping an ultra orthodox Jewish culture:

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/81019069

The Netflix show “The Good Place” which included the trolley problem, in season 2:

https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80113701

Doubts Aloud Links:

Please leave us a review!
Or give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Episode 32 – Show Notes

We complete our Summer of Miracles with our guest Robert L White the ‘common sense epistemologist’ and the kind of Christian apologist that we get along with. His podcast is ‘The Robert L. White Show’
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-robert-l-white-show/id1438270488
Robert also blogs on his website
https://www.robertlwhite.net/

Robert is keen that we take the data seriously on miracles and he does have a case with the study done by Dr Candy Gunther Brown with healings from blindness and deafness in Mozambique and Brazil. It is presented in the book:
‘Testing Prayer: Science and Healing’, April 2012 by Candy Gunther Brown
There is also a research paper:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Study-of-the-Therapeutic-Effects-of-Proximal-Prayer-Brown-Mory/9c68aaab0d5902cef43d1fcc015eb59305f1dd1f?p2df
Robert mentioned and recommended this lecture by Dr. Brown herself giving an overview of her book and work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRfLooh3ZOk


Doubts Aloud Links:

Please leave us a review!
Or give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/
Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

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 stories
https://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 channel
https://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: Asclepius
https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/opth/open-issue/article-10.1515-opth-2016-0006/article-10.1515-opth-2016-0006.xml

And Epidaurus
https://www.greece-is.com/of-gods-and-dreams-the-ancient-healing-sanctuary-of-epidaurus/

Sathya Sai Baba in India:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Miracles-Story-Sathya-Prophet/dp/190873325X


The book “Gospel Fictions” by Randel Helms that Andrew discussed:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gospel-Fictions-Randel-Helms/dp/0879755725


Doubts Aloud Links:

Please leave us a review!
Or give feedback and ask questions using : [email protected]

Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/
Meet us all in person (after Covid19) at the monthly “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

That book: “Evidence for God: 50 Arguments for Faith from the Bible, History, Philosophy and Science” by Mike Licona and William Dembski.

Episode 30 – Show Notes

We 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-ms
https://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-Bowen
And here is the response pdf from the atheist guest on that show, which Justin gave.

https://thinkingcriticallyabout.podbean.com/e/nw-miracles-conference-the-resurrection-of-sean-george-powerpoint-pdf/

We stated an overview of the miracles scene in Christianity and general life today, initially noting how they are the exception even in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles, eg the April 2017 Premier Christianity mag p71 by Rob Parsons "Sorry to be awkward, but we need to talk about healing". It is not online. Email us for a pdf of the page.

We discussed the kind of healings Derren Brown can do and his “Miracle” show and his appearance on Unbelievable (including a brilliant internal Premier discussion follow up):
https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80219802
https://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Episodes/Unbelievable-Derren-Brown-show-2-discussing-miracles-and-healing

Finally here are the two books we mentioned towards the end.
“Heaven And Hell: A History Of The Afterlife” Bart D. Ehrman, March 31, 2020
“The Case Against Miracles” by John W Loftus (Editor), 22 Nov. 2019

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 : [email protected]
Meet us all in person at the monthly (now via Zoom during Covid lockdown) “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Episode 29 – Show Notes
This 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.com
https://www.facebook.com/groups/apologeticacademy/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr6nvYFyoCk5DsRgYRrhC_g
Jonathan 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 feeding of the 5000 stories narratives which occur in all 4 gospels (starting Matt14.13, Mark6.30, Luke9.10 and John6.1). It is usually the example Jonathan mentions first.
The discussion seeks to see the relationship between Undesigned Coincidences and New Testament scholarship as it has developed in the centuries since it Paley.
The books and links we mentioned:
Friend of the show John Nelson’s blog
https://medium.com/the-reluctant-convert/some-thoughts-on-undesigned-coincidences-a1949c8bb4f9
“Hidden in Plain View: Undesigned Coincidences in the Gospels and Acts” 2017 by Lydia McGrew
“The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices” 2019 by Lydia McGrew
6 blogs by Jonathan in response to Richard Carrier on Undesigned Coincidences:
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2020/03/yes-richard-carrier-there-are.html
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2020/03/can-scribal-errors-account-for.html
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2020/03/who-has-fabricated-data-lydia-mcgrew-or.html
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2020/03/is-redaction-usually-better-hypothesis.html
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2020/03/external-coincidences-and-acts-of.html
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2020/04/rounding-off-my-response-to-richard.html

Scholarly article “Fatigue in the Synoptics” by Mark Goodacre, 1998
http://www.markgoodacre.org/Q/fatigue.htm


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 : [email protected]
Join the Facebook Group discussions:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/
Meet us all in person at the monthly (now via Zoom during Covid lockdown) “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

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 Unbelievable

https://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-world?fbclid=IwAR0XepfueN3CFTYIw318EDj3eZ9uNMuvk95djOTIhwJoNwbPngmX7qdFUIE

Key text we read and discussed:
“The Christian story is that the whole created order is in some sense ‘out of kilter’ at a cosmic level. Some theologians trace this to human rebellion – an outworking of ‘the fall’ which acts both forwards and backwards in time. Others point to the existence of an earlier rebellion in the angelic realm that sparked a ‘cosmic fall’ (hinted at in Revelation 12:9).”

And here is John Lennox’s: text blog

https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/John-Lennox-If-God-why-coronavirus?utm_source=Premier%20Christian%20Media&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11462416_Voice%20of%20Hope%2008%2F04%2F2020&utm_content=John&dm_i=16DQ,6TOGG,61BRJF,RC4XP,1

We mentioned the far right Catholics at the end, here is the link we used:
https://unherd.com/thepost/catholic-far-right-hatred-of-pope-francis-doubles-down-in-covid-era/

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 : [email protected]
Join the Facebook Group discussions:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person at the monthly (now via Zoom during Covid lockdown) “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Text for DA Podcast Ep 28

Episode 28 – Title Suggestions
Responses to Covid-19
Christian Responses to Covid-19
Christians 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 Unbelievable

https://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-world?fbclid=IwAR0XepfueN3CFTYIw318EDj3eZ9uNMuvk95djOTIhwJoNwbPngmX7qdFUIE

Key text we read and discussed:

“The Christian story is that the whole created order is in some sense ‘out of kilter’ at a cosmic level. Some theologians trace this to human rebellion – an outworking of ‘the fall’ which acts both forwards and backwards in time. Others point to the existence of an earlier rebellion in the angelic realm that sparked a ‘cosmic fall’ (hinted at in Revelation 12:9).”

And here is John Lennox’s: text blog

https://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/John-Lennox-If-God-why-coronavirus?utm_source=Premier%20Christian%20Media&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11462416_Voice%20of%20Hope%2008%2F04%2F2020&utm_content=John&dm_i=16DQ,6TOGG,61BRJF,RC4XP,1

We mentioned the far right Catholics at the end, here is the link we used:
https://unherd.com/thepost/catholic-far-right-hatred-of-pope-francis-doubles-down-in-covid-era/

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 : [email protected]
Join the Facebook Group discussions:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1023280847835278/

Meet us all in person at the monthly (now via Zoom during Covid lockdown) “Unbelievable Christian and Skeptic Discussion Group” in central London, see:
https://www.meetup.com/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

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 : [email protected]
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/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London

Episode 26– Show Notes

We 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 : [email protected]

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/Unbelievable-Christian-and-Skeptic-Discussion-Group-London