Unbelievable?

William Lane Craig is coming to the UK from October 17-26 2011 for a series of debates and lectures countering atheism and presenting strong rational grounds for belief in God. Book now for the Reasonable Faith Tour at http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology, La Mirada, California.  As well as extensive writing on the Philosophy of time, morality and natural theology, he is widely recognised as a renowned defender of Christian theism and has debated with leading atheists around the world.

He talks about the forthcoming tour, why Polly Toynbee, Richard Dawkins and AC Grayling have withdrawn or refused to debate him, and takes a variety of atheist & Christian listener questions on the Cosmological argument, Fine Tuning argument and Moral argument for God.

TOUR INFO http://www.bethinking.org/craig

TICKETS for debates, lectures & apologetics conference http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/reasonablefaithtour

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook and Twitter

Book Now for October's UK Reasonable Faith Tour with William Lane Craig http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Today's show:

Patrick Sookhdeo converted from Islam to Christianity as a young man.  He has since gone on to represent the rights of persecuted Christians all over the world via the Barnabas Fund.

His latest book "Freedom to Believe" challenges Islam to reform its apostasy laws - the death penalty for those who leave Islam.

Sheikh Dr. Muhammed Al-Husseini is a Muslim scholar from Inter-faith organisation Scriptural Reasoning. He also agrees that Islam needs to take responsibility for the wrongs being done to Christians.  However, he also believes the UK church is being hampered by politics that prevent it speaking out clearly on the issue.

For Patrick Sookhdeo http://barnabasfund.org/UK

For "Freedom to Believe" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freedom-Believe-Challenging-Islams-Apostasy/dp/0978714199

For Muhammad Al-Hussaini http://www.scripturalreasoning.org.uk/index1.html

Rebekah Bennetch lives in Saskatoon, Canada.  She grew up in a Christian family.  Her dad is a pastor, and other family members are involved in Christian ministries.  She professed faith from a young age, went to Bible college, atteneded church and went on mission trips.  But in 2007 she "came out" as an atheist and now describes herself as the "black sheep" of her family.

Sheridan Voysey is a writer, speaker and broadcaster on contemporary spirituality. For many years he presented "Open House", a nationally-syndicated Australian radio show on life, faith and culture.  He now resides in the UK.

They discuss what led Rebekah to abandon her faith, how Christians can best treat their "apostate" friends and family, and what lessons can be learnt for fruitful dialogue between believers and atheists.

For Rebekah Bennetch http://canadianatheist.com/author/rebekah/

For Sheridan Voysey www.sheridanvoysey.com

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Tickets to William Lane Craig's UK tour http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Unbelievable? 5 Apr 2008 "Why I became an atheist" Part 1 - John Loftus & Peter May Why I became an atheist - John W Loftus in discussion with Peter May

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook

Bart Ehrman is James A Gray Distingushed Prof of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  He is well known as a Bible scholar who has thrown doubt upon the reliability of Scripture with bestselling books "Misquoting Jesus" & "Forged".

Bart once held a strong evangelical Christian faith.  He explains why he abandoned it as he discusses his deconversion with Mike Licona who is Research Professor of New Testament at Southern Evangelical Seminary.

Mike also experienced a crisis of faith but pursued Biblical research which led him to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus is a fact of history and that the Bible is reliable.

For Bart Ehrman http://www.bartdehrman.com/

For Mike Licona http://www.risenjesus.com/

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Book in for the October Reasonable Faith UK Tour at http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

For Peter Harris see http://www.bethinking.org/right-wrong/intermediate/dawkins-and-the-abuse-of-history.htm

For Ed Turner see http://edthemanicstreetpreacher.wordpress.com/

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Tickets to William Lane Craig's UK tour http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Unbelievable? 30 Jul 2011 - Does Religion make people kill?"Does religion make people kill?" Christian Peter Harris & atheist Ed Turner respond to Norway killings

Unbelievable? 13 Sep 2008 Christianity on Trial - Part 2 Christianity on trial Pt 2: Can we really look to the Bible and Jesus for morality

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook and Twitter

Sceptical Bible scholar Bart Ehrman's latest book "Forged" claims that many of the writings of the New Testament are falsely attributed to apostles such as Peter and Paul.  He claims that they were not written by them and that a deliberate deception was taking place.

Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological Seminary responds, saying that the case for forgery is not as conclusive as Bart claims.

They examine the evidence for whether 1 and 2 Peter were written by Peter as well as letters attributed to Paul such as Ephesians and 2 Thessolonians.

For Ehrman & "Forged" http://www.bartdehrman.com/

For Darrell Bock http://blogs.bible.org/bock

For The Ehrman Project http://ehrmanproject.com/

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Book in for the October Reasonable Faith UK Tour at http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Unbelievable? 3 Jan 2009 "Misquoting Jesus" Ehrman & Williams Bart Ehrman & Peter Williams - "Misquoting Jesus: Do we have the original writings of the New Testament?"

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook and Twitter

Recent statistics on abortion in the UK saw just under 190,000 abortions in 2010.  Figures were also released for late abortions carried out because of physical and mental disability.

Dr. Wendy Savage of Doctors For A Woman's Choice On Abortion has been campaigning in the pro-choice movement all her life.  She says the right of the woman to choose comes before the rights of the foetus.  She has personally carried out many abortions, offering services in New Zealand before the law was liberalised.

Madeleine Flannagan is part of the New Zealand MandM apologetics blog and has been involved in the Pro-life movement there.  She says that assigning a baby in the womb rights at a certain point of pregnancy is arbitrary and that the safest option is to assume from conception that they hold the same human rights as a newborn. 

They discuss whether abortion law devalues those with disabilities, at what point a foetus becomes a baby and whether the rights of the mother trump the rights of the child.

For Doctors for a Woman's Choice on Abortion http://www.dwca.org/

For MandM resources on abortion http://www.mandm.org.nz/tag/feticide

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Tickets to William Lane Craig's UK tour http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Unbelievable? 23 Jan 2010 - Abortion - Pro-choice Evan Harris MP vs Pro-life Sarah Macken

Unbelievable? 19 Jan 2008 Abortion Abortion - pro-life vs. pro-choice.

Unbelievable? 12 Jan 2008 Embryology and medicine Human Fertilisation & Embryology - are we playing God?

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook and Twitter

On Fri 22 July 2011 tragedy struck Norway as Anders Breivik detonated a bomb in Oslo and shot dozens of people ont he island of Utoya.

Soon afterwards news media were referring to Breivik as a "Christian fundamentalist"  But was he a Christian and did faith influence the terrible actions he took?

Peter Harris is a historian and Christian apologist.  Ed Turner is a solicitor and atheist blogger.  They discuss what Breivik appeared to believe and whether religion leads people to do evil things.

For Peter Harris see http://www.bethinking.org/right-wrong/intermediate/dawkins-and-the-abuse-of-history.htm

For Ed Turner see http://edthemanicstreetpreacher.wordpress.com/

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Tickets to William Lane Craig's UK tour http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Unbelievable? 19 Sep 2009 - Would Europe be better off Atheist or Christian? David Robertson, Ed Turner & Richard Morgan

Unbelievable? 3 Nov 2007 - The New Atheism Barry Duke and David Marshall Debate

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook and Twitter

Richard Weikart is a Christian and professor of History at California State University. He has drawn controversial conclusions regarding the role of Darwinism in providing a rationale for Hitler's Nazi ideology.

Hector Avalos is an atheist and Professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University.  He disagrees with Weikart, saying that Christian anti-semitism is the more likely explanation for Nazi ideology.

For Weikart see http://www.discovery.org/p/37

For "Hitler's Ethic" http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitlers-Ethic-Pursuit-Evolutionary-Progress/dp/0230112730/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

For Avalos see http://www.philrs.iastate.edu/avalos.shtml

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Tickets to William Lane Craig's UK tour http://www.premier.org.uk/craig

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook and Twitter

Scottish pastor and apologist David Robertson returns for a show interacting with three UK atheist listeners of the show.

"Hasn't the experience of common morality around the world shown that we have no need of a divine law giver?" asks Jim.  Andrew shares his positive experience of church as an atheist and how best to understand those of other viewpoints. John questions the atheist/agnostic labels we often use. 

For David Robertson http://www.solas-cpc.org

Also: Order Unbelievable? The Conference on DVD http://www.premier.org.uk/dvd

Unbelievable? 18 Jun 2011 - Is a secular society a more tolerant one? David Robertson debates Terry Sanderson

Unbelievable? 5 Mar 2011 - Grill a Christian Round 3 & Unbelievable? Conference announcement

Join the discussion at the Premier Community http://www.premiercommunity.org.uk/group/unbelievable and via Facebook and Twitter