Unbelievable?

Joseph D'Souza, bishop of the Good Shepherd Church network in South Asia and Andrew Scott of Operation Mobilisation join Justin to talk about a new paradigm for mission work in the Global South and how it impacts church and culture in the Global North.

For Joseph D'Souza: https://josephdsouza.dfnusa.org/

For Andrew Scott: https://scatterthebook.com/

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From Dec 2012. Richard Carrier is the world's foremost proponent of the "mythicist" view of Jesus - that he never actually existed as a historical person.

He explained his theory that St. Paul only ever spoke of Jesus in the spiritual realm and that the Gospels are "extended parables".

Mark Goodacre is NT professor at Duke University. He contended that Carrier's mythicist view is extrememly far fetched and the evidence for the historical Jesus is beyond reasonable doubt.

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The Queen's state funeral was watched by billions of people and marked by deep Christian symbolism. However, during the ceremony, atheist journalist Ian Dunt tweeted that he found it "empty and platitudinous, a cardboard shield against existential despair".

Ian engages with Christian thinker Andy Bannister who wrote a response article to Ian's tweet. They discuss the royal funeral, meaning, purpose and what death means to an atheist and a Christian.

For Ian Dunt: https://twitter.com/iandunt

For Andy Bannister: https://www.andybannister.net/

For Andy's article: https://www.premierunbelievable.com/articles/atheist-says-queens-funeral-was-empty-and-platitudinous-i-disagree/13915.article

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From Nov 2012. Were the concentration camps of the Holocaust absolutely evil, or simply something that goes against people's tastes today? 

Canon Angus Ritchie is the author of "From Morality to Metaphysics" in which he argues that God is the best explanation of moral realism (that there are objective moral facts).

Kile Jones is an atheist who was studying for a PhD.  He argued that God is an unecessary entity when it comes to explaining why there may be a realm of objective morality.

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How should we understand Old Testament accounts of warfare and violence where God seems to command the slaughter of men, women and children?

Paul Copan, author of 'Is God A Vindictive Bully?' aims to show why the Old Testament accounts, severe as they may seem, are not incompatible with Jesus in the New Testament. Randal Rauser, author of 'Jesus Loves Canaanites', says that too many 'apologists for genocide' are defending the indefensible and argues for an alternative reading of scripture.

They discuss whether the warfare passages are hyperbolic, whether non-combatants would have been killed, and whether the term 'genocide' is appropriate.

For 'Is God a Vindictive Bully?' by Paul Copan: http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/is-god-a-vindictive-bully/408700

For 'Jesus Loves Canaanites' by Randal Rauser: https://randalrauser.com/book/jesus-loves-canaanites/

For Paul Copan's debate with Greg Boyd in 2018: Part 1 & Part 2

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From Nov 2012, the second of two shows where Justin was joined by Tim Mawson, the Oxford philosopher whose paper "Praying to Stop Being an Atheist" inspired the Atheist Prayer Experiment.

71 atheists and agnostics signed up for the experiment, committing to pray for God to reveal himself to them over 40 days. Did anyone end up believing in God?

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As the global pandemic subsides, the way the Covid lockdowns were implemented in churches still divides Christians. The Frankfurt Declaration has been signed by church leaders who are concerned that civil and religious liberties are being eroded by Government overreach.

One of the signatories is Anglican priest Jamie Franklin, a co-host of the Irreverend podcast. He has been critical of the church's handling of Covid saying it fell into line with restrictions too readily. He discusses the issues with John Stevens of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) who believes that the government mandates were appropriate for what was known at the time.

For Jamie Franklin: https://irreverendpod.com/

For John Stevens: https://fiec.org.uk/

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From Nov 2012. The first of two shows where Justin was joined by Tim Mawson, the Oxford philosopher whose paper "Praying to Stop Being an Atheist" inspired the Atheist Prayer Experiment.

71 atheists and agnostics signed up to the experiment, comitting to pray for God to reveal himself to them over 40 days. Did anyone end up believing in God?

We revealed the results and heard from a variety of people who took part, including Andrew, Kendra, Laura, Cang & Freki as well as exploring questions that arose. 

Was this really an 'experiment'? What does an atheist pray? Does it matter which god is being prayed to? Do the results have any bearing on the question of God's existence?

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Justin Brierley was joined by four guests and hundreds of attendees for a live webinar event 'Falling From Grace: Addressing power, leadership and abuse in the church'.

Panellists: Abuse survivor and advocate Rachael Denhollander; author, theologian and former RZIM vice-president Amy Orr-Ewing; Rise And Fall Of Mars Hill Podcast presenter Mike Cosper; and trauma and abuse specialist Diane Langberg. Justin Humphreys of the leading independent Christian safeguarding charity Thirtyone:eight also joins the conversation.

For the resources from Thirtyone:eight: https://thirtyoneeight.org/unbelievable

Rachael Denhollander: https://rachaeldenhollander.com/

Amy Orr-Ewing: https://www.amyorr-ewing.com/

Mike Cosper: https://mikecosper.net/podcasts/rise-and-fall

Diane Langberg: https://www.dianelangberg.com/

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Marcus Brigstocke is a well-known comedian on UK radio and TV. An atheist, he wrote the book "God Collar" about his problems with religion, but also why he wants to believe in God.

He chatted with David Robertson, who at the time led Solas, the Centre for Public Christianity.  They talked about UK comedy's atheist leanings, Marcus' criticisms of both religion and new atheism, the problem of evil, the Old Testament and more besides.

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