Category: Thoughts

Happy Christmas to you all. I was asked the other day why we celebrate on 25th December? I couldn’t remember all the details then so here is a very quick resume of the answer.

1. It is nine months after March 25th which is when the visit to Mary of the angle Gabriel takes place (traditionally) announcing that Mary was to bear Jesus Christ – God’s son. Known as the annunciation and is still celebrated on that day. Of course, no one has ever really believed that these were the actual dates of the Annunciation or the birth of Jesus but by tradition this is when they are celebrated.

2. March 25 is traditionally the day on which Jesus died (now Easter is calculated according to the Jewish calendar) and because great men traditionally live whole years and not fractions of a year. This could make Jesus’ conception to be March 25th the same day as his death and therefore Christmas occurs on 25th December.

3. A 12 century monk once declared that Christians linked Christmas with pagan festivals but there is no evidence for this (other than there being some pagan festivals around this time of year) before the 12th century and so this seems to be just speculation but speculation that has somehow become general belief.

4. There are no pagan festivals on the 25th December until after Christians start celebrating on that day. The old chestnut of Mithras is often brought up in this context but this is because Mithras was an ancient god that a cult grew up around about the same time Christianity was beginning to grow. The mystery cult of Mithras was a purely Roman invention and has nothing to do with the ancient Mithras. It seems to counter the growth of Christianity the date for Mithra’s birth was declared to be 25th December because that was when Christians celebrated the birth of Christ. Saturnalia was celebrated just before the 25th. The Sol celebrations of ancient Rome did not happen in mid winter until long after Christians had celebrated on the 25th Dec.

It seems then that the 25th December is actually a Christian celebration and maybe it is about time people stopped claiming otherwise. There are also many Christmas traditions that are purely Christian but which are often claimed have pagan origins.

Have a very happy and blessed Christmas

One of those little nuggets of wisdom that I like to pass on to my children is that just having the last word does not mean you win an argument – although I suspect that I usually say this in an attempt to have the last word.

However, understanding that winning an argument is actually about being the one who says something that is true is much more important. I have found that so often it is the desire to have the last word that causes arguments to deteriorate to pettiness and name calling. Sometimes when people have actually said something that wins an argument they end up destroying their logic by saying something really silly just to make sure they have the last word.

I am also hopeful that in the end the truth will win and it is far better to leave friends with someone and then let the inescapable logic of your argument sink in and make a change later than to leave enemies with your truth in tatters.

Of course alongside all this has to be the understanding that it could just be your thinking that was flawed and by insisting you keep arguing so you can win by having the last word you end up demonstrating just how silly you actually are.

Don’t always try to have the final word – it means nothing anyway.

Had a good visit to the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme head office in Windsor to talk about the work I’m doing with the scheme and my desire to see the church supporting the scheme. It is always inspirational to see so many young people taking up the challenge and then succeeding – well done to all those who do the scheme.

The scheme always runs in stark contrast to the way young people are portrayed in the media. If you believed what the media tell us you would think that young people just want to get drunk and party (and other things I won’t mention on a website read by church people) but in my experience young people are very different to that image. They like to have fun, don’t we all, but they are also determined to make a difference to the world – we could all learn a great deal from the wonderful young people who undertake the scheme.

It seems that I’m the very first DofE Chaplain ever, I hope it is the start of something bigger than me.

I was delighted to hear the result in the Scottish referendum and despite it being their own choice I must confess to praying that they stay in the Union.

I was often confused by comments made during the campaign, but one that confused me most was when people on the ‘yes’ side kept saying that they would vote yes for the sake of democracy. Forgive me for saying it but isn’t democracy when a group of people get together and decide a matter by voting and then those who don’t get their way accept the choice of the majority? I’m not going to say who I vote for but lets just say that I didn’t vote for the current government but that doesn’t mean that the democratic thing for me to do would be to break off and do my own thing, surely that would be anti-democracy. If I had my way we would have free University and an NHS without any privatization but that doesn’t mean the democratic thing for me to do is to leave the country. The democratic thing to do is to stay and work hard at getting everyone else to see my point of view. Saying a yes was a vote for democracy is like saying I believe in marriage so much I’m going to get a divorce.

Anyway, as someone who believes it is always better to find a way forwards together than apart I’m really glad that we are still Great Britain.

My thoughts and prayers are with the family of murdered aid worker David Haines at the moment. When the reporters have moved on to the next story David’s family will be left to rebuild their lives. It is a disgusting and terrible thing that goes against everything that Christians (and Muslims, etc) believe in.

One of the things that has also upset me is how so many atheists have used this incident as another reason to bash religion. Not only is it crass and insensitive to use such an event to further one’s own ends, it is also a remarkably ignorant thing to do.

If there is no God and hence no meaning to life and no way of determining values (this is what atheists believe) then we have no right to be appalled at what anyone does to another person. According to the atheist world view we are nothing more than animals in a universe that has no purpose. In such a world view we have no right to be upset or appalled at anything.

However, I for one believe that this murder was an appalling act and that the murderers should be brought to justice. I believe this because I believe in God who brings meaning and value to life and who enables us to have objective values, the kind of objective value that gives me the right to be upset by what has happened. Without religion we have no reason to be upset.

Of course, I deplore those power mongers who use any philosophy or religion for their personal gain. Those who use violence on others to aid the propagation of any philosophy are wrong – but then I can say that because I believe in God.

When will atheists finally understand that they don’t have any right to be upset about anything and certainly no right to pass moral judgements, and that they should not use such a terrible tragedy to push their meaningless agenda.

Just watched an old video on you tube where Ricky Gervais talks about God and Jesus, you can see it here. I found it really sad – although some people seemed to like his jokes about God.

I found it sad for several reasons.

First, he seemed to think that being honest and interested in the truth was what atheists do, this is not my experience. If by truth we mean knowing what is actually out there then the atheist can make no more claim to truth than the believer. There are plenty of examples of the philosophical argument around the existence of God available and, despite what some dismissive atheists say, there is every reason to believe that God does exist. Here is a good place to read some of the arguments for the existence of God … My experience with atheists is that they don’t usually want to talk sensibly about truth but increasingly treat it all as a joke. Atheism is a step of faith just as much as belief in God and they really need to understand this.

Second, I was sad to hear that he became an atheist in an hour because of what is brother said whilst his mum had nothing to counter the argument. This is sad because so often atheists are given lots of reasons why it’s wrong to believe in God yet Christians never seem to have any reasons why you should believe in God. I often hear very sensible and learned Christians say that there is no point in trying to argue that God exists because we can’t win. This is very disturbing. In academic philosophy there are plenty who believe and argue the case for God (for instance Swimburne and Plantinga) – if it was not possible to win an argument then no philosopher would ever believe in God but many do. The same could be said for scientists, of course. I wonder if his mum had some of those arguments available maybe Ricky would not be an atheist today?

Third, like many atheists what he seems to want to attack is the dum side of religion (can’t think of a better phrase but hopefully you get what I mean). They attack things like biblical literalism (which actually very few Christians believe) and stifling religion – that is religion stops exploration and enjoyment of life (by this they usually mean those religious people who are nit picking about rules to follow or rather a whole list of things we are not allowed to do). I understand that there are things that are just plain right or wrong but there is an awful lot of so called Christian rules that don’t come from the bible and have no place in a Christians life. If the rules are also claimed to stop scientific exploration then this is simply not true – the church has always encouraged scientific exploration and indeed the first scientists were mainly people of faith. I can’t deny there have been some mistakes along the way but this is true of all philosophies and not just those with religious belief. Surely, claiming that just believing in God is a joke stifles free exploration after truth (something new atheists like Ricky are fond of doing). Please stop tilting at the straw men, it really helps no one.

Fourth, he said that as a child he really thought Jesus was wonderful. It seemed to me that he went off Jesus because he was made to feel he was being silly believing in God as a vulnerable child. His mother seemed to treat the subject like it was believing in father Christmas – just don’t talk about it. In our society there are plenty of people who want to bring this approach into our education system. It is about time that belief in God be defended academically – perhaps it should be part of the RE syllabus? but at the very least the right to believe should be heavily defended.

Throughout the interview Ricky suggested that he really would like to believe in God because it sounds such a wonderful idea – my prayer is that he finds someone who can help him with this.

Special revelation is the direct communication from God. It is different from general revelation which is more about clues that God has left in the actions he has taken e.g. creation. We learn something about God by observing God’s actions but sometimes God speaks directly. An example of this kind of thing might be prophecy. Of course the best example is the special revelation of Jesus where God becomes incarnate and lives as and among us, you can’t get more special than that.

So what about the bible, is that special revelation? This is where things get complicated. I believe in some sense it is special revelation in that it is inspired by God to be a communication from God. However, the bible is not dictated (at least that is what the vast majority of Christians believe) so most of it is not a special revelation in the sense of a direct communication from God. Much of the bible, indeed, seems to be general revelation in that it points out where and how God has been at work rather than being a direct communication of God’s words.

Hope this makes sense.

Yes, it’s that sad time of year for school children and their teachers when the summer is finally over and its time to get back to work. Of course, many of the teachers I know have spent a good part of their summer preparing for the new year.  I think it’s time to show a little appreciation for teachers and what they do. Most parents I know find it exhausting to look after a couple of children all day (fun as well of course) and really struggle if their children have friends around. Imagine having a room full and having to teach them something they don’t really want to learn.

There are times when teachers make mistakes, even the occasional bad teacher – I had a couple myself so know all about it. But its time we started appreciating teachers again and gave them respect. It really galls me when so many people who know nothing about how to teach think that they can tell teachers the best way to do everything – it must be much worse for teachers. I get the same problem as a minister but at least the government don’t keep sticking their nose in and messing things up – well not often anyway.

So hoorah for the teachers!

Today I’ve been thinking a little about general revelation. This is revelation in the sense that God has shown us something but it is general in the sense that it is generally available and not specific to any one religion or philosophy.

General revelation, for example, is that we can discover God’s existence and his desire for order and harmony by exploring nature. There is enough evidence within nature to prove that God exists. General revelation is the bedrock of natural theology and for the proofs for the existence of God (more of those at a later date). So it is possible, though exploration and logic, to discover things about God even if God had never given us any more than the world in which we live.

Atheists would dispute this of course, although I would want to maintain that they are wrong and the evidence is overwhelming, to deny such evidence is to choose to do so and so is another example of how atheists rely on faith more than anyone.