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This is more Philosophy of Religion than Theology, though theologians have by no means ignored the issue. The version originally attributed to Socrates (c470-399 BC) by Plato runs as follows: Is the pious loved by the Gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the Gods...

21st Century Christianity - a brief manifesto for our age.

So, this is about what I call 'the coercive bargain' theory of Christianity. I will say from the outset, it's an idea I thoroughly reject. If you are a parent, you do not demand your children's love because you will only do good to them if they comply, and you will torment them unmercifully if...

I don't have much money, but I am always on the lookout for legitimate organisations who can spend any surpluses I do accrue better than I can. My top global priorities are the eradication of poverty and stopping environmental degradation. Here are two of my current favourites: This one, Tree...

And I mean all! From whatever race, nationality, faith, creed, colour, sex, gender, sexuality, etc. I've been thinking about this for quite some time, off and on, and arrived at views that are probably heretical (though that's nothing new for me!) There is, of course, Jesus (John 14:6 KJV): In...

I posted this here because I'm interested in the ethical and philosophical implications of the confessional. So, I get where confession is coming from. The first stage of repentance involves recognising where one's faults lie, and beginning to make amends. But I have my doubts about the...

So Trump has, in overturrning Roe v Wade, eventually delivered for his conservative/evangelical constituency. But should the law depend on populist politics in this way? I confess, I would prefer a child to be adopted, than aborted, if the mother's circumstances are so adverse that she feels she...

Well, we are well into the second month of Putin's Special Military Operation. And we can see the pattern this war is going to take. As it occurs, I happened to be listening in to the expulsion of The Russian Federation from the UN Human Rights Council, yesterday. The Russian representative...

Wrinkle 1) You are to imagine you are a doctor. You have four patients. Patient 1) needs a heart and lung transplant. 2) needs new kidneys. 3) needs a new liver. 4) needs a pancreas. A perfectly fit individual arrives for his annual flu jab. Tissues all match. According to 'the greatest...

Should we assign rights to the environment (animate and/or inanimate)? Or has God already assigned these, and we just need to work out what they are? Best wishes, Strivax.

...Should we choose to accept it, is to save the world. That means saving it both temporally (inside of time, temporarily) and spiritually (outside of time, eternally). For me, the strategy is to eradicate global, absolute poverty, while still living within the confines of the world ecological...

So I made this post elsewhere, but I would like more opinions: I'm interested to know if you have your own nutshell schemes of ethics, and what they are, and whether you have any criticisms of mine, I could learn from. Best wishes, Strivax.

So, I'm just now listening to a pertinent BBC Radio program. Are the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of economic success, and the pursuit of virtue, necessarily or not necessarily the same thing? If you think they are, is 'individualism' in politics necessarily a social good, and why? If they...

So, at roughly this time of each year, we get to reflect on what is was Christ died for, and why it was He was resurrected. My own contention is that this says it all*: My suspicion is that if we do only these two things, as He did, we follow Christ and are assured salvation. And if we don't...

I think it behoves us all, once in a while, to review our policy on charities, and decide whether we are getting most 'bang for buck' for our charitable giving. So this is a thread to discuss where our charity should go. You need not state what you give, or to who, only what good causes you...

...the presence of God. Whether we like His presence or not depends on whether we love God or hate Him, whether we are good or evil, on the quality of our character and the degree of our moral stature. All these are largely independent of our beliefs, though the right beliefs may assist us in...

...On Religiosity Spare me, please, your pious cant Your 'thou shalt not!', your moral rant, And let me live as I am made Wild and free and unafraid, Dreading naught of Judgment Day, Pilgrim on another way. If I'm wrong, I'll rot in Hell But rotting there, remember well The span I spent as but...

So, poor Tara Palmer Tomkinson is dead. I don't much mourn for her death, though that is a sad thing at her age, as it is for any death, at any age. Rather, I mourn her life. On the face of it, she had everything, good looks, a lot of money, the best connections, a public stage. And yet, I...

Seeing as Trump wants to see this happening again, if his advisors so advise him, I wondered what the forum thought about the issue? Best wishes, Strivax.

So, I kind of like America. I wouldn't want to be an American, but I do think, on the whole, America has been a force for good in the world. But I think it could do better. So, Trump is the 45th US President. I suppose we need get used to it, and the international and domestic chaos that will...