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If suffering is seen as the Achilles’ heel of Christianity, then justice poses a similar problem for atheism. Let me explain. Human beings have an innate sense of justice and believe that the guilty should be punished and the wicked held to account. The problem with a godless universe is that very often this just doesn’t happen. Take Idi Amin for instance, who in the 1970’s led a reign of terror i...

In his first response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine the Pope tweeted, ‘War is a failure of humanity, a shameful capitulation, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil’. This failure of humanity is nothing new of course and the very first such failure is recorded early in the Bible in the book of Genesis. The story is told of two brothers Cain and Abel. Cain becomes jealous of his brot...

As Vladimir Putin’s intentions towards Ukraine become ever clearer Russia has   been accused of false flag attacks. These are when an aggressor stages an attack on its own soil which it then blames on its enemy as a pretext for launching a full-scale invasion. The method is tried and tested and was notably used by the Nazi’s the night before they invaded Poland in 1939. The term its...

Jesus once explained that while “foxes have holes and birds have nests” he didn’t have a bed to sleep in. Well foxes still have holes, but human interference means that lots of birds no longer have nests. Take swifts for example. The loss of their nesting sites in the UK has led to a collapse in numbers which have dropped by over half in 20 years. Concerned by the screeching of swifts desperately...

On 2 nd  April 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a British territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. Three days later the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington, resigned taking full responsibility for the failure of his department to foresee the invasion. His resignation wasn’t asked for, but he felt it was the right and honourable thing to do. Sadly, it is hard to think of anoth...

In December 1934 an American missionary in China was on the verge of giving up. Just twenty-one years old he was living in poverty and feeling desperately lonely and isolated; and now news had arrived that other missionaries had been martyred by Communist soldiers. One day he was plagued with doubt and fear and a voice inside his head told him he was wasting his life and he should go home. He was...

Recent research reveals that the grunts, bellows, squeals and “wheeze honks” made by hippos are not meaningless noises but the language they use to communicate. Scientists recorded the sounds and then played them back from the shore of the lake where the hippos gathered. The response was immediate, and the sound of unknown hippos produced loud and frequent calls with plenty of territorial dung spr...

The British Government is currently trying to pass a controversial piece of legislation: the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. In the latest instalment the bill has suffered several defeats and amendments in the House of Lords. Most stunningly amongst the latter was a requirement that police officers should tell the truth in public enquiries. Well, it may just be me, but I had assumed tha...

This week the Marble Arch Mound closed for the last time. Built to draw visitors back to a post-Covid London it never quite lived up to expectations. Costs spiralled from £3m – £6m and the promotional pictures didn’t quite match the reality. One visitor commented that it was ‘the worst thing I’ve done in London’. Hardly the ringing endorsement the council had been hoping for. It just goes to...

I wonder how your New Year resolutions are going. As far as I can remember I’ve only ever made two. The first was when I was a child and my aunt, who was hosting the party, insisted that we do so. I had no idea what to say and as the seconds to midnight ticked down blurted out, ‘I resolve not to swim the English Channel’. Safe to say I kept that one. The second was many years l...

“I was not lost and did not need to be rescued.”  So said British adventurer Benedict Allen after being rescued from the jungle of Papua New Guinea.  He had missed his flight home, was suffering from the effects of malaria, and had recorded a video message in case he wasn’t found.  While Benedict was supremely confident in his ability to save himself, his family were less...

Writing in the 2 nd  century the physician Soranos lists the features of a new born child that determine whether it should live.  Vigorous crying, sound limbs and organs, open orifices, and lively movement were all required.  A child failing these tests might well be abandoned and left to die of exposure. Fast forward 2,000 years and this week the BBC will hold its annual...

COP26 has been billed as the last chance to make the decisions that will be necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change. From around the world twenty-five thousand world leaders and delegates have gathered for two weeks of hard bargaining. Eyebrows have been raised at the environmental impact of the conference itself, not least because of VIPs flying in on hundreds of private jets. Challenged...

In 1895 Annie Smith Peck succeeded in climbing the Matterhorn. This was a remarkable achievement. One of the highest and deadliest mountains in the Alps the Matterhorn hadn’t been conquered until 1865 and has claimed the lives of over 500 mountaineers. So, you would have thought that Peck’s achievement would have been celebrated around the world. Not quite. Far from discussion on the ground being...

When the gates of Chris Packham’s home were burnt down by masked men, he responded by saying ‘whoever you are, you burnt down the wrong gates. I cannot and will not let your intimidation sway me from my cause’. How good to find someone so committed to what they believe in that nothing will deflect them. I’m reminded of a famous speech given by Winston Churchill at Harrow School in 1941. With the n...

‘Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of insane courage’. That’s the advice that single dad Benjamin gives to his son Dylan in the 2011 film  We bought a Zoo . Struggling with a relationship and not knowing which way to turn, Dylan has to take his courage in both hands and risk confessing his love for Lily. It’s great advice and might just as easily apply to anyone pursuing the Christian...

It is often remarked that ‘God moves in mysterious ways’. The phrase originated in a famous 1773 poem by William Cowper entitled ‘Light Shining out of Darkness’. It was inspired by his own experience. As a young man Cowper was refused permission to marry the woman he loved and fell into a depression which was to blight the rest of his life. On several occasions he attempted to take his own life. I...

This week consumers in the UK are nervously holding their breath, waiting to see whether their power company goes bankrupt and their favourite fizzy drink disappears from the shelves. The two are not unrelated. Both are the result of the latest Black Swan. First coined by statesman Nassim Nicholas Taleb a Black Swan denotes a rare event that changes all forecasts for the future. The Covid pandemic...

When Christian Eriksen walked out onto the pitch for Denmark’s game against Finland he was in the prime of his life. Or so he thought. But five minutes before half time he suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed to the ground. Fortunately, the rapid response of the medical team saved his life. But it could all have been so different. Most of us make the assumption that we will live to see another...

David Attenborough has warned world leaders that we are “on the verge of destabilising the entire planet” unless urgent action is taken to limit climate change. Now like many people I take seriously my responsibility to look after the planet – I recycle everything I can, compost my peelings and tea bags, and avoid single-use plastic as much as possible. I’ve even reverted to...

It’s unlikely that anyone in the Cornish village of Carbis Bay missed preparations for the G7 summit in June 2021. With a population of slightly over 3,500 the village normally hosts tourists who flock to its golden sands. The arrival of the G7, however, rather swelled that number. Six thousand police men and women arrived to turn the place into a fortress, not to mention the hundreds of staff, ad...

The last words we say can leave a lasting legacy for those who follow.  In Stephen Spielberg’s famous film ‘Saving Private Ryan’, Captain John Miller sacrifices his own life to rescue Private James Ryan, and with his last words tells him ‘Earn this … earn it!’  The legacy those words leave are a haunting doubt that stay with Ryan for the rest of his life – did he live a life wo...

I’ve sometimes wondered why the Very Hungry Caterpillar wasn’t given a name. Born on a Sunday he spends the first week of his life eating his way through everything he can find in increasing quantities. But nothing satisfies. On Saturday he goes all out, abandons his fruit only diet and munches his way through cake, ice-cream, meat, cheese and cherry pie. But instead of finding satisfaction he jus...

In despair Viki Patel watched helplessly as the bespoke engagement ring slipped from his fiancée’s finger and sank to the bottom of Lake Windemere. After many postponements due to Covid he had finally managed to take Rebecca to the Lake District and pop the question. But now the ring that meant so much seemed lost forever. ‘I lost all hope once I saw how the bottom was all mushy’, he said. Fortuna...

The story is told of a man who collected water each day from the local stream. He carried the water in two clay pots hung on a pole resting across his shoulders. One of the pots had a crack in it and by the time he arrived at the house it was always half empty. After two years the cracked pot felt so wretched at its failure to carry a full load that it apologized. The carrier, however, responded b...