Unbelievable?

From 2016: Most evangelical churches teach young people that sex should be saved for marriage. But Dianna E Anderson's book 'Damaged Goods' claims that the purity culture of the American church she grew up in can be damaging for young people and that sexual relationships before marriage are permissible for Christians. Sarah Long is a youth advisor for the Church Of England and has been involved wi...

Can you be a serious scientist and believe in God, and even believe in miracles?   Tom Rudelius never thought much about God until his brother, a new convert to Christianity, challenged him to explore faith. Tom, now a rising young theoretical physicist based at Durham University in the UK made a journey to unexpected faith, through subsequent doubt and anxiety, and ultimately to a firmer, life-tr...

From 2016: The problem of evil and suffering is a key objection to the existence of a loving God. But what if the very existence of moral ‘evil’ requires a God? Oxford undergraduate Josh Parikh is a young Christian apologist who won Tyndale Fellowship’s 2015 IVP ‘Young Philosopher of Religion’ Prize for his essay on the problem of evil. He interacts with atheist Cory Markum as they debate the prob...

Should we be fearful or make friends with our robot helpers?   And how can humans flourish in this brave new world?  One of our guests today on Unbelievable believes the hidden power of humans is that we are imperfect yet essential? Roger Bolton hosts this edition of Unbelievable with writer and theologian Dr. Eve Poole and Prof. Beth Singler, a digital ethnographer.  Our seemingly irrational qual...

From 2016: A Wheaton college professor was recently threatened with dismissal after claiming that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. Justin is joined by two Christian guests to debate the question, Joseph Cumming a scholar of Islamic and Christian thought at Yale and former Muslim Nabeel Qureshi.  For Joseph Cumming: http://www.josephcumming.com/ For Nabeel Qureshi: http://www.nabeelqure...

Do we need to reconsider the moral status of animals? What does the Christian worldview tell us about animals? Do we change our attitudes towards animals if we believe they have capacity for pain and pleasure, challenging anthropocentric views, advocating for animal rights, promoting vegetarianism and critiquing speciesism? Or closer to home people often ask 'will I see my doggie if I get to heave...

From 2016: Until his death from cancer over four years ago, Christopher Hitchens was one of the preeminent figures of new atheism: a prolific writer who was eloquent, witty and in great demand for his speaking and debating. Justin is joined by Christopher's brother Peter Hitchens who is a columnist for the Mail On Sunday, atheist blogger Ed Turner, and Peter Harris, a Christian apologist writing a...

The Big Conversation - Episode 6 | Season 5 In this special two-parter, we explore "The Robot Race". Are developments in Artificial Intelligence spiralling out of control, and what can we learn about ourselves - the human race - in light of AI's rapidly expanding capabilities? Here, in part two, we debate the nature of human consciousness and free will - comparing it to AI and robotics - and ask h...

From 2016: Luke Griffiss-Williams has an interesting faith journey. Having been an evangelical Christian, doubts about the deity of Jesus led him to convert to Judaism. But further doubts about the historicity of the Old Testament led him to become an atheist. Richard Harvey, senior researcher with Jews for Jesus responds to Luke’s story as well as telling his own of how, as a Jew, he came to beli...

In the second part of their discussion based on the book Coming to Faith Through Dawkins, theologian Alister McGrath and YouTuber Alex O'Connor discuss where we may be heading in regards to religion and atheism. Faith or Atheism: what's next? Recorded on 9/11, 22 years after the tragic events at New York's World Trade Centre, which in many ways provided a catalyst for the New Atheist movement, the...

From 2016: The latest survey from the UK Office of National Statistics shows that religious people are happier than atheists. Hindus came first in terms of reported happiness and Christians second. Christian researcher and author Ann Morisy discusses with atheist blogger and author Craig James why people of faith consistently report higher levels of wellbeing in surveys than atheists. What other f...

The Big Conversation - Episode 5 | Season 5 In this special two-parter, we explore "The Robot Race". Are developments in Artificial Intelligence spiralling out of control? Can we slow the development of large scale AI even if we wanted to? And what can we learn about ourselves - the human race - in light of AI's rapidly expanding capabilities? Here, in part one, we confront the ominous existential...

From 2016: Dominic Johnson’s book ‘God is Watching You: How the fear of God makes us human’ makes the claim that belief in divine punishment has arisen because of the evolutionary advantage it brings in creating cooperative, moral societies. Christian philosopher Peter S Williams interacts with Dominic on questions over whether his research explains away religious belief, and whether Christianity...

Unbelievable? delves back into history and asks Did new atheism fail? with one the world’s best-known theologians Alister McGrath debating Oxford-educated philosopher and wildly successful YouTuber Alex O’Connor. Prompted by a new book Coming to Faith Through Dawkins which published on 29th August 2023, the book edited by Denis Alexander and Alister McGrath gathered other intelligent minds from ar...

From March 2015: Ruth Preston, Calum Miller and Peter S Williams of the UK Apologetics Facebook group and blog take a variety of questions from callers. Ben, who lost his faith, wants to know why God didn’t provide him with more evidence. Michael asks: Why should I believe Paul? Tim wants to know why evangelicals can be so insular, and Brian has questions about the moral Argument for God • Subscri...

We revisit a riveting dialogue from Season 4 of The Big Conversation, from 2022. With their diametrically opposed beliefs on the ideas around God's existence, Francis Collins, a geneticist who found faith in Christianity, and Richard Dawkins, renowned atheist author and evolutionary biologist debate biology, belief and COVID: can science and fight be reconciled? We also look at Dawkins' recent exc...

From March 2015: Can God be proved by definition? That's the claim of the Ontological Argument for God's existence. Christian Philosopher Peter S Williams and sceptic philosopher Peter Millican from Oxford University explore the different versions of the argument. Williams defends the argument, Millican believes it is flawed. For Peter S Williams: www.peterswilliams.com Peter SW YouTube Playlist o...

Tim Keller was a renowned thinker, writer and speaker who was dubbed New York's 'pastor to skeptics'. This week his online memorial was watched by tens of thousands around the world. We return to one of his last live shows hosted by Ruth Jackson and Justin Brierley when Tim answered audience questions on his journey with pancreatic cancer, his transformed prayer life and his book 'Forgive'. For mo...

From Feb 2015: Church leader Steve Chalke is well known for his support of same-sex relationships. Ed Shaw is a same sex attracted Christian whose traditional Biblical convictions have led him to remain celibate. They discuss how churches should treat those in their congregation who are LGBT. Jayne Ozanne, an evangelical and former member of the Archbishop's council who recently came out as gay jo...

Featuring four of the biggest names in philosophy and biology Unbelievable presents the second part of “The Mystery of Existence” a riveting debate showcasing the intellectual prowess of four eminent figures in the realm of biology and philosophy: Richard Dawkins (representing science and atheism), Jessica Frazier (on Hinduism), Silvia Jonas (speaking on Jewish philosophy), and Richard Swinburne (...

From February 2015: Joshua Ryan Butler, author of 'The Skeletons in God's Closet' discusses hell, judgement and holy war with Jeff Cook. They debate whether Old Testament warfare passages constitute divinely mandated genocide. For Joshua Butler: http://joshuaryanbutler.com For Jeff Cook: http://everythingnew.org/ • Subscribe to the Unbelievable? podcast: https://pod.link/267142101 • More shows, fr...

The origin of our universe is the greatest mystery of all. Why is there something rather than nothing? Further still, how did we come to exist in a world with such precise laws of nature and complex creatures? As we shall see, how we answer these questions determines everything: from the meaning of our lives to the secrets of our futures. This week Premier Unbelievable presents a two part show eve...

From February 2015: New Testament scholar, author and speaker Paula Gooder joins Justin to tackle a range of questions sent in by listeners. The Old Covenant, eyewitness testimony, how the Gospels were written and much more is covered. For Paula Gooder: http://www.gooder.me.uk/ • Subscribe to the Unbelievable? podcast: https://pod.link/267142101 • More shows, free eBook & newsletter: https://premi...

The Big Conversation - Episode 4 | Season 5 What should we make of accounts of “near death experiences”? Do they give credible support to the possibility that there is life after death, or can they be explained away as mere physical phenomena? Indeed, what is the connection between the brain, consciousness, and "the soul" (if it even exists)? Christian speaker and former neuroscientist Dr Sharon D...

From February 2015: Following atheist Stephen Fry's viral anti-God video, the question of how a good God could allow suffering has come into focus again. Justin is joined by Christian philosopher Vince Vitale, author of "Why Suffering?" as he debates the issues with atheist think Julian Baggini. To watch Justin's own response to Stephen Fry: https://youtu.be/klPr708VWDk To watch the video of this...