Unbelievable?

Launching The Big Conversation debate series, Justin is joined by Canadian psychologist Jordan B Peterson who has risen to fame in recent months for his political, social and religious views. He engages with atheist psychologist Susan Blackmore on the psychology of belief. They debate Peterson’s own religious convictions, the new atheists, whether society needs God, and whether atheists are truly...

Justin is joined by Christian astrophysicist Hugh Ross, founder of Reasons to Believe, and atheist scientist Peter Atkins of Oxford University, to debate whether the laws of nature came from ‘nothing’ or from God. Peter Atkins’ new book ‘Conjuring The Universe: The Origins of the Laws of Nature’ claims that the Universe and it’s laws reflect the ‘nothing’ from whence they came. Hugh Ross has recen...

Justin presents selected highlights from last weekend’s Unbelievable? The Conference 2018 #JustAsk. Includes Glen Scrivener’s spoken word ‘Given’, Rob Parsons on keeping the faith when life is tough, Sharon Dirckx on why the world is broken, Andy Bannister on Bible reliability, Ken Samples on the divine claims of Jesus and excerpts from the panel Q&A. Pre-order the Unbelievable? Conference 2018 DV...

Justin presents a mid-week bonus podcast to make an important announcement about the forthcoming Big Conversation series. The Big Conversation is a new series of video conversations on science, faith, philosophy and what it means to be human featuring leading atheist and Christian voices. Be the first to watch, listen, download and get the newsletter at http://www.thebigconversation.show Be part o...

Christian philosopher Lydia McGrew has recently accused evangelical scholars such as Mike Licona and Craig Evans, of undermining the historical reliability of John’s gospel. She cites Evans’ interactions with Bart Ehrman in debate as giving away too much ground to a sceptical view. New Testament scholar Craig Evans defends his view that John’s gospel is historically reliable but also includes theo...

New Testament scholar Paula Gooder joins Justin to talk about her new book ‘Phoebe: A Story’ a fictional account of the life of the woman that St Paul entrusted with delivering his letter to the Romans. But have the ensuing centuries lost sight of the role of women such as Phoebe in the early church? Sceptical Bible scholar Francesca Stavrakopoulou joins Paula to discuss whether Christianity is in...

Christian guest John Cottingham is a philosopher whose new book ‘How Can I Believe?’ offers advice on why belief in God can make sense and the human quest for the transcendent. Atheist philosopher Richard Norman engages with John’s case for belief, and responds to the question: ‘What would it take for an atheist to believe?’ Richard is the editor of the book ‘Religion and Atheism: Beyond the Divid...

Sharon Dirckx of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics discusses the problem of suffering with Hannah Timson, head of Humanist Students UK. Hannah explains how she lost her faith in her late teens, in part because of the issue of suffering. Drawing on her book ‘Why? Looking at God, Evil and Personal Suffering’ Sharon responds to Hannah as they discuss their different stories and the problem...

A recent dialogue event at Wycliffe College, Canada saw Jordan B Peterson, Rebecca Goldstein and William Lane Craig in conversation on the question “Is there meaning to life?” In this podcast-only edition of the show Justin introduces the event. One of the participants, Jordan B Peterson, has become an increasingly influential voice and will join Justin in person on Unbelievable? for the start of...

Rev Gillian Straine is an Anglican priest with a background in science. She tells the story of how she dealt with the spiritual and medical challenges of being diagnosed with cancer aged 21, as told in her book 'Cancer: A Pilgrim's Companion'.  She also shares news of a free public lecture by internationally renowned physicist Marcelo Glasier in London on Tue 22 May. Atheist guest Alom Shaha is a...

Bart Campolo is the son of high-profile Christian speaker, author and sociologist Tony Campolo. Bart became a Christian in his teens and went on to run an inner city Christian youth ministry. However Bart recently announced that he had lost his faith altogether and become a Humanist chaplain. Justin interviews Bart alongside Sean McDowell. Sean also has a well known father in ministry - Josh McDow...

In this Easter weekend edition of the show Justin hosts a dialogue between evangelist Glen Scrivener (who is speaking at Unbelievable? 2018 ) and atheist journalist Michael Collett. Glen’s recent book ‘Divine Comedy, Human Tragedy: What is life?’ is an evangelistic book on why Christianity makes sense of the tragedy of death. Michael Collett, an ex-Christian and a fellow Aussie, discusses why as a...

Calvinist theology holds that everything is pre-ordained by God. Critics say that such a deterministic view makes God morally responsible for evil and means that sinners can’t be blamed for their wrongdoing – after all they were predestined to do it. Guilluame Bignon, a French convert to Christianity who is now a Calvinist philosopher/theologian, seeks to answer these questions in his new book Exc...

Justin hosts a public dialogue between Christian Andy Bannister and atheist humanist Justin Trottier, live on stage at the Apologetics Canada conference in Abbotsford, British Columbia. In front of an audience of 1,400 they debate whether Christianity or naturalism provides a better foundation for the concept of universal human rights, followed by questions from the floor. For Apologetics Canada ...

Mark Karris is author of 'Divine Echoes: Reconciling prayer with the uncontrolling love of God'. He believes Christians often have the wrong idea both about asking for things in prayer and the God they are asking.  Steve Jeffery is the pastor of Emmanuel Church, North London and co-author of 'Pierced for our Transgressions'. He takes a Calvinist perspective and critiques Mark's view of prayer, sov...

One of the leading voices in 'Jesus mythicism', Richard Carrier, joins Justin on the show. He debates his theory that the apostle Paul only believed in a 'celestial' spiritual version of Jesus, not a flesh-and-blood man. Christian apologist Jonathan McLatchie defends the mainstream view, arguing that Paul's references to Christ, as well as the book of Acts and the Gospels, all provide evidence for...

A bacterial flagellum acts as the outboard motor on a bacteria. But is the complex arrangement of parts that enable it to do its job a result of design or evolution? Michael Behe first opened the debate on the ‘irreducible complexity’ of biochemical machines in his 1996 book Darwin’s Black Box. Intelligent Design proponent Jonathan McLatchie and theistic evolutionist Keith Fox debate whether Behe’...

Stem cells are an early development form of cells with the potential to turn into any part of the human system. They are used medically for regenerative therapy to treat many conditions. However stem cells have traditionally been harvested from early-stage embryos causing concerns for those who believe life begins at conception. Fuz Rana a scientist with Reasons To Believe joins Justin to discuss...

In the age of Trump, the term ‘evangelical’ is increasingly associated with right-wing political views and fundamentalism. So is the evangelical label a lost cause? Randal Rauser argues we should hold on to the term while Frank Schaeffer, son of the late Francis Schaeffer, argues we should ditch the evangelical movement his famous father helped to create. Sam Hailes, the new editor of Premier Chri...

Lord Richard Harries is the former Bishop of Oxford and a life peer in the House of Lords. His book ‘The Beauty And The Horror: Finding God in a suffering world’ (SPCK) delves into art, history and literature to show why Christianity can make sense of both the beauty and the tragedy of life. He debates the search for meaning and beauty, and the question of why God allows suffering with atheist Mic...

In the second part of their debate Greg Boyd and Paul Copan continue their conversation about Boyd's new book The Crucifixion Of The Warrior God in which Boyd sets out a new way of reconciling Old Testament violence with the love of God shown on the cross. In this conversation they deal with specific examples of violence in the Old Testament such as the slaughter of the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15 a...

Greg Boyd's new 2-volume book The Crucifixion Of The Warrior God is a new theological approach to understanding Old Testament violence and warfare through the cross of Christ.  Greg engages in the first of two shows with theologian Paul Copan who holds to a "synthesis" view of how to understand OT violence and disagrees with Greg's theology. Justin also announces booking open for Unbelievable? the...

During his time as leader of the Liberal Democrat party, Tim Farron was repeatedly questioned about his views on homosexuality and gay sex. When he resigned he said “To be a political leader and to live as a committed Christian, has felt impossible for me”. On a recent Premier Christian Radio interview he reignited the controversy by stating that he regrets saying that gay sex was not a sin. Revd...

Street Epistemology has become popular among many atheists as a conversational way to interrogate people's spiritual beliefs. Popularised by atheist philosopher Peter Boghossian in his book "A Manual For Creating Atheists" the movement is now seeking to create 10,000 street evangelists for atheism.  Pascoe Rapacci engages regularly in Street Epistemology (though doesn't claim to speak for the move...

Myron B Penner wrote 'The End of Apologetics: Christian witness in a postmodern context'. He argues that rational defence of the Christian faith can become a form of idolatry and that modern believers need to rethink their relationship with apologetics. Myron engages with Sean McDowell who with his father Josh has written an updated version of the classic apologetics book 'Evidence That Demands a...