Afgespeeld

  • We're talking to John Dickson's "favourite Northern Irishman", and one of Christianity's greatest "undeceivers". That's right, it's John Lennox.

    John Dickson sits down for tea in the gardens of Green Templeton College with renowned 'undeceiver' John Lennox.

    In his new book, 'Can science explain everything', Lennox addresses one of the greatest deceptions of our age: Science explains everything, so there's no need for religion.

    We sit down in the gardens of Green Templeton College to quiz him about science, God and how in the world thinking Christians deal with those pesky things called miracles.


    Links related to this episode:

    Find out more about John Lennox.Get Lennox's book, Can Science Explain Everything? Here's an interesting article from 2018 in Physics Today wrestling with Newton's hypotheses non fingo and why so much of research is driven by hypothesis today.Watch John Dickson and Lawrence Krauss on the 2013 episode of ABC's Q&A. Watch The God Delusion Debate between John Lennox and Richard Dawkins (filmed Oct 3, 2007) (mentioned in this episode)The UK's Premier Christian Radio podcast Unbelievable hosted a live debate between Lennox and fellow Oxford professor Peter Atkins, and well-known atheist, earlier this year on science and faith. Check it out here.Find out more about fine tuning with the book our 'phone a friend' guest Luke Barnes co-wrote with Geraint F. Lewis, A Fortunate Universe: Life in a finely tuned cosmos.Read the obituary of Antony Flew, who John Dickson mentions in the podcast as accidently coming to a belief in a Creator late in his life.Watch John Lennox talking about his memories of listening to C.S. Lewis lecture at Cambridge.


    Get to know our guests

    John Lennox is Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University (emeritus) and Emeritus Fellow in mathematics and the philosophy of science at Green Templeton College, a graduate community also at Oxford. He is also an adjunct professor at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Prof. Lennox studied at the Royal School Armagh, Northern Ireland, and went on to Cambridge University from which he took his MA, MMath, and PhD. He worked for many years in the Mathematics Institute at the University of Wales in Cardiff, which awarded him a DSc for his research. He also holds a DPhil from Oxford University (by incorporation) and an MA in bioethics from the University of Surrey.

    Lennox is the author of over 70 published mathematical papers and several books on the interface between science, philosophy and theology including God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?, Gunning for God, God and Stephen Hawking and Can Science Explain Everything.

    Send us a question

    Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Let us know here, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.

  • Thousands of scraps of paper that have been buried in the sands of Egypt for over two millennia are now stored in museums and universities all around the world.

    These little scraps - often no bigger than your mobile phone - provide a powerful window into ancient life - its troubles, its personalities and its ethics.

    One of the most important of these pieces of paper - or papyrus - is 86 pages of the letters of the Apostle Paul, the author of much of the New Testament of the Christian Bible.

    These 86 pages are known as P.46, and they are among the most precious artefacts of ancient history.

    In our first episode, we got to play with them.

    We speak with Dr Brendan Haug, from the University of Michigan's Papyrology department, and the home of some of the letters of Paul known as P46.

    One of the biggest myths about the Bible is that it's been changed throughout history, like a kind of Chinese whispers. What we see in our Bibles today is nothing like the original.

    Artefacts like P46 give great insight into how parts of the Bible were copied. With P46 being dated somewhere around the third century, we can also compare it to other later copies - and our Bibles today - to see what exactly is different.

    "Here's the cool thing about New Testament studies: we have so many copies! We've just been talking about P.46 in this episode, the earliest. But we have hundreds of manuscripts, fragments and huge portions from different periods of Roman history and different parts of the empire, and we can line them up all together and work out where the variations have taken place." -- John Dickson, episode 1


    Find photos related to this episode at undeceptions.com.


    Links related to this episode:

    Read more about P46 from UM's collection.Find out more about Hilarion's letter to Alis, that John mentions in his introduction.Discover the extent of the University of Michigan's Papyrology Collection, a world-renowned collection of ancient texts dating from about 1000 BCE to 1000 CE.Check out "the maserati" of biblical copies - the Codex Sinaiticus.

    Get to know our guest

    Dr Brendan Haug is the archivist at the University of Michigan's Papyrology Collection and Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical Studies. He is particularly interested in papyrology and the history of Graeco-Roman Egypt, Egyptology and Egypt in the European colonial period.


    About the University of Michigan's Papyrology Collection

    The Papyrology Collection at UM houses an estimated 18,000 pieces of papyrus. Just this year, the collection was valued at approximately $100 million. It's the largest collection of papyri in North America and the 5th largest in the world.

    Send us a question

    Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Visit undeceptions.com, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.

  • Us Aussies tend to mock players who thank the Almighty for their victories on the field.

    But when John Dickson was invited to speak to the Green Bay Packers - a professional American football team in the NFL - on humility, he was suddenly thrust into an alternate reality. Religion was everywhere in the NFL. Chapel services, team chaplains, prayers before the games, prayers after the games. What's that all about?

    Are we right to be cynical about the displays of faith we see in our sportspeople today? Are they deceiving us - and themselves - about whether God really cares for football ... or baseball ... or cricket?

    This week, John speaks with members of his favourite team - the Green Bay Packers - about how they navigate their faith in God with their love of the game.

    I like to say God really doesn’t care who wins or loses… God tends to care what you’re doing with the talents that you’ve been given -- Pepper Burruss


    Links related to this episode:

    Become a Green Bay Packers fan, just like John!Pepper Burruss retired this year after 42 years in the NFL. Read about his career here.During his time with Centre for Public Christianity, John interviewed Troy Murphy about his chaplaincy of the Packers. Watch that interview here. Find out more about Vincent Lombardi's legacy at the Green Bay Packers, and the imprint of faith he left on the team.

    Get to know our guests

    Mason Crosby is entering his 13th year with the Green Bay Packers, after being picked in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He was a member of the Packers' Super Bowl XLV championship team when the won against the Pittsburgh Steelers. A kicker for the Packers, Crosby's field goal stat is 80.4%.

    Troy Murphy is the Green Bay Packers chaplain and a former US Marine. He has been a church planter, motivational speaker and entrepreneur.

    Pepper Burruss was the long-time Packers athletic trainer. He retired this year after 42 years in the NFL. He was with the Packers for 26 years after spending 16 years with the New York Jets. That's 883 NFL games, 567 of those with the Packers. He was named NFL Physicians Society’s Outstanding NFL Athletic Trainer in 2012.


    Send us a question

    Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Let us know here, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.