scepticism - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz Catholic News New Zealand Thu, 08 Sep 2016 02:16:53 +0000 en-NZ hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://cathnews.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/cropped-cathnewsfavicon-32x32.jpg scepticism - CathNews New Zealand https://cathnews.co.nz 32 32 70145804 NZ sceptics doubt Mother Teresa's saintliness https://cathnews.co.nz/2016/09/09/nz-sceptics-doubt-mother-teresas-saintliness/ Thu, 08 Sep 2016 16:54:46 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=86864 New Zealand's sceptic community says Mother Teresa wasn't all she was cracked up to be. The late Catholic nun and missionary has been declared a saint, which requires a candidate to perform at least two miracles during their lifetime. Mark Honeychurch from the NZ Skeptics Society says the two supposed miracles that led the way Read more

NZ sceptics doubt Mother Teresa's saintliness... Read more]]> New Zealand's sceptic community says Mother Teresa wasn't all she was cracked up to be.

The late Catholic nun and missionary has been declared a saint, which requires a candidate to perform at least two miracles during their lifetime.

Mark Honeychurch from the NZ Skeptics Society says the two supposed miracles that led the way to Teresa's sainthood are lacking in evidence. Continue reading

NZ sceptics doubt Mother Teresa's saintliness]]> 86864 Doctor Who avoids modern scepticism, unlike Christianity https://cathnews.co.nz/2013/11/26/doctor-avoids-modern-scepticism-unlike-christianity/ Mon, 25 Nov 2013 18:10:14 +0000 http://cathnews.co.nz/?p=52484

I am fascinated by how Doctor Who slips under the radar of contemporary scepticism in a way that Christianity doesn't. Perhaps its simply because it doesn't assert itself as being true. The Bible is extremely weird in places: monsters with horns on their horns, men wrestling with angels, devils entering pigs, floods covering the whole Earth, people Read more

Doctor Who avoids modern scepticism, unlike Christianity... Read more]]> I am fascinated by how Doctor Who slips under the radar of contemporary scepticism in a way that Christianity doesn't. Perhaps its simply because it doesn't assert itself as being true.

The Bible is extremely weird in places: monsters with horns on their horns, men wrestling with angels, devils entering pigs, floods covering the whole Earth, people rising from the dead. For some, this weirdness is its very weakness.

Such stuff obviously couldn't have really happened. It's just fiction, they scoff angrily, dismissing the whole thing as rubbish. But I often find the weird bits the best.

Why can't the imagination be used to tell the truth - maybe not empirical truth, but something else. A truth about the human condition perhaps.

Saturday is the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. And tonight's birthday show, The Day of the Doctor, continues the story of a man/god (a deus homo, in Anselm's words), aided by various companions, all seeking to save humanity from various dark catastrophes - often from those sinister religious fundamentalists, the Daleks, and their cult of Skaro. Continue reading.

Giles Fraser is priest-in-charge at St Mary's Newington in south London and the former canon chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral.

Source: Loose Canon, The Guardian

Image: The Guardian

 

Doctor Who avoids modern scepticism, unlike Christianity]]> 52484