Author: Mark Vernon

I’ve had a couple of enquiries about what’s new in How To Be An Agnostic, compared with the older edition, After Atheism. (i) Introduction, has some new sections, and frames the question differently. Chapter 1 is revised slightly. (ii) Chapter 2, on cosmic religion, as Einstein put it, is almost entirely new. It takes readers… Continue reading How To Be An Agnostic – what's new?

Episode 2, this Sunday – BBC Radio 4, 1.30pm. “We take things very personally at the moment. People get very disturbed and angry when their certainties about themselves and their world are questioned.” So says the philosopher Angie Hobbs. But why? In this programme the writer Mark Vernon, who himself had a crisis of faith,… Continue reading In Doubt We Trust

The twitter megarow over the new book by megachurch pastor, Rob Bell, is a peculiarly American affair. Called Love Wins, it’s attractively presented/cleverly marketed by the publishers, provoking a top ten twitter trend a week or so back. The nature of the row? Universalism. Is everyone saved by Jesus or not? Very American. (Sorry: Bell… Continue reading So what does Rob Bell actually say?

Listening to the first programme on doubt with a bunch of friends, it was interesting how they picked up on different things. One noted the link, made by Angie Hobbs, between resisting doubt and seeking control. Angie said: ‘Is this really a debate about control and a delusion that we can control the world and… Continue reading Doing doubt

If you missed the first programme, but fancy a listen, it’s here on BBC iPlayer…

The first part of radio series I’ve written and presented, In Doubt We Trust, goes out next Sunday on BBC Radio 4 – March 6, 1.30pm. We spoke to a wide range of people in the making of it, exploring doubt not just in science and religion, but politics and economics, at a personal and… Continue reading In doubt we trust

I suspect it is virtually heresy to say so in some circles. But I found the memoir of theologian Stanley Hauerwas, Hannah’s Child, odd. It’s certainly engaging, and I wanted to read it as I know Hauerwas is inspirational for some whom I admire. So I’ve been trying to work out why it feels as… Continue reading What it is to be a Christian

My PhD thesis was a reading of Plato’s Lysis, the great philosopher’s exploration of friendship. And so it was exciting, to me at least, to yesterday read Martha Beck’s book, The Quest for Wisdom in Plato and Jung, and realise that the dialogue could be read in a parallel way to how I’d done, namely… Continue reading Interpreting Plato's Lysis

A Manchester historian has cracked the ‘Plato code.’ Writing in the journal Apeiron, and using stichometry, Jay Kennedy has apparently shown that the Republic is ordered by twelfths, following the 12-note scale, and that at each of these nodes, are located either consonant or dissonant ideas. The line numbers of the reassembled manuscripts of other… Continue reading Wanna crack the Plato code? Read Plato

One of the most striking details to read in Iain McGilchrist’s The Master and his Emissary for me, concerned the nature of the relationship between the two hemispheres of the brain. The exchange between them is essentially negative. Both can either fail to permit, by saying ‘no’, or permit, by not saying ‘no’, what the… Continue reading The brain's negative way