Unbelievable?

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/ For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable > Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv> or Via Itunes

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. Justin also airs the audio of his “Dear Stephen…” response video to Stephen Fry… available here http://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/What-Stephen-Fry-could-learn-from-Oscar-Wilde For Paula Gooder: http://www.gooder.me.uk/ For Spring Harvest: http://www.springharvest.org/ For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

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 the video of this debate and Justin's own response to Stephen Fry go to http://www.premierchristianradio.com/Shows/Saturday/Unbelievable/Videos For Vince Vitale: www.theocca.org For John Loftus: www.microphilosophy.net For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

In a continuation of last week’s show David Marshall & John Loftus continue to debate whether Christianity is rationally tenable and unique among world religions. David Marshall author of ‘Why Jesus Passes the Outsider Test’, argues that Christianity uniquely fulfils the hopes and desires of all religious searching. Plus we hear from James Emery White, US theologian and church pastor on ‘The Rise of the Nones’ as he addresses how the church needs to re-engage with culture ahead of the UK Church and Culture Conference. www.churchandculture.org For David Marshall: http://christthetao.blogspot.com For John Loftus: http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/ For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

Atheist John Loftus has challenged Christians with the 'Outsider Test of Faith'. He believes that if Christians examined their own faith with the same level of scepticism they do other faiths, they would reject it. Christian guest David Marshall is the author of 'How Jesus Passes the Outsider Test'. A resident of China, he debates Loftus, examining why, among other factors, the global success of Christianity means that it passes the Test. For David Marshall: http://christthetao.blogspot.com For John Loftus: http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/ For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

The term 'Humanism' is often seen as synonymous with atheism. But a recent Theos report titled: 'The case for Christian Humanism: why Christians should be Humanists and Humanists should be Christians' claims to show that atheism is ill-equipped to support the fundamental tenets of Humanism. Report author Angus Ritchie debates with atheist philosopher Stephen Law on whether atheistic humanism can account for the human dignity, morality and reason it espouses. For the Theos report: www.theosthinktank.co.uk For Stephen Law's response: click here For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

In 1960 physicist Eugene Wigner wrote a paper on the ‘unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics’. Christian philosopher William (Bill) Lane Craig has recently been developing arguments concerning the ‘applicability’ of mathematics as evidence for God as part of his wider research on abstract objects. Bill interacts with atheist/agnostic philosopher Daniel Came on whether the remarkable ability of maths to describe the universe we live in is evidence for a transcendent designer. For Bill Craig & Reasonable Faith : http://www.reasonablefaith.org. For Daniel Came: click here For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

Following an article in the New York Times about scholars who adopt an annihilationist (also called 'conditional immortality') view of hell rather than the traditional 'eternal conscious torment' view, Justin is joined by two evangelicals to debate the issue. Dr Al Mohler is President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He spoke against the annihilationist view in an edition of his daily podcast The Briefing. Chris Date is one of the founders of Rethinking Hell and adopted an annihilationist view after he became convinced the Bible teaches it. They debate the scriptural evidence and whether scholarship is moving away from the traditional view. For the NY Times article: click here. For Rethinking Hell: www.rethinkinghell.com For Al Mohler's The Briefing: http://www.albertmohler.com/category/the-briefing/ For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

Rt Revd John Pritchard is the recently retired Bishop of Oxford and the author of 'How to Explain Your Faith'. He joins Justin along with church-going atheist Andrew Nightingale and Christian philosopher and storyteller Mark Roques as they discuss what Andrew loves about the church he attends but why he finds it difficult to believe the claims of Christianity. For How To Explain Your Faith: http://www.twitter.com/andynighting For Mark Roques: http://www.realitybites.org.uk/ For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes

We hear it every year at Christmas in in our services. Matthew Chapter 1, quoting the prophet Isaiah - "look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel". Critics say there's a problem: that the Isaiah passage is not talking about a virgin and Matthew misquotes him. So is it a problem for the virgin Birth? Is Christmas cancelled? Get theMP3 Alistair McKitterick is a theology lecturer at Moorlands College. He says there's good reason why Matthew used, but adapted Isaiah's prophecy in his birth narrative. Robert Stovold is a sceptic and atheist and believes that the first Christmas is an invention of the gospel writers. For Alistair McKitterick: http://www.moorlands.ac.uk/staff/alistair-mckitterick/ For Robert Stovold: http://www.brightonhumanists.org/publications_and_downloads.html For more faith debates visit www.premierchristianradio.com/unbelievable Join the conversation: Facebook and Twitter Get the MP3 podcast of Unbelievable? http://www.kaltura.com/api_v3/getFeed.php?partnerId=618072&feedId=1_jlj47tkv or Via Itunes