Undeceptions with John Dickson

Head to undeceptions.com to listen to Episode 3, 'God Science' with John Lennox. 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains content that may be distressing for some listeners. The episode deals with the online sexual exploitation of children and is confronting and often disturbing. If you need to talk to someone, support is available:1800RESPECT: In Australia, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800 737 732.Lifeline: Call 13 11 14 anytime for confidential telephone crisis support.This episode of Undeceptions was a difficult one for us to make. But we believe it's an important one. It's a myth that there's no such thing as slavery in modern times. And just as Christians were at the forefront of anti-slavery work way back in the 5th century, and again in the 19th century, we’ll be speaking to today’s heroes, continuing that tradition, fighting for the absolute end of slavery in their lifetime.We've worked with International Justice Mission - the largest anti-slavery organisation in the world - to bring you the story of Cassie in the Philippines. Cassie was rescued from a neighbour who had lured her into a world of online sexual exploitation. We speak with some of those who worked to see her released from slavery, and who continue to work to rescue countless other victims both in the Philippines and other parts of south east Asia, the epicentre of this heinous crime.Thanks to our season sponsor - Selah - for all your travel needs, whether you're a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.Links related to this episode:International Justice Mission works with law enforcement, including the Australian Federal Police, to tackle the online sexual exploitation of children. Read more about the AFP's involvement in the Philippines here and the first Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Centre - a collective law enforcement effort to combat child exploitation.And read this article from Reuters on the new taskforce and its impact so far.Read more about Shechem House, the first IJM assessment centre for children rescued from abuse.Watch this 20-minute documentary from IJM: How one survivor of sex trafficking is sparking a global movement to end slavery in our lifetime.Read this fact sheet from IJM on child sexual exploitation in the Philippines.Get to know our guestsCaroly Houmes is Chief Executive of International Justice Mission (IJM) in Australia, and was previously executive director of IJM in the Netherlands. An experienced legal professional, Caroly as a Masters in International and European Human Rights Law.Jacob Sarkodee leads IJM's operations team and has over 10 years experience in the international aid and development sector in Australia.Glenn De Guzman is a pastor currently serving in the Philippines as IJM's Church Partnerships Manager and spends most of his time inviting church leaders and faith-based organisations to participate in the fight against online sexual exploitation of children. Glenn actively seeks ways for the Church to move the Philippine government to a more effective criminal justice system by creating public demand for accountability, mobilising prayer groups and raising volunteer support.Rev Stephen Gualberto (also known as Pastor Bong) is the senior pastor of GMA Church of the Nazarene in the Philippines. Pastor Bong led the Church of the Nazarene as they established the first IJM assessment centre for children rescued from online sexual exploitation. Shechem Children's Home opened its doors on September 8, 2018.Send us a questionOh 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. 

In episode 7 we ask: can we really trust the Gospels in the Bible? And how do the gospels - considered our best evidence for the existence of Jesus - stack up against the evidence for other historical figures of the day?John Dickson chats with Dr Peter Williams, the author of Can We Trust the Gospels? about how solid our sources for Jesus really are. Many would say they're not as solid as, say, sources for the Emperor Tiberius, the second Roman emperor who reigned from 14 AD to 37 AD during the time it is said that Jesus lived. But Dr Williams may just change your mind... The necklace that John wears around his neck: a coin from the reign of Emperor Tiberius. Thanks to our season sponsor - Selah - for all your travel needs, whether you're a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.Links related to this episode:Get Dr Peter Williams' book Can We Trust the Gospels? here.Check out the full Twitter thread of Peter's satirical attempt to discredit Emperor Tiberius.Watch more of the interview John conducted with Professor Richard Bauckham for The Christ Files documentary in 2008.Dig into Tacitus' Annals here. Tacitus was a Roman aristocrat and government official writing about 80 years after Tiberius. His Annals of imperial Rome are universally regarded as the best historical source for the period.Find out more about the works of Suetonius, a Roman biographer writing shortly after Tacitus.Learn more about Cassius Dio. And the "Tiberius fan boy" Velleius PaterculusWant more on Pliny the Elder? Here's some background. Watch a 2013 lecture Dr Peter Williams gave at The Veritas Forum at the University of North Carolina - Bible: Fact or Fiction?For more on undesigned coincidences, Lydia McGrew has written Hidden in plain view - Undesigned coincidences in the Gospels and Acts Catch up on our very first episode, Old Papers which helps answer the question of how we can be confident that what we read in the Bible today is what was originally written. Learn more about Erasmus, who worked on a really important copy of the Green New Testament in 1516. This article is all about 500 Years of Erasmus' New Testament, from our friends at the University of Michigan.  Get to know our guestsDr Peter WilliamsDr Peter Williams is principal of Tyndale House, a Cambridge-based research institute housing one of the worlds' most advanced libraries for biblical scholarship. He is also the chair of the International Greek New Testament Project which is currently producing the world’s most comprehensive information on the manuscripts of John’s Gospel. He is also a lecturer of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge.He has spoken in churches, universities, seminaries, high schools and at conferences and seminars/workshops across the US and the world on Biblical subjects including Bible translation, apologetics, and how to understand the Scriptures.Dr Williams is the author of several books, including his most recent published at the end of 2018: Can we trust the gospels?Send us a questionOh 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.

Professor Ard Louis is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. He sat down with John Dickson to talk about why he fervently believes that we don't need to prove God exists.Ard is serious in his quest to have a coherent system that makes some sense of the world. It’s what he gets out of bed to discover every day. And he's not afraid that the more he discovers, the less he'll need God. Quite the opposite:"Science is one of the parts of the world that actually increases the likelihood of God being there," he says.Thanks to our season sponsor - Selah - for all your travel needs, whether you're a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.Links related to this episode:Watch the Why Are We Here documentary that Ard Louis helped create.Check out Morgan Freeman's documentary series The Story of God. He interviews Ard Louis in the episode called 'Proof of God'.Read Simon Conway Morris' book Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe Watch the full interview from Centre For Public Christianity with Simon Conway Morris on evolution, convergence and a purposeful universe.Read more about Sir Fred Hoyle, the man who made famous the 'tornado in the junkyard' analogy.Check out this article by science historian Peter Harrison on The Reformation and the Rise of ScienceWatch Ard Louis talk more about evolution and intelligent design.Get to know our guestsArd Louis is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford where he leads an interdisciplinary research group studying problems on the border between chemistry, physics and biology. From 2002 to 2010 he was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. He is also an associate of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.He also has a keen interest in molecular gastronomy, applying science to the art of cooking.On a lighter note, Ard says in his bio, his Erdos-Bacon number is 6. "I have an Erdos number of 4 through Jonathan Doye and I have a Bacon number of 2 through Morgan Freeman."Send us a questionOh 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.

Andrew Leigh thinks Australia is disconnected, and he’s written a book about it. In Disconnected, Andrew spends a whole chapter outlining why the decline of religion is making social cohesion worse, and the benefits to society of having more religious believers. "I just had a cracking conversation with Australia’s ‘social capital’ expert Dr Andrew Leigh, the Member for Fenner and Shadow Assistant Minister for Charities. We explored the sad decline of community connectedness in Australia, the remarkable effect church attendance has on volunteering and philanthropy in this country (for secular as well as religious causes), the logic of seeing ‘advancing religion’ as a genuine charitable cause, and the importance of street parties for your neighbourhood!" -- John DicksonTo be clear, Andrew says in his book that he’s an atheist. That made John Dickson want to speak to him more.While Andrew can’t sign on to the churches’ theological views, he can see the good that religion does in society. And he’s done a bucket load of research to prove it.Links related to this episode:Listen to Andrew Leigh's podcast The Good Life. A social capital primer from social capital expert Robert Putnam.Check out the photo of Andrew and his family that John mentions in the episode.Get Andrew's book, Disconnected. Check out some of Robert Putnam's books, also mentioned in this episode: American Grace (2012); Better Together (2004)More on Andrew's updated research on Australia's social connections:With OmniPoll, I've just updated data on how many friends Australians have & how well we know our neighbours. The trend in "Disconnected" seems to be worsening. Lanai Scarr writes it up in today's press: https://t.co/hcKMJslYAd #Reconnected #SocialCapital #auspol @RobertDPutnam pic.twitter.com/aqlbJo2czs— Andrew Leigh (@ALeighMP) July 2, 2018Read the Sydney Morning Herald article that outlines more of Andrew's research: "Loneliness is a problem we can only tackle together."Organise a street party! Here's some tips from Andrew Leigh, including a template invitation. Neighbour Day -- it's a thing. Relationships Australia is encouraging people to get together with their neighbours on Neighbour Day, which they have declared as Sunday 29 March 2020. There's a bunch of resources to help you get started connecting with your neighbours, here.Why not consider giving blood. Find out how (it's really easy ... and remember the snacks!) here. Read Alain De Botton's Religion for AtheistsRead this article from Centre For Public Christianity's Natasha Moore about churches and tax exemptions (which also gives a shout out to our 'phone a friend' guest this episode, Anne Robinson).Meet Anne Robinson, who gave us a rundown on churches and tax.Curious about charities and the category of 'Advancing religion'. Head to the ACNC website to find out more.Read the parable of The Good Samaritan.Get to know our guestsAndrew Leigh is the Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Federal Member for Fenner in the ACT. Prior to being elected in 2010, Andrew was a professor of economics at the Australian National University. He holds a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences.His books include Disconnected (2010), Battlers and Billionaires (2013), The Economics of Just About Everything (2014), The Luck of Politics (2015), Choosing Openness: Why Global Engagement is Best for Australia (2017) and Randomistas: How Radical Researchers Changed Our World (2018). Andrew is a keen marathon runner, and hosts a podcast titled "The Good Life: Andrew Leigh in Conversation", which is available on Apple Podcasts.Send us a questionOh 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.

The ethic of love at the heart of the New Testament sounds like ‘common sense’ to many today - it’s what any rational person would think about the good life.But it certainly wasn’t ‘rational’ in the Roman world, and it hasn’t been for most of world history.In episode four of Undeceptions, John Dickson speaks with Teresa Morgan, a professor of Graeco-Roman History at Oriel College, Oxford University about what life was like for the average person living on the outskirts of Rome at the time of Jesus. What did they believe and what shaped their ideas of the 'good life'. And how did the arrival of Jesus change everything?Links related to this episode:Check out Professor Morgan's books Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (2015) and Popular Morality in the Early Roman Empire (2007)Professor Morgan was in Australia earlier at University of New England to give the Keynote Lecture at the 2019 ASCS (Australasian Society for Classical Studies) Conference. Watch that address here.Find out more about Oriel College.Some of Aesop's Fables have been made into a series for children on the BBC. Listen here.More on Zeus, Demeter.More on Turtullian.More on Emperor Constantine.Watch John Dickson in Centre For Public Christianity's documentary For The Love of God. In episode 1, John talks about Christianity's radical ethic of non-violence and 'loving your enemies'.If it's been a while, you should definitely take a look at the New Testament of the Bible, here.Get to know our guestProfessor Teresa Morgan has been a Fellow and Tutor at Oriel College in Oxford University since 2000, having studied classics at Cambridge, Theology at Oxford, and violin and viola at the Royal Academy of Music. She teaches and writes on Greek and Roman history from the eighth century BCE to the Byzantine era. She is currently working on the evolution of Christian faith between the second and fifth centuries and its impact on the later Roman empire.Send us a questionOh 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.

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 guestsJohn 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 questionOh 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.

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 BurrussLinks 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 guestsMason 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 questionOh 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 1Find 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 guestDr 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 CollectionThe 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 questionOh 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.

Coming soon, a new podcast series from author and historian John Dickson. Prepare to be undeceived.