Bruce Charlton's Notions

Brief suspension of commenting for essential maintenance work... 

This-world is for those who choose to follow Jesus .  "Follow" literally , that is: follow Jesus to resurrected eternal life in He...

The centre for UK PSYOPS and subversion - MI6... What else could it be? There are certainly exceptions; but most of the best buildings in th...

I can't remember exactly when it was (twenty years ago, maybe?) that the Royal Mint decided to start making a jigsaw from UK coinage, su...

Much of my work as a scientist was theoretical in nature; but I published quite a few empirical (i.e. experimental and observational or sta...

First religions, then later spiritual systems, always demand effort of some kind - but the nature of effort could be very different - maybe ...

Baths v showers?  No contest ...   Baths are great - deeply-relaxing, deeply-cleansing; and you can read - or sleep - if that way inclined (...

The " romantic " search for an escape from the mundane nature of life in this-world - that is, for enchantment - takes many, many ...

"Yuzi" Chahal's unique celebration after taking a hat-trick (three wickets in three balls) in last year's IPL  It is the I...

Mary and the resurrected Jesus at the tom b Where I presume later excisions is marked: [...] John 20: [1] :  The first day of the week comet...

For me, the significance of Good Friday is that this was when Jesus died ; which he needed to do in order to fulfil, to complete, his core m...

Amidst our civilization characterized by extremely weak motivation - probably the weakest in the history of the world - there are individua...

  If I look back on the technological breakthroughs of my life, and reflect on the genius required to make them; none are more impressive t...

Easter seems to be a time when the confusion, incoherence, and errors of mainstream Christianity become most evident; as mainstream Christi...

This is:  Because "we" (the group with whom I identify) have, over many past generations, sunk so much effort, resources, sufferi...

Because being-a-Christian is essentially about resurrected eternal Heavenly life beyond mortal death; it may seem that - even if it were ass...

William Wildblood is currently running a fascinating blog series based on a period in the early 1980s when he lived in India for several yea...

In the past - including in Western nations - there were religious wars, because religion was the primary motivator in many people's live...

Sir John Fenwick's the flower amang them  (variously titled) is a lovely, yearning air in 3/4 time, which I often used to play to myself...

It strikes me that different people want very different things from their religion - or (more often nowadays) their ideology*.  Many people ...

Virtue in traditional Christianity, indeed in traditional religion, is about obedience to external deity - service to the will of a deity. C...