Mark Keown

I was on ZB on Good Friday in debate with a humanist/agnostic/God-believer of sorts and a Muslim. It was an interesting experience. I am not sure how I did (feedback appreciated). Oliver Driver of TV and talkshow fame was a lot of fun. He made some good points; many of which I agreed with. He said that God cannot be described by some 'man-made' religion. I agree with him actually. Our best attempts to describe God are limited. The only reason I dare to even go there is because God came down and made himself known in Jesus. He got hot under the collar about us believers going to the poor and helping them and our concern for homosexuality and matters of personal morality. I agree with him that we need to be concerned for the greater matters. It was interesting that he kept wondering why God hasn't come down to reveal himself. Well the truth is that he has; the incarnation. However, just as the people of Jesus' time did not recognise that Jesus was God, I am not surprised ...

What about the violence between rival soccer fans in the stands of the recent Manchester United and ASRoma clash? Then the following day we have another outbreak of violence between Sevilla and Tottenham. This is ridiculous and disgraceful. Sport is sport and not life itself. When people behave like this they demonstrate that they are deluded and have lost their grasp of reality and what counts. It is great to be excited about our favourite teams and watch the games with passion and get in behind them. If it leads to more, then it is to put it bluntly, wrong! It is wrong to kill coaches when their team is beaten at the cricket world cup. It is wrong to resort to violence over a game. It is wrong to shoot a soccer player after a world cup because he got an own goal. It is wrong to make sport more than it is; a sport. Perhaps those teams should be banned from the next UEFA cup!

I was interested to read on Teletext this morning the results of a Newsweek poll on American religious views. You can read about it at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17879317/site/newsweek/ The core results for American Adults are: 91% say they believe in God. 87% say they identify with a specific religion. 82% identify themselves as Christians 5% follow a non-Christian faith; say Judaism or Islam. 48% rejects the scientific theory of evolution 34% of college graduates say they accept the Biblical account of creation as fact. 73% of Evangelical Protestants say they believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. 39% percent of non-Evangelical Protestants and 41% of Catholics agree with that view. 10% identify themselves as having "no religion" 6% say that they don’t believe in a God at all. 3% of the public self-identifies as atheist 47% of the respondents felt the country is more accepting of atheists today than it used to be What do we make...

It is a hot topic at the moment with the Government and Greens trying to push through the anti-smacking legislation. So what position should we take? Christian support for smacking is drawn from the OT in the main. The OT takes a strong stand against excessive beating stating that beating a slave which leads to death requires punishment (Exod 21:20). However, few today would be comfortable with the following verse in which it is stated that if the slave gets up after a day or two, there is no punishment for the slave is the property of the owner (Exod 21:21). The notion of physical punishment is attributed to God in the OT. In 2 Sam 7:14 through the prophet Nathan God speaks of establishing a personal relationship with the king from the line of David. God tells David he will be 'his father' and David and the dynasty will be his sons. It then says from the mouth of God, 'When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men.' This is ...

First Pakistan and India were knocked out of the World Cup of cricket and Ireland and Bangladesh made it in. Then we hear that Bob Woolmer is murdered, times sure are strange in the world of sport. Then it comes to pass that Federer loses twice in one week to the same guy, Guillermo Canas. This has to be good for tennis. It is certainly good for Canas! I had never heard of the guy and now in two weeks he has done it twice! Then Serena Williams knocks off Maria Sharipova again. Not to mention the All Whites being hammered twice in South America. I am not that surprised they lost, but a 4-0 and then a 5-0 thrashing! Then we have the Warriors beginning the year with two successive wins; that is dramatic. The Storm brought them down to earth with a thud. Maybe it is not that surprising is Michael Phelp's dominance of the pool in Melbourne Australia. Six, or is it seven golds! He is a freak. However, shocking is Ian Thorpe's supposed drug violations with excessive testosterone in hi...