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Delia Knox - Miracles and healing, cynicism or wonder?

Today the story of Delia Knox has jumped out of Christian subculture into the mainstream UK media, with this story on the Daily Mail website. Knox is filmed leaving her wheelchair after being prayed for at the Bay of the Holy Spirit Revival in Mobile, Alabama. Watch the 13 minute video embedded there, if you can. Most people will have one of two reactions to this: either you will be deeply moved, or you will find yourself overwhelmingly cynical about the whole thing. The second of the two seems to be the reaction of choice for Mail Online readers, who queue in droves in the comments section to pour scorn on the whole thing. Why are people sceptical about spiritual and miraculous healing? Mostly because they simply don't believe it. The prevailing secular atheist worldview has no slot available for this kind of thing - it simply doesn't happen (although a more thoughtful and informed atheist might allow for some kind of psychosomatic factor in healing). But even among those w
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let the vicar have a day off

I began writing this on Tuesday, my usual day off. Not normally a day when I would be hunched over the keyboard, but this week I had the time because I'm luxuriating in a whole week off. A perfectly usual experience, except in the case of vicars, when the idea of a "week off" becomes quite complex and problematic. Last week on Twitter I intercepted someone's tweet who had spotted a clergy friend who was enjoying an entertaining day out. His reply was along the lines of "blimey, what it is to be a vicar and live the life of Riley" etc. I have no complaint against this person, who is a good guy and obviously meant no harm. It was just a variant on the age-old witticism that every parish priest hears on a more or less weekly basis, "of course you only work on Sundays, don't you?" There are a few versions of this, my personal favourite being "not another holiday?" if one takes leave at any time within about a year of having previously d
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Dawkins fails the truth test again

Richard Dawkins was trending on Twitter yesterday, on the strength of an interview with Paxman on Newsnight last night ( link here , jump in at about 36 minutes). As we might expect, Dawko was on the box to promote his latest book, which apparently is aimed at children and shows them how to free their minds from superstition and religion, and become rational-minded thinkers like Dawkins. The present Dawkins is a more congenial figure than the blood-spitting one of the past.  Formerly atheism's Grand Inquisitor, sworn to seek and destroy all those who opposed the true word of Dawk, he has re-cast himself as an evangelist, eyes burning with certainty, seeking to persuade the unbelieving masses by the power of his words.  He is the true antithesis of the religious believers he so despises. Watching him last night prompted a couple of observations. One is that the church needs more people who can communicate on TV with the same degree of clarity and certainty that Dawkins does. It is
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