Dr Robin Douglas

These are two book reviews which I originally posted on my old blog back when the New Atheists were news. The first is a review of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion; the second is a review of Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great. The God Delusion The editorial line of this blog is unsympathetic to…

I’m reposting this review, which I originally wrote in 2011. This, if you’ll excuse the metaphor, is the Bible of political Islam.  Originally published in 1964 as Ma’alim fi al-Tariq, it is the enduring legacy to the world of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), an Egyptian educationalist and a bitter enemy of the Nasser government, western democracy, secularism and…

Originally posted on my Substack More people should know about Apollonius of Tyana. If what we are told about him is true, he was pretty special. His birth was accompanied by miracles. A chorus of swans sang. A thunderbolt fell towards earth and went back up to heaven again. He was a healer and an…

Originally posted on my Substack In this piece, we are going to meet a strange Roman called Apuleius – a witty, learned man who may have had some dark secrets. His career takes us deep into the worlds of magic, witchcraft and fantastical literature. Who was Apuleius? Apuleius was Roman by nationality, but he was…

One of the odder episodes of George W. Bush’s presidency was the claim that he decided to invade Iraq on the basis of Biblical prophecies about the end of the world. It is said that Bush mentioned Gog and Magog – two names associated with the end times – in a phone call with the…

This article was originally posted on my Substack in July 2024 For several weeks now, various online Catholic communities have been buzzing with reports that Pope Francis is about to ban the Latin Mass. Why should you care if you’re not a Catholic? Or indeed if you are? I’m going to try to explain what…

Also posted on my Substack The Victorians were not just pioneers of science and technology. They were also, in many cases, deeply interested in the paranormal. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert personally attended séances – as did politicians, scientists, intellectuals, and numerous ordinary working-class people. What’s more, there was an intersection between the Victorians’ faith in…

Originally posted on my Substack in July 2024 Sir Keir Starmer is the first British prime minister to identify publicly as an atheist. There has been some media comment on this, some of which you’ve probably seen. Humanists UK say that it’s no big deal. They point out that there have been unbelieving PMs before. Yet…

In a recent post, we met Francis George Irwin, a Freemason and occultist who ought to be better known for his role in the Victorian Occult Revival. Irwin was an associate of a number of leading figures in contemporary esotericism, including the founders of the Golden Dawn and Frederick Hockley. One of Irwin’s interests was…

This is an article about an undeservedly forgotten figure of the nineteenth-century Occult Revival – a colourful character by the name of Francis George Irwin (1828-1893). Irwin was an Irishman who ended up living in Bristol in England. He probably came from a Protestant family. He spent his career as a soldier, but for present…