Hey

Thinking students are stimulating

Welcome Alex, David, Shannon, Morgan and Marta. Today’s class was very thoughtful, honest and stimulating. We started our class with a smash poem called Foxhole Manifesto: http://www.campfire.net.au/node/145

This helped us explore and articulate what we believe about God.

Beliefs in God

• God is someone you can ask for help but it is wrong not to thank him when does, otherwise we are just using him.

• God is real but not active in our society because we are on the right path, we have everything we need; health, technology, friends, comfort.

• God is real but as to what he/she is like more exploring needs to be done.

• God isn’t real, the universe is adequately explained scientifically ie the Big Bang.

• God is a concept that people use to get them through hard times.

• God is big, he can do anything, and he wrote the world a letter to reveal himself, that letter is the Bible. God is a person whom you can have a relationship. The purpose of the universe is to give God glory just by its amazingness, its existence. God’s rescue plan also gives him glory.

Aliens vs Chance

Aliens: Bit more friendly

Alien: Not so friendly

I was asked whether I believe in life on other planets. The implication being that the universe is so big that mathematically there must be life elsewhere even though that might be such a small possibility. But I don’t believe in Chance, my Big God chose to make life on earth only and no matter what the maths say if there is no chance then there is no chance.

Narcissism

People are essentially greedy. The goal in life is to love your life, to make your own luck otherwise people will make it for you. This is a good counter balance to those who might over depend on God to do what they should be doing.

Purpose of life

The idea that we have replaced God with things in the world is a very astute observation of the Western World. The question posed to students was what happens to them if they weren’t able to enjoy friendship, technology, comfort, happiness? This was a hard question. Let me put it this way. What are they living for and what would happen if they couldn’t achieve their goals?

Sharing

Narcissism: Love yourself

Students were very open and made themselves vulnerable, this shows tremendous courage and friendship. Students were challenged to think about their spirituality because life is more than what job they will end up doing and the friends they will have.