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Soul Survivor

I’m in a bit of a writing mood this evening so I thought id raise the subject of Soul Survivor.

Soul Survivor is a Christian camp that I (briefly) went to last week. For those who are observant you may wonder why I put ‘briefly’ in brackets. Well I only actually stayed until the 3rd day at Soul survivor at which time I decided to go home. To put it simply I seriously didn’t enjoy the event. I shall explain why without being too pessimistic!

Soul Survivor is by far the most eccentric event I have ever attended in my life. Loads of people like this aspect of the camp but for me it seemed to cast a shadow over the real issue which was God. Now in honesty I would be lying if I were to describe myself as a Christian at the moment, atheism looks like a far more realistic belief (however that is another subject altogether!) and for that reason I don’t want to talk about God’s interaction at Soul Survivor since it wouldn’t be my place. From a personal point of view I was gaining nothing out of the talks or worship which took place. It’s clear other people were as discussions seemed to be sprouting between people at the camp. I actually got involved in a discussion about the idea of Hell. This conversation sparked a realisation within me and almost an anger against Christianity simply because most faithful followers seem to take faith as something to be proud of.

Only a fortnight ago we were given a questionnaire at my youth group about finding out what Spiritual Gifts we may have. The test involved numbering certain boxes against a question we either strongly agreed to or didn’t agree with. Now when this ‘test’ was given to me I thought it was some kind of joke and started laughing to myself. I then looked up to see a room full of concentrating, serious faces! I couldn’t believe it; people were actually taking this test seriously! It made me realise how much power religion has over some people and how the blind believing of faith can make people do stupid things or even believe ridiculous things. I did the test anyway and was glad to receive a single point for faith. Made me realise I’m not mad!

Soul Survivor seemed to play off those grounds of blind believing and for that reason that is maybe why the majority of people enjoy it. However I’m a person that doesn’t like blind faith, I just can’t be convinced by it simply because it’s the ignorance of evidence and reason. On the first night 160 people went up to the front to become Christians and I honestly couldn’t work out why, I still can’t. The talk before had just been about having a relationship with God of which no historical or scientific evidence had been given. People just bought into the idea that a God must exist because he exists! I understand that everyone is different and everyone has their own special reasons for believing but surely all belief should be backed with reason? It reminds me of a terrible but comical talk given by a preacher named J John last year. His talk was simply a Christian rant against anybody who wasn’t Christian and of which over a 1000 people came to the front to commit their lives to Christianity.

Now I am not disputing the fact that a God may exist. He may! But I am sad to say that I am being more and more convinced that his existence his nothing but mere emotional reaction for most people. It was for me when I was confirmed 3 years ago. You may wonder why I said ‘Sad to Say’; a personal God would be amazing, just to know that somebody more powerful than yourself is with you all the time and helping you feels great. However I no longer have this feeling and for that reason it is sad since this feeling has probably departed forever. However I would rather live an unhappy truth than a deluded comfort.

Time for a Job Change

Its time I started looking for a new Job but it’s not that easy!

I’m not entirely sure what to do. If I were to find a job based off my skill areas then that would be something to do with technology and arguing. I don’t think such a job exists sadly so instead it’s time to do a mass CV drop again. Epsom tomorrow and hopefully I may strike lucky! A job where I sell geeky gadgets or books would be the ideal job at the moment but the chances of finding such a job is so slim considering the masses of other people on the job hunt as well. All I can do at the moment is join the crowd of job hungry sheep and maybe at some point will find become lucky and find a small farm gate!

On a different note I am selling a domain name. I’m new to domain name selling but am doing alright so far! It’s not a bad address either (tbuild.com) so hopefully I may earn some cash of that. I’ll keep all of you blog readers updated with that story.

Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

Found a very interesting video discussion between Atheist, Richard Dawkins and Christian, Alister McGrath. After having watched it the debate seems very balanced with both individuals clearly sharing their views with each other.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6474278760369344626

The Alps

For the second part of my holiday this year I stayed in a villa located in the Alps. The house was situated in a valley which meant we had mountains all around us. Even though we were in the valley we must have been fairly high up since clouds appeared very low. In fact one day there was a thunderstorm and after a while my dad realised that we were standing inside of the thunder cloud. Noticing his haste to return inside I copied him and instead watched sky!

During the week in the Alps we went up two mountains by cable car. One of the mountains was 10,000ft high and the second was 11,000ft. At that those kinds of heights the temperature really does drop at the summit. When climbing the 11,000ft mountain the temperature dropped from 32c to 0c! As you will see in the pictures Glaciers were at the top peaks and on the 11,000ft mountain we were actually above the cloud. We also visited a third mountain during our visit to the Alps which we actually climbed! It was 5000ft high and at the top was a mountain lake. The lake does look beautiful in the pictures but at the time it seemed a bit disappointing. I think the mere fact it took 3 hours to reach the lake I was beginning to imagine something more worthwhile!

Not only were going up the mountains amazing but so was simply walking around them. Most of the pictures taken in the Alps were taken looking up at the mountains. At one point I managed to take a picture of a snow capped mountain with two greener mountains either side. The scenery was absolutely stunning! It’s something you only ever seem to see in Microsoft desktop background!

Overall it was a good fun time. Only after I got home I realised how pure the Alpine air was and I really do miss it. Next year the family are thinking of returning to a different part of the Alps, perhaps ever going to Italian Alps. I have included some of the pictures which I took during the holiday in this post.

Public Debate on Complexity and Evolution

I had a listen to this debate and found it very interesting. Its very well done and provides a lot of support and fundations for evolution. Even if you don't fully understand the science behind evolution it shouldn't be too difficult to understand.

"On evening of 9th July 2007, the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation keynote event was held at London's Natural History Museum. Featuring Richard Dawkins, Steve Jones, Lewis Wolpert and chaired by Peter Bentley, a discussion on evolution and complexity took place in front of an audience of 600 people. On this page you can listen to the discussion and take a look at some of the photos of the event."

http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/p.bentley/evodebate.mp3

What does it mean to be a Christian?

Really my thoughts at the moment are based around this topic. Recently I have seriously considered Atheism from some of the conclusions which I have come to resulting from this question. I think many Christians think about this question sub consciously. Especially during times of doubt and it seems this question is always at the core, it is for me.

Does being a Christian mean going to church every Sunday? Being good all the time? If both answers to these questions were to be yes then an image of a fundamental, mindless and possibly bored person comes to my mind. Is that what Christianity is all about? After thinking... it just couldn’t be. In fact I think the state of the church at the moment is a classic example of what an unhealthy Christian looks like. Now I don’t want to be misunderstood as I believe avoiding sin and attending church are all very healthy things but there is so much more. I don’t like the word Christian; it makes me feel like I’m useless, brainless, cut off from civilisation. In fact I prefer saying “Yes, I do believe in God because if a God does exist then he would only have all the qualities which are shown through Christianity.” Being a Christian is about living for what we were intended for. We all need to understand that there are more than pleasures for the body. If you look around you will see evidence for this, how else can you explain how you know what is good and bad, how people cry out for a power greater than themselves during pain or how we somehow have an idea of what is perfect in a world full of pain? We are not defined by our names or actions. We are defined through our creator as he has designed each and every one of us for a purpose. Our lives are a gift from God and each breath should be made in honour of him, not against him. People need to recognize that although we may look different in body that our spirits are all the same, no matter how much sin we have committed or how far away from God we feel we are. We are all equal in a world full of brokenness; the world as it is now was never intended for us and so we are all foreigners in a land of pain. Some of us are lost when we lose track of God’s great light, his love for us and these are the times we start to feel the guilt and pain as the world closes in around us. We need to learn that the only way to get through these troubles is to keep hold of God, even when the road gets rough.