A Spark, the Start, Motivation!

I always have ideas for this and that but they nearly always end before they get started. Well today I start. After watching a TV prgroam called QANDA (Questions and Answer) last night I think that it is important that I do this. Not to try and covert people to Christianity, not to persuade people to think about their own spirituality. I need to do this so I can think and work through some issues of my own faith. On the the show, there are 5 guests who take it in turns to speak various issues in response to questions. The topics I watched being discussed were:

• Disasters - God & Miracles
• In Defence of Religion
• Evangelical Atheism
• Religion & Society
• Atheist For PM

One of the guests was Christopher Hitchens who amongst many things is the writer of 'God Is Not Great' a 'fierce denunciation of organised religion: 'violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.'

He was certainly entertaining in many ways but I must admit that he also offered some very thought provoking concepts. In particular I liked how he said that Governments should not rely on religious organisations to provide essential services like health and aged care. The entire episode is available for download from the ABC website (http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda) and the episode aired on Thursday October 1st 2009.

It was later in bed that night that I realised quite a long time ago I had bought Richard Dawkins book 'The God Delusion' with the idea of reading through it and writing out some thoughts as I progressed. However after reading the prologue I was so annoyed that I decided it was better left of the bookshelf. Since then I have grown some what in my views of the world and while no doubt parts will distress me as I read, I have a different theory.

My theory is essentially this - We are all wrong. No one has thier ideas/beliefs/life view 100% correct and as such we need to look at others view and try to understand it from their perspective.  If any one group, person, religion or organisation understood everything and knew it all then they would have the right to enforce 'their' way. Any attempt to enforce the 'right way' simply shows no humilty and basic reasoning that can only suggest that 'right way' is in fact wrong! In my eyes not only includes material by Richard  Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens but also by religious groups or leaders such as the Pope.

In this blog I also intend to write about subjects that make no sense and frustrate me in my own faith but for the moment I intend to focus on blogging about each chapter and topic in 'The God Delusion'. First up... the prologue I never made it past the first time!