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Discussion Guide DISCUSSION GUIDE Executive Producer Karl Faase Discussion Guide Centre for Public Christianity Research Alison Hammond 10 SESSIONS SUITABLE FOR DISCUSSION GROUPS AND INDIVIDUAL USE TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE TOWARDS BELIEF DVD SERIES www.towardsbelief.org.au 1 Towards Belief Discussion Guide Published 2013 Copyright © 2013 Olive Tree Media Towards Belief DVD and Discussion Guide are produced by Olive Tree Media Incorporated PO Box 1007 Sutherland NSW 1499 Australia Email: [email protected] www.olivetreemedia.com.au www.towardsbelief.org.au ISBN 978-0-9806266-8-1 (DVD & Discussion Guide pack) ISBN 978-0-9806266-9-8 (Discussion Guide only) All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Executive Producer: Karl Faase Discussion Guide Editor: Simon Smart, Centre for Public Christianity Graphic Design: Jane Faase Printed by Summit Technology, Silverwater, NSW, Australia 2 contents 1: suffering page 6 2: the bible page 13 3: supernatural page 20 4: religious violence page 27 5: exclusive faith page 34 6: church abuse page 41 7: science and God page 48 8: homosexuality page 56 9: the church page 64 10: towards belief page 71 3 introduction In 2011, Richard Dawkins appeared on the Australian TV program “Q&A”, and in the ensuing discussion on science verses faith, Dawkins was asked why they can’t co-exist. His reply, in relation to Christianity, was that “... it’s not true!” The statement, made by this outspoken atheist, prompted Karl Faase to find out what the average person in Australia really thinks about Christian faith. This exploration resulted in Towards Belief - a series which seeks to address the belief blockers for those exploring Christian faith, whilst clarifying some of the issues for Christians as well. Olive Tree Media commissioned social researchers, McCrindle Research, to look into the religious and spiritual beliefs of modern Australians and specifically what issues turned people away from Christianity and the Church. The methodology involved a quantitative survey that was deployed to a representative national panel with 1,094 participants. To further explore the results, three focus groups were conducted to gain insights into attitudes and perceptions underlying “belief blockers” – those objections that blocked people from having confidence in the Christian faith and its message. The results have been published in the Australian Communities Report. (The report can be purchased through the Olive Tree Media website.) These belief blockers became the framework for the ten episodes of Towards Belief. The purpose of this discussion guide is straightforward: to provide the enquiring, the sceptical and believer alike the opportunity to explore some vital questions that emerge from a consideration of God, faith, the Church and whether or not Christianity has something to say to contemporary life. The ethos of this guide is to provide an environment for open, reflective and honest questions that emerge from the subjects of each DVD episode. This guide is designed to help small groups navigate the material in Towards Belief in a manner that will help stimulate discussion and bring the issues into real life situations. Participants will be given the opportunity to consider how the key ideas presented in the DVD might impact their own unique life situation. 4 Focus Questions and a brief Introduction at the beginning of each episode provide the thrust of what is about to be discussed, and highlight the issue that’s on the table. A group leader or facilitator should read this material prior to the group watching the relevant episode together. This should take around 30 mins. Once the group has viewed the episode, go through the section Unpacking the Issue where you will be given a more detailed account of the central concerns of each episode, along with some episode highlights to help direct the shape of the discussion. Then it’s time to look at the Discussion Questions. These are designed to be a guide and a stimulus. Here’s some suggestions: Don’t worry about trying to complete all the questions. Decide as a group which ones to focus on, and allow the discussion to go where it takes you. These are big topics to discuss and there’s no need to rush through them all. The questions have been designed so that they engage the real life issues all participants face. Encourage honesty and a genuine wrestling with the issue at hand. These topics raise all sorts of emotions, fears and enthusiasms and these are best dealt with in a safe and open manner. Expect and allow for very different responses to the topics covered. We all have different experiences to bring to the discussion. Diverse interpretations will enrich the discussion and are to be welcomed. Respect and good listening will aid the process immeasurably. Try to make a priority of the questions that elicit a practical response and application to real life as each participant experiences it. Don’t try to lock down neat answers to these topics. Allow for some things to be unresolved in the sense that they require more thinking and consideration. Encourage people to consider the material in Further Research/ Reading. Some of this material is in the form of video interviews from the web. Consider having participants watch these together or encourage them to pick them up later. Where an issue is especially important to a group member, the books, articles and interviews listed in this section may be especially helpful. 5 1. suffering “Does the scale and depth of human suffering call into question the existence of an all-powerful, good God?” INTRODUCTION The issue of how to reconcile human pain and suffering with the idea of a good God is a universal question. Many people have identified suffering as the reason why they can’t believe in God. How can Christians believe in an all-powerful God who allows suffering? Does the fact of suffering mean that God is not a God of love? Or does it mean God is impotent—unable to stop the suffering? Or does suffering prove there is no God? Watch episode: suffering UNPACKING THE ISSUE Philosopher, Richard Swinburne admits that the question of why a good God would allow suffering “is and always has been really the most important and influential argument against the existence of God in history”. There is some diversity in the intellectual Christian response to ‘the problem of pain’. Below we will look at various arguments put forward by Christian thinkers to deal with the idea of suffering. However it’s important to realise that philosophical explanations, while important, don’t always help an individual in the midst of real suffering. No God? Atheist philosopher and neuroscientist Sam Harris writes in his book An Atheist Manifesto, “If God exists, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to”. That makes God “either impotent or evil”. Therefore the most “reasonable and less odious conclusion” for Harris is that there is no God at all. However, it has been well-established by philosophers that such arguments are weak: at a 6 purely logical level, just because we can’t imagine a good reason why God might allow something to happen doesn’t mean there can’t be one. Unless we have some sort of divine, eternal perspective upon all of time we can’t draw conclusions that could ‘disprove’ God’s existence from our own finite experience and knowledge. “... there’s an assumption at the outset that if God has good reasons for allowing the suffering that he does, we should know what those reasons are. But why think that? I mean if parents for instance were choosing to move city ... to the young child that might be the very worst thing that could possibly happen. It might be completely unfathomable why the parents would choose to do that and yet from our adult perspective we might be able to look in and say actually they had good reasons to move city.” Vince Vitale Free will and a good God The philosopher Alvin Plantinga argues that God cannot determine that free creatures will only do what is right, or they would not be significantly free. Therefore people capable of moral good must be capable of moral evil. Plantinga says, “The fact that free creatures sometimes go wrong, however, counts neither against God’s omnipotence nor against His goodness; for He could have forestalled the occurrence of moral evil only by removing the possibility of moral good.” “The first reason why there is suffering is because God has given free will to people and that’s a blessing, but the suffering is an unfortunate consequence of the blessing.” Richard Swinburne A broken world and a suffering God Again and again, the Bible speaks of a fallen existence, of a world that contains much that is evil and broken. The philosopher David Bentley Hart writes that much of the brokenness we see around us is a result of what the New Testament book of Romans, Chapter 8, refers to as creation “groaning”: that the world as we see it is somehow estranged from God and that evil and suffering are not ordained by God but are enemies of God’s true intentions for the world. The Bible also points to how God deals with suffering and evil. On the cross, Jesus takes on the darkness and, in an ultimate sense, defeats it. The resurrection of Jesus tells a compelling story of God condemning all the things that have destroyed life, and promising a day when the weight of history and all the centuries 7 of human cruelty, sadness and loss will be overcome.
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