Plenary, 17 Sep 2008
Meeting date: Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Official Report
421KB pdf
Time for Reflection
Good afternoon. As always on a Wednesday, the first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader is Alex McLellan, executive director of Reason Why.
Alex McLellan (Reason Why):
"It's like sawing off the branch you're sitting on!" That saying reflects a danger obvious to all, but YouTube suggests otherwise. Click on the link and see teenagers putting the theory to the test—yes, they actually sawed off the branch they were sitting on, with painful consequences.
Do others put themselves in a similarly precarious position, perhaps not physically, but in relation to the claims they make? Consider the following: "There is no truth!" The person who makes that claim clearly believes it is true that there is no truth, so it is a claim that immediately contradicts itself—it is sawing off the branch. "You can't tell others what to believe!" But that person is telling others what to believe and it is another contradiction, like sawing off the branch. And one of my favourites: "You can't talk about religion!" Whoever says that is clearly talking about religion, but denying others the right to do the same. I hope that you get the point—it is sawing off the branch.
Three years ago, I started the company Reason Why to encourage people to think about what they believe and why they believe it, because whatever you believe, there is a reason why. What is the reason why you believe? Know the reason why you believe. I believe that Christianity is true and there is a reason why.
Consider the universe: where did it come from? I believe in God because something from someone is more probable than something from nothing. Consider Jesus of Nazareth: a man who lived in a remote place with little money, no political power, and no military might; he never wrote a book, only taught for three years and yet he turned the history of the world upside down. I believe that the life, teaching and impact of Jesus Christ confirm that he is the son of God.
Consider our experience: a desire for significance in a universe where we are less than a speck, a desire for relationship in a world that is socially broken and fragmented and a desire for permanence in a life that is fleeting. I believe that the Bible makes sense when it says that we were made by God, which is significance; we were created to know God, which is relationship; and God wants us to spend eternity with him, which is permanence.
As GK Chesterton said, the fact that we do not fit this world is the best evidence that we were made for another world, and Christianity offers the reason why.