I have been doing a lot of reading, studying about the early church in the book of Acts. It seems to me that they used reason, argument, discussion and debate a lot more than the modern church. I have found debate to be a really useful way to open up and discuss the Gospel. Here is an old example from the University of Edinburgh in October 2013 with Alistair McBay of the National Secular Society – who still engages with me on social media every now and then! If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing – as always it is the questions which are the most interesting – they start around 30 minutes. I found it revealing that all the questions were for me. I would love to start doing these kind of events here in Australia!
On Writing the Dawkins Letters
Thank you so much! I have just forwarded it to a group of students from our church for whom I pray (pretty much) daily.
In my email to them I really pressed the point on which you closed David: “[I] argue for thinking”. I find it very difficult to watch your (and any)YouTube video presentations as my attention wanders. I much prefer interacting with books which I ‘deface’ with underlinings, highlighting, my own annotations, stickmen and the like. However this presentation was gripping.
Some questioners should be “vetted” before being allowed near the microphone!
“… He has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” (Eccles. 3:11)
Yeah I think so David. I’m led to believe that in rabbinic teaching, The teacher was often interrupted by others and everyone sat in a circle. Seems a better way to learn I think. I found it a more rewarding learning experience in masters seminars where everyone what invited to contribute rather than undergraduate lectures.