Content sketch of "HOW TO MAKE SENSE OF GOD"

The majority of people in the West still believe in God, but the image is confused and frequently contradicts implicit or explicit tenets of people's secular convictions. Research has shown that a new presentation is required which provides reasons why belief in God makes sense even in a secular age.

This course offers such a reasoned witness. Its main purpose is to help people think about the issues involved. The arguments of atheists and agnostics are presented alongside modern Christian reasoning. The presentation is kept within short chapters, and in semi-academic form, to accommodate people's reduced attention span.

Care has been taken to place the argumentation within the context of human wholeness. After all, we are not discussing arid philosophical notions, but a reasoned world view that makes our human search for personal fulfilment and happiness meaningful.

Part 1. MYSTERY

• Religion and the search for our true self.
• The relationship between science and religion.
• Why Freudians are wrong in declaring religion to be an illusion.
• How all religions share the limitations of human thought, and yet reflect a common transcending dimension.
• Why we need to re-discover the sense of mystery to find ourselves.

Part 2. CREATION

• Reflection on what constitutes our real worth as human beings.
• Arguments to show that the universe is created, i.e. that it depends on an outside Power for its existence and being.
• Pointers to God from things that matter in life: truth, beauty and love.
• How belief in God (with "God" being properly understood) is a corner stone in our intellectual frame work.

Part 3. CONSCIENCE

• It is the ethical dimension of our life that makes us truly human.
• Our power of reason is the basis of our conscience; and yet our reason by itself cannot establish the objective nature of right and wrong.
• The voice of our conscience reflects the reality of the Other: of reality outside us, of the reality that gives us being, of the Person who makes us individuals.

Part 4. ENCOUNTER

• Among the highest values we possess is the one to relate meaningfully to other people.
• Do we live in an atomistic, mechanistic universe, where human beings are freaks? Or is the personal dimension of reality a reflection of ultimate reality so that the reality we call God can relate to us?
• Why does the Christian notion of Iincarnation (if properly understood) make sense, in spite of all appearances?

Part 5. LOVE

• Human life is marred by violence and suffering. How can the existence of evil be reconciled with accepting a Creator?
• Can a scientific world view tolerate the meaningfulness of sacrificing one's life for someone else?
• Is love no more than a psychological outgrowth of evolutionary instincts?
• How can the Christian belief that God is love throw a light on our perplexing human plight?

For a detailed description of the five parts that make up the course, click here.

The film on the companion video, Journey to the Centre of Love, places the same topics within a story of two young people who search for God in today's world.

For a fuller description of the film, click here.

The text of the course book has been given comic relief through cartoons of the professional artist Thomas Adcock.

To return to How to Make Sense of God general description, click here.