The Religion and Science Debate,Why does it continue?

In the US and also creeping into other countries is the confrontation between fundamental Christian creationism, aka Intellegent Design, and Science's Biological Evolution. It is not going to go away and goes to the very heart of Christian beliefs.

The Dwight H. Terry Lectureship celebrated the 100th Anniversary with a Conference just ended titled "The Religion and Science Debate, why does it continue?".A significant blog discusses one relevant lecture followed by readers comments.You may find them interesting.

The God Delusion

In September 1997 Richard Dawkins allowed an Australian film crew into his Oxford home, only to realise in the course of a particularly inept interview that they were creationists trying to trap him. Tumbling to this, he paused some moments while deciding whether to throw them out or attempt a long and thoughtful explanation that they didn't want to hear. read on

Three Questions

1. Don Cupitt reckons that all the world's major religions need to make a fresh start. Whereas once God controlled every part of our lives, now people have to take responsibility for how they live. There is no supernatural, no hell "below" or heaven "above". This world is all we have. What is your response?

2. Do we need creeds which tell us what to believe? if not, should we feel free to work out for ourselves how we should live godly lives?

3. If you attend a local church, is there anything that you would like to see changed? Would Sea of Fatih thinking, e.g. about God, about life after death, about the Bible, be acceptable?

Amnesty International Speakers

The speakers for the meeting on Sunday 17 Sept. will be


Maria Roberts Amnesty International,

Nina Spiers, Settlement Support Co-ordinator for Napier City Council; and

Kathy Sheerdown of Kiribaf.

Quotes from Looking in the Distance

Quotes from "Looking in the Distance" by the former Bishop of Edinburgh, Richard Holloway.

1) On Death.
When the map of life is complete and when we die in the richness of our history,some among the living will miss us for a while,but the earth will go on without us. Its day is longer than ours, though we know now that it too will die. Our brief finitude is but a beautiful spark in the vast darkness of space. So we should live the fleeting day with passion, and when the night comes, depart from it with grace.

2)On the Absence of God.

Even though we experience God as absent,we should continue to live as though he were present in love.

3) On Wanting Final Answers.

We want answers, explanations, portable idols. This is the attraction of all explanatory systems. It accounts, for instance, for the current appeal of a Christian education course called Alpha, which gives briskly confident answers to all of life's puzzling questions.


This was contributed by Alan Goss.

September Monthly Meeting

Our next meeting will be: Sunday, 17 September, 3.30 - 5.00pm at the Hawke's Bay Club cnr. Marine Parade and Browning St, Napier (Browning St. entrance)

The Meeting will be chaired by Margaret MacKie
$2 per person to cover expenses

Topic:- Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an organisation of individuals, who are concerned for the plight of people imprisoned for non-Criminal reasons. They may be accused of crimes but the reality is that they are victims of corrupt regimes and incarcerated to prevent them exposing political truths.

The members of Amnesty International show their concern for these victims by exposing these situations and writing to Governments, or people in authority, protesting their imprisonment and hoping by such pressure to obtain their release.

The Speaker is still to be announced.
Please Note
1. Conference is nearly upon us .Registrations will have closed by the time we meet but it is still possible to consider attending casual sessions.
There is also an opportunity to hear Don Cupitt in Palmerston on Sunday October 1st.

2. With one more meeting to go we need to look ahead to next year. The year will NOT START if we do not have a strong organisation behind the programmes. Please put your name forward to be part of a planning team in 2007. Do this at the meeting next Sunday.

3. If you are not prepared to do the above you may like to help by introducing or thanking speakers. This takes pressure off the chairperson and is much appreciated. Look for this list next Sunday.

4. How is the Question Box coming along? We should make time for dealing with these questions and suggestions at our October meeting. This is your chance to make an anonymous contribution to our group. You can also submit suggestions on the Web Log’

Dennis Oliver from Havelock North is offering transport to Conference. Please speak to Marie Robertson phone 8786653, or email mastro@paradise.net.nz if you would like to take this offer up.

The planning team for next months Meeting on the 15th October is Margaret Mackie, Shirley Johnson, Bob Wallis.

The March 2007 team is Shirley Johnson, Bob Wallis, Shirley Goss.

Remember to look at Sea of Faith Web Log for further announcements.