TRUTHSEEKERS
Truthseekers for grades 6-12, is designed to engage and inspire, ensuring that spiritual growth is both fun and meaningful! We meet each Sunday at 9am and tackle provocative and challenging questions about our faith that students will face and sometimes struggle to address. We encourage questions and challenge students to think critically about their faith...discussions are supportive, fun and donut-fueled!
Weekly Lesson Summaries:
April 13, 2025
Today, we reviewed what Palm Sunday represents, why we recognize it the Sunday before Easter, and what’s the deal with palms (??).
Palm Sunday kicks off Holy Week when Jesus and his disciples traveled to Jerusalem for Passover. As most of the students knew, as Jesus entered the city, people welcomed him with shouts of “hosanna,” laying clothes and palms onto his path. Hosanna means “save us” and we discussed how this sort of treatment would usually be reserved for kings triumphantly returning from battle. Since they were living under oppressive Roman rule, it is possible people were viewing Jesus as a potential military leader who could “save” them from their oppressors. This would be an ironic misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission. While he was entering Jerusalem as a king, he was bringing a kind of peace and victory. His riding on a colt of a donkey, a humble and peaceful animal, was a clear indicator of his having a different kind of mission.
We covered how this fulfilled a prophecy from the Old Testament (Zechariah 9:9) and touched on how some confusion has been raised in the literal phrasing of the story, “they brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.”
Today, we reviewed what Palm Sunday represents, why we recognize it the Sunday before Easter, and what’s the deal with palms (??).
Palm Sunday kicks off Holy Week when Jesus and his disciples traveled to Jerusalem for Passover. As most of the students knew, as Jesus entered the city, people welcomed him with shouts of “hosanna,” laying clothes and palms onto his path. Hosanna means “save us” and we discussed how this sort of treatment would usually be reserved for kings triumphantly returning from battle. Since they were living under oppressive Roman rule, it is possible people were viewing Jesus as a potential military leader who could “save” them from their oppressors. This would be an ironic misunderstanding of Jesus’ mission. While he was entering Jerusalem as a king, he was bringing a kind of peace and victory. His riding on a colt of a donkey, a humble and peaceful animal, was a clear indicator of his having a different kind of mission.
We covered how this fulfilled a prophecy from the Old Testament (Zechariah 9:9) and touched on how some confusion has been raised in the literal phrasing of the story, “they brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.”
We talked about the various interpretations people have had over time, including the absurd idea of Jesus sitting on a colt that is sitting on a donkey (!) and reviewed what the more likely explanation is.
Finally, we talked about the symbolism of Holy Week happening over Passover, covering short videos on Passover and the events of the week through Jesus’ crucifixion.
Finally, we talked about the symbolism of Holy Week happening over Passover, covering short videos on Passover and the events of the week through Jesus’ crucifixion.
April 6, 2025
This week, addressing one of our student’s questions, we talked about whether our pets will be with us in heaven.
We started our discussion covering what the Bible says about heaven, dispelling some common beliefs. We reminded the group what Father Ryan taught us in a previous class including that we do not become angels. We talked about the idea of a physical and spiritual word and how these can intersect. Perhaps more provocative to some people’s beliefs about the afterlife, we dug into what the Bible says happens to us after we die. This is not an easy topic so we watched two videos from the Bible Project, covering one that highlights what the Bible means when it addresses “eternal life,” and then one that covers the idea of how Jesus has brought heaven to us and how God’s plan is ultimately for us is to ultimately be resurrected in new bodies in a new Eden on a new Earth.
Ultimately, the Bible doesn’t address animals in new Earth, but Christians believe we will have resurrected bodies on a new Earth in a New Jerusalem (Isaiah 65:17–19; Revelation 21:1-5). We know that there were animals when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, so if the new Earth represents God’s new Garden for us, it seems probable that we’d have animals there as well. And if we are resurrected in new bodies, is it possible that our past pets will be there as well?
This week, addressing one of our student’s questions, we talked about whether our pets will be with us in heaven.
We started our discussion covering what the Bible says about heaven, dispelling some common beliefs. We reminded the group what Father Ryan taught us in a previous class including that we do not become angels. We talked about the idea of a physical and spiritual word and how these can intersect. Perhaps more provocative to some people’s beliefs about the afterlife, we dug into what the Bible says happens to us after we die. This is not an easy topic so we watched two videos from the Bible Project, covering one that highlights what the Bible means when it addresses “eternal life,” and then one that covers the idea of how Jesus has brought heaven to us and how God’s plan is ultimately for us is to ultimately be resurrected in new bodies in a new Eden on a new Earth.
Ultimately, the Bible doesn’t address animals in new Earth, but Christians believe we will have resurrected bodies on a new Earth in a New Jerusalem (Isaiah 65:17–19; Revelation 21:1-5). We know that there were animals when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, so if the new Earth represents God’s new Garden for us, it seems probable that we’d have animals there as well. And if we are resurrected in new bodies, is it possible that our past pets will be there as well?
March 30, 2025
We completed our review of how we might treat the claim that all religions point to the same God. We discussed the principles and beliefs that tie together the world’s major religions and also highlighted the shared heritage, prophets and beliefs of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. We then applied some of what we learned last week regarding relativism and objective truth. Can a monotheistic religion’s belief in a single, all-powerful God be reconciled with one that does not have a god or deity as a central concept or one that features multiple gods? Similarly, even though both Christians and Muslims believe in an all-powerful, eternal God that created the universe, the two religions describe the character of God and his desired relationship with humans in very different terms and of course, Christianity holds that Jesus is the son of God and the way to be reconciled with God whereas Islam claims Jesus was a great prophet but not the son of God.
We discussed the potential challenges of Jesus’ claim that “no one comes to the Father except through me,” including for those who pre-dated Jesus (e.g., prehistoric man) or who might never heard of Jesus. We can’t be certain how to consider these challenges, but given what Christians believe about God’s hope to have relationships with us and what the Bible says (2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16, Romans 1:19-20), we reviewed ways people might come to God through Jesus including those that lived before him or whose circumstances meant they never heard of him during their lives on Earth. We finished our session with a video addressing “How Can Jesus Be the Only Way.”
We are approaching the end of the semester with classes continuing through May 11. Our focus for these classes will continue to cover “tough questions.” Responding to the students’ vote, next week we will talk about whether or not there are animals in heaven!
We completed our review of how we might treat the claim that all religions point to the same God. We discussed the principles and beliefs that tie together the world’s major religions and also highlighted the shared heritage, prophets and beliefs of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. We then applied some of what we learned last week regarding relativism and objective truth. Can a monotheistic religion’s belief in a single, all-powerful God be reconciled with one that does not have a god or deity as a central concept or one that features multiple gods? Similarly, even though both Christians and Muslims believe in an all-powerful, eternal God that created the universe, the two religions describe the character of God and his desired relationship with humans in very different terms and of course, Christianity holds that Jesus is the son of God and the way to be reconciled with God whereas Islam claims Jesus was a great prophet but not the son of God.
We discussed the potential challenges of Jesus’ claim that “no one comes to the Father except through me,” including for those who pre-dated Jesus (e.g., prehistoric man) or who might never heard of Jesus. We can’t be certain how to consider these challenges, but given what Christians believe about God’s hope to have relationships with us and what the Bible says (2 Peter 3:9, John 3:16, Romans 1:19-20), we reviewed ways people might come to God through Jesus including those that lived before him or whose circumstances meant they never heard of him during their lives on Earth. We finished our session with a video addressing “How Can Jesus Be the Only Way.”
We are approaching the end of the semester with classes continuing through May 11. Our focus for these classes will continue to cover “tough questions.” Responding to the students’ vote, next week we will talk about whether or not there are animals in heaven!
March 23, 2025
This week we dove into the first of a series of “tough questions for Christians,” where the students will be picking topics they’d like to explore as a group. We discussed the idea that all religions point to the same God. We reviewed some related points, starting with the fact that the time and place of someone’s birth will have a big impact on the religion someone might practice. This is sometimes used as an argument against the validity of religion and God’s existence. We challenged the logic of this as well as noted that the same correlation of religious belief and birth time/location would apply equally well to many of the atheists using this argument!
We revisited the idea of objective and subjective truths. And we discussed the appeal of the emotional appeal of the idea that the world’s religions could all point to the same truths and the same God, including an inadequate review of the Baháʼí Faith which supports this idea. Next week we will continue this discussion (including a review for anyone who missed this week) and discuss different ways Christians have interpreted John 14:6 where Jesus says “…no one comes to the Father except through me.”
This week we dove into the first of a series of “tough questions for Christians,” where the students will be picking topics they’d like to explore as a group. We discussed the idea that all religions point to the same God. We reviewed some related points, starting with the fact that the time and place of someone’s birth will have a big impact on the religion someone might practice. This is sometimes used as an argument against the validity of religion and God’s existence. We challenged the logic of this as well as noted that the same correlation of religious belief and birth time/location would apply equally well to many of the atheists using this argument!
We revisited the idea of objective and subjective truths. And we discussed the appeal of the emotional appeal of the idea that the world’s religions could all point to the same truths and the same God, including an inadequate review of the Baháʼí Faith which supports this idea. Next week we will continue this discussion (including a review for anyone who missed this week) and discuss different ways Christians have interpreted John 14:6 where Jesus says “…no one comes to the Father except through me.”
February 24 + March 2, 2025
The last two weeks we have tried to tackle one of the student’s questions that came up from our discussion about the Holy Spirit’s appearance in Genesis’ creation story, “did God really make the world in seven days?” We began noting that an all-powerful God living outside of time and space could do anything. We even discussed the possibility that God created the world 15 minutes ago, creating compelling remnants of history, planting seeds of our memories, etc. A fun if maybe a little mind-blowing thought exercise but a reminder that virtually any creation story is feasible and the importance of approaching these kinds of discussions with humility and respect for different viewpoints. We shifted to another philosophical argument for God’s existence found in the "watch theory" of something that exists must have a cause. If you were walking through the woods and happened to find a watch, you would only conclude that someone had left it there. The argument suggests that just as a watch clearly requires a watchmaker, the complexity, beauty and precision of the universe must have had a cause and been designed by a similarly intelligent being. While this theory is over 200 years old, with our understanding of the origins of the universe are much further advanced, the analogy has aged well. The Big Bang theory would indicate that the universe is over 14 billion years old. Many Christians would hold that God’s hand was at work in architecting an otherwise impossible set of precise conditions that would allow for an proliferation of solar systems and planets leading to the formation of Earth 8 or 9 billion years later. Stephen Hawking, a brilliant scientist but also a notable atheist, noted that “if the rate of expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by even one in a hundred thousand million million (100,000,000,000,000,000 or 100 quadrillion), it would have re-collapsed before it reached its present size.” There were many other highly improbable (if by chance) conditions that had to align for solar system to form and then for a planet with the life sustaining conditions of Earth to form. We put in Hawking’s probabilities along with some others that scientists have estimated as similarly unlikely into a ChatGPT to ask for an illustration of how likely these scenarios could come to pass via chance. It’s illustration and conclusion are telling!: “The Earth has roughly 7.5 sextillion grains of sand, which is 7.5 followed by 17 zeros. Imagine a universe made entirely of sand, with every planet, star, and galaxy consisting only of sand grains. The probability of this event happening is similar to someone picking one pre-selected grain from one of the 100 sextillion (1 followed by 23 zeros) planets in the universe. At this scale, probabilities become so small that they lose practical meaning—such an event is essentially impossible in any realistic scenario.” We then returned to Genesis’ creation story and the origin of mankind. We discussed some possibilities for Adam and Eve. Acknowledging that God could have created the world roughly 10,000 years ago for those subscribing to a “young Earth” more literal reading of Genesis. Others read the Genesis creation story as mytho-history, noting its literary style and similarities to ancient Near East mythology and appealing to what science can demonstrate about human history. It is interesting to consider the possibility of a historical Adam who could have been the first human capable: of understanding right and wrong, reasoning, complex communication creating art, and other things that distinguish humans from other animals and similarly reflect being made in God’s image. Some scientists hold that homo sapiens ancestors, potentially homo heidelbergensis, were the ancient humans whose brains were developed enough to exhibit the behaviors and capabilities unique to man, potentially 800,000 – 900,000 years ago. Intriguingly, Chinese scientist very recently determined that it was around this time that it is likely the world population shrank to very small numbers around this time, potentially to something as low as 1280 people, possibly due to climate change. February 16, 2025
Building on last week’s introduction to the Holy Spirit and the Hebrew word ruach, we watched another Bible Project video which reminds us that the Holy Spirit makes its first appearance in the first verses of the Bible at the creation of the world. We discussed more about the role of the Holy Spirit, how it intercedes on our behalf and what this represents about God’s love and interest in having a relationship with us. This led us to discussing the Holy Trinity, an even more challenging subject. We reviewed some common metaphors for understanding the Trinity, including an apple, egg and three leaf clover as well as the explanatory limits of these. Thinking about the various roles the students play, son/daughter, grandson/granddaughter, brother/sister…in each case, not unlike the Father, Holy Spirit, and Jesus, they have different roles in their relationships and are viewed as a different part of the family, but always remaining the same person. We also used the understandability of 3-D world paired with the reality of there being other dimensions, at some point concepts that most of us can’t understand (e.g., superstring theory featuring 10 dimensions) as examples of the limits of our understanding of an all-powerful God existing apart from time and space. Finally, we returned to C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity and watched a clip from the Three Personal God chapter (2.36-7.36). He talked about why studying theology can help us understand God and reinforced the role of each aspect of the Trinity in our lives. And made the point that our understanding all points to a God the father that loves and cares for us, has taken steps to reconcile our relationship with him through his son, and has given us an intercessor to help us grow and build that relationship. 
February 10, 2025
After discussing Jesus’ resurrection, this week we covered what happened next. We learned about the Jewish festival of Pentecost and began to discuss the Holy Spirit. The Bible Project has a nice summary of this part of Acts which overviews how the Holy Spirit came to the Apostles, marking the beginning of the spread of Christianity and finishing with the martyrdom of Stephen (and the introduction of Saul/Paul). We revisited the fact that all but one of the 12 disciples died for their beliefs (one of the reasons we covered why it is reasonable to believe in the resurrection) and also talked about more recent Christian martyrs, including the 16th century Japanese Christians who refused to deny their beliefs in the face of death as well as Dietrich Bonhoeffer who as part of his resistance to Hitler’s oppression of the German church taught a secret youth group. 
We finished by beginning to discuss the different names and forms associated with the Holy Spirit (including the Holy Ghost!). We introduced the Hebrew word “ruach,” meaning breath or wind, that appears hundreds of times in the Bible. Next week we will spend more a little more time with the Holy Spirit and finish with exploring the mysterious Holy Trinity.
February 2, 2025
Congratulations to all you students who were confirmed today! This week we finished discussing the historicity of Jesus, with a focus on aspects of Jesus’ life that are crucial to our Christian faith, including aspects of his life and ministry that are less accepted by non-Christian historians. We started with many of the things Jesus called himself and the picture this paints of who Christians believe about him: Son of Man; Son of God; Messiah; Bread of Life; Good Shepherd; Vine; Alpha and Omega; Immanuel. We also discussed some of his most prominent miracles and the nature of these to get even more of a complete view of Jesus’ love for us and the nature of his power over nature, sickness, evil, death as well as his compassion, care and love for people. It isn’t possible to prove Jesus did or didn’t perform miracles, but we covered some reasons why using a conventional assessment of historical events, there are good reasons to believe that Jesus performed the miracles reported in the Bible. All of this is important in understanding the impact and meaning of his death and resurrection. We watched a Bible Project video on Luke’s reporting of Jesus’ resurrection. Beyond the ways Christians believe in faith, we talked about how we can use logic, critical thinking and indisputable historical facts to make a case for believing Jesus was truly resurrected. Compared to most other explanations, his resurrection are better explanations for his empty tomb, his followers’ martyrdom as well as numerous eyewitness accounts. We finished with discussing the role of Jesus in reconciling man with God, revisiting one of the things Jesus called himself, Immanuel, or “God with us.” And his resurrection represented his defeating death and the establishment of a new kingdom where we can have a relationship with God. We closed with a very well-known Bible verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 January 26, 2025
After a couple of weeks of confirmation classes, we returned to discussing the historicity of Jesus. We reviewed the reasons most rational people, applying the same criteria they’d apply to knowing any other historical figure, would agree that Jesus was a real person who lived 2000 years ago in Galilee and Judea (no, he was not American or even Chinese as suggested in a recent SNL segment defending Tik Tok!). We talked about Jesus’ earthly family, what he probably looked like and what 1st century non-Christian historians shared about him. Acknowledging that not every historical writing or relic about Jesus was true, we also briefly talked about the “naughty” early life Jesus featured in the largely debunked Infancy Gospel of Thomas. We also touched on the Shroud of Turin, which supposedly was Jesus’ burial cloth but later was shown to have been created around the time of its discovery in the 14th century. We used logic to confirm that just because something about a historical figure is untrue, doesn’t bring everything about the figure into question (e.g., George Washington’s chopping down a cherry tree and then owning up to it). We concluded with the idea that while most educated people would agree that Jesus was a real person whose teachings and life became the basis of Christianity and who was crucified by the Roman government (both Roman and Jewish non-Christian historians from the 1st century wrote as much), it is obviously uncommon for non-Christians to believe that Jesus was resurrected following his death. Next week, we will talk more about the historicity of this as well as why this is important to Christian faith. January 5, 2025
This week we built on our discussion regarding royalty and the view as Jesus’ role fulfilling the covenant God made with David in the Old Testament, and then spent some time on the historicity of Jesus. Many developed countries are not only becoming increasingly more agnostic or atheistic, but they are much more inclined to question whether Jesus was even a real person (e.g., a survey in the UK indicated that 40% of British believe Jesus is a mythical figure who didn’t actually live). We highlighted the reasons virtually no serious historian, including those who don’t practice Christianity, would suggest that Jesus didn’t exist. We used the telephone game to highlight how important it can be to have contemporary manuscripts to have accurate history as well as the value of corroboration of sources. There were more than 5 times the amount of contemporary writings and more independent and corroborating manuscripts documenting Jesus’ life than there were for Julius Ceasar. Using the “embarrassment criterion” (the idea that authors would likely not include actions or events that could undermine or embarrass an authoritative figure), many historians would point to Jesus’ death by crucifixion, a degrading and humiliating form of execution, as a point in support of a likely highly probable historical fact about Jesus. We began to cover other facts about Jesus that are generally accepted…his Jewish faith, his language, his family. We even reviewed the story covered in Deacon Martha’s sermon of 12-year-old Jesus getting separated from his family in their annual trip to Jerusalem, remaining behind to speak with Jewish leaders. It paints a picture of a brilliant, educated, and independent boy who already had a good sense of his purpose and relationship with God. During the next two weeks, the students preparing for confirmation will meet with Father Ryan. On 1/26, we will pick back up with our study of the historical Jesus, taking a look at aspects of his life that are less widely accepted as historical facts but very important to our Christian faith. December 22, 2024
In anticipation of Christmas, this week we talked about royalty, including kings (and queens) and what this has to do with Jesus. We spent a little time discussing some of the most powerful monarchs in history, comparing the basis for power (money, land, military prowess, cultural/religious impact). This list had some familiar names, including Ramses II, Genghis Khan and Alexander the Great, but we also discussed King Solomon, who might have been one of the wealthiest rulers and at least for a time, the wisest as well. Solomon inherited his kingship from his father, David. King David would not make any “history’s most powerful” lists, but he would likely be near the top of the Old Testament’s most important figures. We touched on David’s plans for the temple (and why he wasn’t allowed to do the actual building) and connected this previous classes’ discussions of the importance of the temple for Jewish people along with the role of Holy of Holies and the ark of the covenant. In spite of David’s many failings, God saw David’s extraordinary love and trust for him and made a covenant with him that “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:11 Christians believe that this covenant was fulfilled in the coming of Jesus whose familial lineage (and even place of birth) tied him to David. However, as we all know the Christmas story, he came to us in very different circumstances expected of royalty. Similarly, though he was repeatedly referred to as “the son of David,” Jesus would be a very different kind of king of a different kind of kingdom. Jesus’ life and death represents God’s desire to restore a relationship with us in a new kingdom. We watched this short video from The Bible Project to provide more perspective on God’s fulfilling the Davidic covenant and the Kingdom of God. Just a reminder, there will be no class (Truthseekers or Confirmation) next week. We will resume Truthseekers on the following week (1/5/25) at 9am in the Guild Room. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! December 15, 2024
This week Father Ryan joined our class and conducted a very interesting discussion on Angels. We spent time in the Bible to learn about the role and nature of angels and quickly learned that the image that comes to many of us when we think of angels is not Biblically based. Ezekiel 1:15-17 has a particularly challenging one very much unlike the image currently hanging on Christmas trees. 
We also reviewed the hierarchy of angels from the Orthodox Christian tradition. It surprised most of us to learn that archangels that include the named angels from the Bible (including Gabriel, Michael and Raphael) are only the second lowest ranked angels in the hierarchy!
Father Ryan’s presentation works well as a stand-alone summary so we are attaching it below to provide Bible references and some provocative illustrations. The class will be meeting again next weekend (12/22) before taking a break in between Christmas and New Year’s. 
November 24, 2024 This week we finished covering the concept of atonement and why this is such an important idea in the Christian faith. We built on our discussion from last week with the practice of sacrifice in different religions (including a couple of disturbing historical practices of human sacrifice!) and discussed the role of sacrifice in ancient Judaism. This led us to touch on the role and design of the temple, including the holy of holies which housed the Ark of the Covenant. It was so holy and sacred that the high priest could only enter the room once per year during Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. On that day, the priest would go past the curtain that otherwise separated the room from the rest of the temple and sprinkle the blood of sacrificial animals on the Ark, symbolically atoning for the Jewish people’s sins. We discussed the idea of how our sins separate us from God and the role of Jesus’ death in atoning for us. When Jesus died, the curtain that separated the people from the Holy of Holies split in two, symbolizing a new covenant, access, and relationship with God enabled by Jesus’ sacrifice. We finished class talking about the holiness of God. We used the sun as a metaphor for God’s holiness. It is a critical life-sustaining force in our solar system, but it must be respected because of its awesome and dangerous power. We watched this video from the Bible Project on the topic. November 10, 2024
This Sunday we returned the CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity to try to answer a relatively challenging but critically important question that is central to our faith: “Why did God send his son to die for us?” We watched and talked through his Chapter, “The Perfect Penitent.” We talked about penance, a word that isn’t commonly used today (and used a scene from the Indiana Jones series to help!). And then we watched the first 10 minutes of a Lewis doodle video to help us work thru the main points of the chapter. Lewis references different theories on atonement, using an analogy with food to make the point that getting or understanding the right theory isn’t necessary. In the same way humans know they need to eat whether or not they understand the science behind nutrition, we don’t need to find or even understand the right atonement concept to appreciate God’s grace and love for us. Next week we will spend a little more time on atonement before shifting our focus to advent, including looking at some interesting prophesies about Jesus and addressing some related questions about God’s nature. 
November 3, 2024
This week we recapped our discussion about our mind/body, soul and spirit (see last week’s notes) and moved back to our study of C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity with some background topics to set up a review of “The Perfect Penitent” chapter. We walked through a view of Christianity expressed in this summary:
We used the analogy of our understanding compared to a dog’s (or a toddler’s)…the dog may feel aggrieved that it is kept on a leash and not allowed to eat chocolate, but humans know this is for their own good. If God is viewing our relationship with him as eternal, it is conceivable he views our pain and suffering in our extremely short (relative to eternity!) time on Earth differently than we do. In fact, there are numerous times of objectively evil human behaviors that God seems to tolerate in the moment that even we might see in a different light with the benefit or historical perspective…e.g., the 400 years of Jewish slavery in Egypt, Christian martyrs whose death impacted millions (e.g. we briefly referenced Dietrich Bonhoeffer), or even Jesus’ crucifixion. We then briefly highlighted some of the very high-level points of the world’s major religions, comparing and contrasting with Christianity. We also spent a little time talking about how Jesus shows up in the Quran. Some were surprised to know that Muslims revere Jesus. He is mentioned more often that Muhammad, and the Islam faith shares many of the same beliefs about Jesus’ life as Christians (virgin birth, performed miracles, a great and wise prophet, will return in end times). However, the Quaran is clear that Jesus is not the son of God and that he was not crucified and resurrected. While many hold onto the idea of relativism when it comes to others’ religious beliefs, we talked about the logical challenge of reconciling one faith saying a Jesus was just a prophet, but not the son of God with another that said Jesus is one with God, existing before the creation of the world and the way to eternal life. Logically, it is not possible that both of these beliefs about Jesus can be true. Just looking at what Jesus said about who he was and his relationship with God, C.S. Lewis held out a logical framework that many today refer to as “Lunatic, Liar or Lord” argument. The idea is that for someone to claim to be the son of God and the only way to eternal life, that this person is wrong…either he wrongly believes this and is mentally unstable or he knows it is untrue and he is lying. Or he is correct and accurately claiming what otherwise seems like an outrageous identity. Jesus was by all counts, wise, knowledgeable and stable…not likely to be mentally ill. And would a liar allow himself to be crucified when all he had to do was back off his claims? We will start next week by revisiting this argument before digging into a very interesting chapter in Mere Christianity. We will explore the idea of penitence starting with a climatic scene from Indiana Jones, the Last Crusade and then finish with a discussion around atonement. 
October 27, 2024
It was great to be able to meet again and after sharing hurricane stories, we reviewed our discussion from the last class - what makes a human different from other intelligent animals? We touched on the idea of free will vs. operating strictly from instinct as well as the role of our body/mind, soul and spirit in making us who we are. We discussed two Hebrew words to help us understand what the Bible says about our soul. Interestingly, some people would argue that many of the references to a “soul” in the Old Testament is an incomplete translation. The Hebrew word “nephesh” is often translated as soul, but it literally means “throat” and usually in the Old Testament, it is intended to mean a person’s whole self or life. While the Bible isn’t clear on the distinction between a person’s body, soul and spirit, it is clear that who we are is not limited to just our body or that our lives are limited to just the time that we have on Earth. We watched this informative video from the Bible Project that took us a little deeper into this idea and what nephesh means. The second word, “ruach”, can mean breath or wind or spirit. It is often used to illustrate God’s life-giving breath. We talked about our spirit potentially being the part of us that can be connected to God through his Holy Spirit. We talked a little about what it might mean to our nephesh or humanity to be spiritually dead (e.g., Hitler) or even what it could mean for someone in a permanent coma or suffering from something like Alzheimer’s disease. We finished with a brief discussion on whether animals might have souls and for some added fun for next week, we all agreed to start the next class sharing each other’s results of this “what animal are you?” test. | |||||
September 22, 2024
Today we picked back up on our discussion of the distinction of something being right or wrong due to cultural norms (e.g., removing shoes before entering a Japanese home) or something being intrinsically true (e.g., 2+2=4).
We then watched segments of the animated reading of the second chapter of Mere Christianity, addressing objections to the idea of universal moral truths. One of the examples C.S. Lewis used was the sometimes conflicting impulse to both run away and run towards a dangerous situation to help another person. Both of these impulses could reflect evolutionary instincts (the first is survival of the individual and the second is a communal survival), but Lewis holds that the feeling that we “ought” to help is a separate force representing the “Law of Nature” or truth as it relates to what is right and good.
He went on to challenge the logic that just because we were taught something by our parents, schools or even churches, it doesn’t follow what is taught is just a cultural practice or human convention and therefore not objectively true. Noted that driving on the right side of the street is a human convention, but math exists apart from human invention or design. Lewis argues that morality exists apart from human conventions. He notes that evidence for this can be seen in the fact that some societal or cultural practices are better (or worse) than others. For example, almost everyone would agree that the behaviors of leaders and people in Nazi Germany or Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are worse or just wrong compared to those in most other modern societies. If we say this, we must be appealing to a common standard of right and wrong.
For the second half of class, we connected what we learned with one of the students’ top questions: What is a soul? Do animals have souls? We talked about the high intelligence of certain animal species and learned about bonobos, an emotionally intelligent endangered primate that along with chimpanzees, are the closest living species relative to humans. Humans however, have a wider range of capabilities than even our closest animal relatives. Why? We began to discuss the idea of the human body, soul, and spirit. In our next class we will continue our discussion and learn about a Hebrew word that was generally translated as “soul” in the Bible but might have a slightly different meaning from how we typically view it and tackle whether animals other than humans have souls.
Today we picked back up on our discussion of the distinction of something being right or wrong due to cultural norms (e.g., removing shoes before entering a Japanese home) or something being intrinsically true (e.g., 2+2=4).
We then watched segments of the animated reading of the second chapter of Mere Christianity, addressing objections to the idea of universal moral truths. One of the examples C.S. Lewis used was the sometimes conflicting impulse to both run away and run towards a dangerous situation to help another person. Both of these impulses could reflect evolutionary instincts (the first is survival of the individual and the second is a communal survival), but Lewis holds that the feeling that we “ought” to help is a separate force representing the “Law of Nature” or truth as it relates to what is right and good.
He went on to challenge the logic that just because we were taught something by our parents, schools or even churches, it doesn’t follow what is taught is just a cultural practice or human convention and therefore not objectively true. Noted that driving on the right side of the street is a human convention, but math exists apart from human invention or design. Lewis argues that morality exists apart from human conventions. He notes that evidence for this can be seen in the fact that some societal or cultural practices are better (or worse) than others. For example, almost everyone would agree that the behaviors of leaders and people in Nazi Germany or Taliban-ruled Afghanistan are worse or just wrong compared to those in most other modern societies. If we say this, we must be appealing to a common standard of right and wrong.
For the second half of class, we connected what we learned with one of the students’ top questions: What is a soul? Do animals have souls? We talked about the high intelligence of certain animal species and learned about bonobos, an emotionally intelligent endangered primate that along with chimpanzees, are the closest living species relative to humans. Humans however, have a wider range of capabilities than even our closest animal relatives. Why? We began to discuss the idea of the human body, soul, and spirit. In our next class we will continue our discussion and learn about a Hebrew word that was generally translated as “soul” in the Bible but might have a slightly different meaning from how we typically view it and tackle whether animals other than humans have souls.
September 15, 2024
This week we reviewed the concept of objective truth and then continued to discuss the first chapter of Mere Christianity. A reminder of the main theme of this foundational chapter:
Everyone has a shared sense of right and wrong that isn’t cultural and doesn’t need to be taught.
• There are objective truths
• Morality is an objective truth and universal
• This reality is a strong argument for a creator/God
This is a meaty/challenging Bible verse (like much of the letter to Romans!), but Paul summarizes the idea that Lewis calls the Law of Nature:
“For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” Romans 2:13-15
A much more accessible idea, we talked about how Homer Simpson’s regular struggle with his shoulder angel and devil illustrates Lewis’ point that we know right/wrong but often do the wrong thing.
We then pivoted and discussed potential objections to the idea of objective morality. One is that our sense of right and wrong are really just a result of culture, societal conventions, and evolution. This mistake is in viewing it in a binary/all-or-nothing lens. Cultural norms and even laws certainly play a role in what we view as right or wrong (e.g., taking a hat off for the national anthem, driving on the right side of the street). We talked about how human herding can be part of this (see long lines for iPhone releases and Germans supporting the Nazi regime). On the other hand, there are certain things that have always been viewed as wrong across history and cultures.
Setting up next week’s discussion where Lewis addresses some common objections, we watched the “we found a witch, can we burn it?” scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Beyond illustrating some hilarious logical fallacies, we will use this to help us understand Lewis’ use of witch burning as an example of something that was culturally acceptable in the 17th century but not now. We will start next week’s discussion with learning how he addresses this!
This week we reviewed the concept of objective truth and then continued to discuss the first chapter of Mere Christianity. A reminder of the main theme of this foundational chapter:
Everyone has a shared sense of right and wrong that isn’t cultural and doesn’t need to be taught.
• There are objective truths
• Morality is an objective truth and universal
• This reality is a strong argument for a creator/God
This is a meaty/challenging Bible verse (like much of the letter to Romans!), but Paul summarizes the idea that Lewis calls the Law of Nature:
“For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.” Romans 2:13-15
A much more accessible idea, we talked about how Homer Simpson’s regular struggle with his shoulder angel and devil illustrates Lewis’ point that we know right/wrong but often do the wrong thing.
We then pivoted and discussed potential objections to the idea of objective morality. One is that our sense of right and wrong are really just a result of culture, societal conventions, and evolution. This mistake is in viewing it in a binary/all-or-nothing lens. Cultural norms and even laws certainly play a role in what we view as right or wrong (e.g., taking a hat off for the national anthem, driving on the right side of the street). We talked about how human herding can be part of this (see long lines for iPhone releases and Germans supporting the Nazi regime). On the other hand, there are certain things that have always been viewed as wrong across history and cultures.
Setting up next week’s discussion where Lewis addresses some common objections, we watched the “we found a witch, can we burn it?” scene from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. Beyond illustrating some hilarious logical fallacies, we will use this to help us understand Lewis’ use of witch burning as an example of something that was culturally acceptable in the 17th century but not now. We will start next week’s discussion with learning how he addresses this!
September 8, 2024
We kicked off our new semester with a recap of some of the big questions we covered last year and the role of logic, problem solving and an understanding of history in Christian apologetics. We also reviewed the importance of objective truth in our faith but also in society using Tiananmen Square and the Jewish holocaust as examples where the government (and others) have tried to use propaganda and the control of historic information to influence how large populations understand the truth (with a brief break to calculate the amount of sodium one of our chip-loving students consumed in the first half of class!).
We quickly recapped the top arguments for God’s existence before turning to one of our areas of focus for this semester. And if God exists, is Christianity our best explanation for his role in creation and relationship with people?
One of the ways we will explore this is to “read” together parts of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity.” We reviewed a little of Lewis’ interesting biography (including why everyone called him Jack) and highlighted that the content of Mere Christianity was originally delivered to the British people during WWII as part of a radio program. We found a neat animated video series that recreates the radio addresses and accompanies this with hand drawn images to reinforce the message. Given all the background we covered, we only got through the first half of the first chapter/video that sets the stage for the rest of the book.
Lastly, the group voted on their top big questions they’d like to cover or revisit this semester so we will plan on covering the following in the coming weeks:
- What is a soul? Do animals besides humans have souls?
- Can people who have never heard of God go to heaven? What about cavemen? Aliens?
- Angels and Demons/Devil
- How to respond to the toughest arguments against God’s existence
We kicked off our new semester with a recap of some of the big questions we covered last year and the role of logic, problem solving and an understanding of history in Christian apologetics. We also reviewed the importance of objective truth in our faith but also in society using Tiananmen Square and the Jewish holocaust as examples where the government (and others) have tried to use propaganda and the control of historic information to influence how large populations understand the truth (with a brief break to calculate the amount of sodium one of our chip-loving students consumed in the first half of class!).
We quickly recapped the top arguments for God’s existence before turning to one of our areas of focus for this semester. And if God exists, is Christianity our best explanation for his role in creation and relationship with people?
One of the ways we will explore this is to “read” together parts of C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity.” We reviewed a little of Lewis’ interesting biography (including why everyone called him Jack) and highlighted that the content of Mere Christianity was originally delivered to the British people during WWII as part of a radio program. We found a neat animated video series that recreates the radio addresses and accompanies this with hand drawn images to reinforce the message. Given all the background we covered, we only got through the first half of the first chapter/video that sets the stage for the rest of the book.
Lastly, the group voted on their top big questions they’d like to cover or revisit this semester so we will plan on covering the following in the coming weeks:
- What is a soul? Do animals besides humans have souls?
- Can people who have never heard of God go to heaven? What about cavemen? Aliens?
- Angels and Demons/Devil
- How to respond to the toughest arguments against God’s existence
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