Adventures With the Alpha Course

 Christianity  2 Responses »
Oct 202013
 

Ahy? Question Everything.You have probably seen these signs around Edmonton churches:

Kerri went to find out, and let the rest of us know, what’s going on.

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The signs are presumably a reference to my favorite bible quote, 1 Thessalonians 5:21:

“Question everything, hold fast that which is good”.

I’ve always wanted to cross stitch it and hang it proudly on my wall, mostly to see the reactions of relatives who also have crossed stitched bible passages on their walls. I went to their webpage http://questioneverythingab.ca/ And the first thing I saw was this:
Alpha Course opening webpageWhat’s going on is a 7-9 week course on Christianity called the Alpha course, which has been around for years, but is having a big campaign in Alberta this fall. It’s a series of video lectures, sometimes with a weekend getaway in the middle. There are 158 Alpha courses being offered in the Edmonton area this fall. I found one at a convenient time and location for me. The website said “contact the organizers or just show up”.

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Why do atheists want a club?

 People, SEA Events  1 Response »
Aug 042012
 

By Marion Kilgour, Director

The SEA started as a face-to-face Meet-Up group. We would sit around a table and talk about ideas, and problems, and generally interesting things. There was enough interest, that we thought we should be more public and accessible.

We sometimes get people who think that the Facebook page is the main achievement of the SEA, and the rest of our activities are window dressing.

Well, they’re not.

To explain why, I’ll refer you to this recent post in Scientific American  about why the people on the internet seem so angry, and why it’s a problem. Don’t get me wrong, the Facebook group is great. It introduces our group to a lot of people that wouldn’t otherwise know about us, and can ease the discomfort that a lot of us feel at going to a meeting with a lot of strangers. But it has downsides: the discussions can get ugly quick, you can’t get into the depth that you can face to face, and it’s easy to get angry and storm away. Continue reading »