"God or no God"

that is the question!

Young people from secondary schools gathered once again, for Torbay Youth Inter-Faith Forum’s termly meeting to discuss a very topical question. God’s existence or non-existence has had a lot of publicity recently because several books have been published seeking to abolish belief in God, while others have been written in reply, to defend God.

 

Before embarking on arguments for and against God’s existence, the young people explored  various images people have of God and  discovered some are very limited like ‘the old man in the sky’, while those held by different Faiths do greater justice to the concept of  God.

 

With our bustling lifestyle often pursuing the superficial, considering the ‘Big Questions’ of life, like ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘Is there a God?’ is easily ignored.  However, it was realised that these questions do matter because the responses people give to them affect the way they live their lives.

 

The young people enjoyed the opportunity to have their say and listen to others’ points of view. ‘It was an interesting debate, with new views introduced’, said one, ‘and deep thinking’, added another. ‘My views have expanded’ and ‘It was exciting.’ commented other participants.  Meeting pupils from other schools and from different faith and non-faith backgrounds was appreciated.

‘It is often thought that young people are not interested in religion. However, given the chance to explore religious questions, they demonstrate their enthusiasm for deep thinking about spiritual matters. It is also evident that they wish to develop their knowledge and understanding of the religious dimension of life, through sharing ideas as well as learning from educational material’, said the organisers Mary Fallon, Jan Mughrabi and Heather Savini.  Next term the group will focus on the claim that science has superseded belief in God.

Heather Savini

Group Leader