Another problem I have with conventional Christian thinking are the following two ideas:

1. That God loves all people unconditionally; and
2. People can only be “saved” from damnation by accepting a few choice propositions as fact.

Love and forgiveness are even more wonderful concepts than Christianity would have us believe. Implicit in the Christian notion of God’s love, is that it needs to be accepted in order to be received. Equally, forgiveness.

The idea that love needs to be two-way is a flawed one: It’s easy for us to subconsciously put conditions on our love given the rewards that we hope it will bring us. However, love is sometimes most strikingly apparent when it flows from one to another with no expectation of anything in return. The love of a parent for a wayward child, love for a stranger in need, and the ability to let go.

Love isn’t wonderful in the sense that it causes no pain, but because it provides us with a path through pain.

God’s love doesn’t save us. Our love for each other does.

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Intelligent Design is often used as an argument for the existence of God: picking various empirical features of the world, and inferring God as the best explanation for them.

I’m increasingly finding this kind of argument incredibly counter intuitive. Sure, there are some pretty cool things in the world; fantastic even. The reason I’m struggling to give Intelligent Design any kind of credence though, is that there is so. much. waste.

Don’t for a second, blame waste on “the fall”. It’s inherent in the design.

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How good is it, when watching the news on TV and hearing them talk about the Prime Minister… to realise that you’ve pictured the wrong guy in your mind’s eye. It’s not Howard. It’s Rudd!

Makes me smile every time.

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It’s no wonder that I need to find a new place to live… every street, corner, restaurant, and public place in Canberra is filled with memories and ghosts of my past. I can’t be anywhere without thinking about every different event (however insignificant), about all the different people who have come and gone, and the meaning that those memories have to me.

I can drive around and feel other people in the car with me, and hear again all the various conversations that we’ve had. And all the different ways that I’ve pondered them since.

It’s nice to remember things so intimately, but it’s suffocating.

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here’s some pics of my trip!

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