Apologetics Diary Archive 1999a

Thursday 18 February 1999.

Dear diary,

I had a potentially interesting situation in the lunch bar today. I was wearing my St John's Presbyterian Church T-shirt, and as I was standing in the queue, I heard the "gentleman" immediately behind me swear, I think in some sort of response to seeing the back of my shirt. I considered turning around and saying "No thanks!" but instead waited a few moments and took a glance at him. Turning back around again, he laughed - I'm not really sure what at, but some people don't need a reason for doing anything.

To cut a long story short, I could easily have taken that as an entry into a very interesting conversation. "Always be prepared," we are told. Unfortunately, at the time all I was really thinking about was getting something to eat.

Now, how could it have gone?

"So do you believe in God?"

"****"

"Well, OK, since you're bringing sexual behaviour into the conversation, we could talk about morality, which of course brings us straight back to our religious viewpoint. Did you know that an atheistic worldview is a religious belief, and that it's not a scientifically or logically defensible worldview?"

Of course, that probably wouldn't make him very happy, but backed up with lots of prayer, it might just start him thinking.

Saturday 20 February 1999.

Dear diary,

I saw the movie 1492 - Conquest of Paradise in the wee small hours of this morning (while working on this site, actually). Quite a long movie, great theme music, and, very satisfyingly, it showed that the main discussion topic about whether it could or should be done (that is, Columbus sailing west instead of east to get to Asia) was actually the amount of time the journey would take. Most scholars thought it would take at least a year, due to calculations of the size of the planet. Columbus, however, was trying to persuade them it would only take seven weeks. (And the movie showed that even he didn't really believe that.)

Unlike anti-theists these days would have us believe, people in Christopher Columbus' day didn't believe in a flat Earth.

Saturday 20 February 1999.

Dear diary,

I just had a peek at a supposedly tongue-in-cheek Flat Earth site. Hmm. Check this "current project" of theirs out:

This campaign focuses on the consensus-reality definition of existence and existential status. This definition is challenged by affixing to various objects which are popularly believed to exist labels which read "WARNING: THIS OBJECT DOES NOT EXIST".

Strange that they can actually live in a world where they would do such things. I wonder how many members will be tragically killed in the process of putting stickers on moving buses.

For that matter, if the object the sticker was placed on doesn't exist... how did they put the sticker on it?

Hey! Self refuting world-view!

Monday 1 March 1999.

Dear diary,

My brother Trevor was telling me this evening of a conversation he had with a guy who sold him something recently. It seems the guy (who I'll call Bob) had been thinking about what Trevor had told him about the universe having to have an origin. He made the point that the Universe could have alway existed, that is, it could be infinite, without beginning or end, since you could have an infinitely long string of sausages.

Maybe so, Trevor replied, but could you go to the end of the string and add another sausage? If it was really infinitely long you wouldn't be able to, but we are adding moments of time to the universe all the time (if you'll pardon the expression). So therefore universe can't be infinite in time.

To his credit, the gentleman didn't try to change the subject, ask an irrelevant question, or make a silly statement - he stopped to think about the issue.

Monday 8 March 1999.

Dear diary,

I went to see a dead guy today. I can't exactly say I worked with him, but I had shared teabreaks with him many a time. He attended an Anglican church (said he liked the tradition), and during one of those teabreaks (shortly after I first met him, actually) he asked me what the deal was with being "born again." I think I gave a reasonable explanation, but it certainly emphasises the need to be ready to give an answer. I hope I'll do even better next time. We live and learn.

Lying there his body looked very empty - he certainly wasn't there any more. I think I'll celebrate with him in Heaven at some stage, praising the incredible nature of God. (BTW, by "nature" I don't mean the world around us.)

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