Human beings are big on categorizing. What would you call yourself? What would you define yourself? And I don't mean the high school extreme (you must be one of the geeks, one of the jocks, one of the cheerleaders, etc.). You could have several dozen different identifying labels. Are you an artist? How about an athlete? A "politics junkie?" (My geography professor calls himself that.) There are classic titles for different types of beliefs and identities. Are you a Jew or an atheist? A Democrat or a Republican? Each of the labels we choose to stick on ourselves build up, and up, and up, so that we are in a large way made up of the choices we make and the interests we pursue.
One of the things we discussed yesterday at the Christian Club meeting was "What are you?" We had visitors from the Secular Club, to try and sort out who we are, what is our purpose in having this event, what to discuss, etc. We went around the circle (there was quite a large group from the Secular Club) and introduced myself. "Hello, my name is Jane/John Doe, I have been going to Anonymous College for __ semesters, and I am a _______." They asked for our denominations, but it turned out to be "If Applicable," because one of us is trying to decide to switch from Catholicism to Protestantism, our adviser is nondenominational, etc. They identified themselves mostly as "Agnostic Atheists" while one was an "Agnostic Atheist Antitheist." (He said the latter term means he totally disagrees with religion, thinks the world would be a better place without it, that sort of thing.)
It was kind of interesting, because I do not agree with a lot of my church's theology. It's Calvinist/Reformed, and I...am not, in many ways. I have no trouble getting along with people with certain levels of different doctrine, as long as Jesus Christ is the focus, so I also would be nondenominational. The labels were really hard to get at, though.
We have a date for our panel: December the 6th. One of the advisers is going to coach the three of us who are on the panel, and my church's youth pastor was awesome and emailed me all the powerpoints used for the youth apologetics class this semester. YouTube debate videos, C.S. Lewis books (and one by Francis Collins), and more are being used as our materials to get ready for this event. The most important thing, though, is that God be with us and help us to do well.
One of the things we discussed yesterday at the Christian Club meeting was "What are you?" We had visitors from the Secular Club, to try and sort out who we are, what is our purpose in having this event, what to discuss, etc. We went around the circle (there was quite a large group from the Secular Club) and introduced myself. "Hello, my name is Jane/John Doe, I have been going to Anonymous College for __ semesters, and I am a _______." They asked for our denominations, but it turned out to be "If Applicable," because one of us is trying to decide to switch from Catholicism to Protestantism, our adviser is nondenominational, etc. They identified themselves mostly as "Agnostic Atheists" while one was an "Agnostic Atheist Antitheist." (He said the latter term means he totally disagrees with religion, thinks the world would be a better place without it, that sort of thing.)
It was kind of interesting, because I do not agree with a lot of my church's theology. It's Calvinist/Reformed, and I...am not, in many ways. I have no trouble getting along with people with certain levels of different doctrine, as long as Jesus Christ is the focus, so I also would be nondenominational. The labels were really hard to get at, though.
We have a date for our panel: December the 6th. One of the advisers is going to coach the three of us who are on the panel, and my church's youth pastor was awesome and emailed me all the powerpoints used for the youth apologetics class this semester. YouTube debate videos, C.S. Lewis books (and one by Francis Collins), and more are being used as our materials to get ready for this event. The most important thing, though, is that God be with us and help us to do well.
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