Exploration and Understanding

Hi all,

Had a fairly insightful day into the minds and experiences of other people. I guess people are becoming more reflective now that it's coming to the final few days of Sixth Form.

I chatted with my form tutor (one of the two) this morning about his gap year. He just happened to have a photo album of it in the classroom, I presumed he kept it there for showing students like myself. He went to Australia for three months, stopping off in Los Angeles and Hawaii on the way there, 5 days in each area. Even though he only had a few photographs, it was enough to capture the main events that happened. Makes me want to go out and experience the world even more, actually. There were a few photographs he took of Ayer's Rock. Quite amazing actually, even though they were taken back in (what looked like) the late 80's / early 90's. It's reassuring that you can still get great images and capture all the good times even with a fairly average camera. Now of course with digital cameras you can view the image you've just taken, rather than having to wait until the photographs are developed in a shop from the roll of film. I'm hoping to take loads of decent photographs in Uganda, and even on the way there and back. For me, the excitement starts as soon as I walk on the plane. I love a good window seat.

Later on in the day, during lunchtime and my free period, I had a (calm) discussion with my friends about religion. Needless to say, on the spectrum of religion, I was probably on the 'most extreme side' of Atheism out of all the people present, but at the same time I wasn't the only non-religious person present. Instead of venting my own opinions, I tried my best to ask questions that uncover the true thoughts of religious people. All people suffer with a degree of difficulty in explaining their thoughts - as in, you know your thoughts well, but find it difficult to explain it to another person so that they can understand where you're coming from. It's also interesting to know how much a person thinks about their beliefs, and their reaction to your own interpretation of it. One example was when I asked about someone's reason to believe that when it comes to Judgement by God, only their group of a couple of hundred or so people will be saved and delivered to Heaven. They seemed to think for a second, then say 'well, if people have lived their lives according to the Bible, then of course they will be saved'. This of course suggests that not everyone in every denomination necessarily abides by their denomination's set beliefs, otherwise the person I was speaking to would have no reason to be a part of a separate Church, a few hundred people in number. Obviously there must be some sort of incentive for people to abide by their own separate denominations. It's quite amazing how people don't pick up on the fact that you can actually 'create' your own religion by simply stating that 'actually, I believe that everyone will go to Heaven, regardless of how they've lived their lives'. But of course, humans are naturally more selective and hard-going on themselves to do that, as has been indoctrinated.

Until next time.