Our name, QChurch, is inspired by the quest that we are on to not simply explore what to believe, but how and why we believe what we do.
Joel welcomes us with an invitation to make the most of each moment, inspired by a podcast about The Mona Lisa painting at Le Louvre museum in Paris. By a strange coincidence, as he was speaking the Mona Lisa painting was thrust into the international news headlines!
Rob revisits the quest of our community and explains why it's important that we find new ways of believing.
In this clip from Father Ted, Dougal's doubts shake the beliefs of a visiting priest.
Rob explores the relationship between belief, knowledge and truth and introduces four philosophical routes to the beliefs we hold.
In this clip from Star Wars, Obi Wan Kenobi convinces a Stormtrooper to change their mind at a checkpoint, telling him: "These aren't the droids you're looking for."
Rob explores how our beliefs change and what stops our beliefs evolving.
In this clip from the movie Limitless, we see how the protagonist, Eddie, is affected by taking a revolutionary drug which enables him to recall limitless knowledge.
Rob speculates that just like Eddie in the previous clip, the biblical characters of Adam and Eve were given access to knowledge that they weren't designed to be able to handle.
"God's desire is for humans to acquire knowledge through quest, because you then acquire knowledge through experience and in relationship."
In concluding, Rob posed some questions for us to consider: 1 - Is Q on a shared quest of jointly trying to discover reality or do we mostly just share our individual journeys or do we think those are just two sides of the same coin?
2 - Is Q on a divine quest like the one initiated in Genesis or is it more of a pluralistic exchange of human ideas which might have a spiritual component? Both are legitimate things to do but they are different to one another.
3 - Is Q still in post-traumatic growth or have we plateaued?
4 - What is Q's current shared frame and is it the right one for the future? Is it changing?
5 - Who are we listening to and do they actually care about us?
6 - How can the community avoid conflict and hurt amidst the necessary disagreement and controversy of the quest?
Joel introduces the final song, referring to a clip we've watched in the past from Forrest Gump, in which Forrest's followers must find their own path once Forrest decides to go home. You can watch this clip here.
"No matter where you are I'll be there."
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