I know some people are going to fume but....

I am copying and pasting the details of the first session for this season of the Skeptics and Believers club in Henley on Thames [8 miles from where I live] Monday 14th of October 7:45 pm

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I personally have learned so much from them.

It is a mixed club in many senses - occasionally short on Christians, but full of philosophers who read and some very good scientists. The hotel is not very good for the disabled but one attends by taxi and wheelchair . Group is run by one devout Christian who will not lie down and one ex-Christian turned skeptics who has shown interest in a Humanist group that is forming in the next town . The pair also run a parallel group in London after their work there.

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We are again taking one theme for a whole season of the Discussion Group. This year we will be a bit like a Bible Study Group and we will discuss whole books or sections of Bible books that generate interest or controversy for both Christians and sceptics.

Where else to start but the first three chapters of the book of Genesis which give us creation accounts, Adam and Eve and what Christians later called “The Fall”. We will assume that you will be familiar with the content of the chapters, but please bring your Bibles or these days, your Bible-Apps.

Some topics we’ll hope to cover:

• How poetic and metaphorical should we take these narratives?

• What damage is done to the message if we accept the results of science on dating, the fossil record, human origins and who humans are?

• Can The Fall be taken as an explanation for human immorality and for human suffering?

• Are there other messages in the text, such as coming of age and loss of innocence, or a pre-figuring of the history of Israel and banishment from the Land?

We hope that there will be time to discuss which other Bible books to include later in the series. We are thinking that the book of Job can’t be overlooked and we should discuss it in November.

We will stay in the bar area and will settle down for the 8pm start and there will be a 'half time' break to refresh your glasses.

No fee needed to attend. We pay by buying drinks.