Being a rather reflective person i occasionally find myself going over the reasons why I'm a Christian.However, this is not to say I've lost my faith, it is more along the lines of giving reasons for the hope we have in Christ. But before i give those reasons it is important to highlight what has prompted this line of questioning, and it is not all that hard to find. Postmodernism has long since provided a challenge to the exclusivity claims of Christianity, but what seems to be more prominent is a form of Modernism (a reaction to Postmodernism) which comes from the naturalistic scientific community. Their basic tenant seems to be that all things have a perfectly rational explanation, and those who don't, or in other words need an element of faith can only be looked upon as wish fulfillment or a refusal to face reality.So this raises the question why I have a Christian faith instead taking a reductionalistic worldview based on the data that seems to be so apparent? Well, it is hard to explain the basis for one's worldview in just one short blog entry. However, there is one particular slant i would like to take on this, and it's something that I've been thinking about alot lately, that is what makes us human. In my opinion, the one thing that makes us truly human is relationship, particularly our ability to love and relate to friends and family. As a result of this ability to love others we sometimes sacrifice our own happiness or comfort for the benefit of those we love. But there is no rational explanation for this, we do loving acts because we want to and because we are in touch with a greater good. Therefore, one of the most important parts of being human cannot be explained rationally, and surely cannot be dismissed because it is a prominent part of all of our lives whether we believe in God or not. The Metaphysical (what cannot be explained) is one of the greatest challenges to the reductionalist worldview.

Change

To say that change is a part of life is stating the obvious, life is dyanmic and all things are temporal, experience teaches us that. But i wonder if there is a healthy way to approach change, beyond just embracing and accepting it. If there is one thing i've learnt is that change can bring about better things, but it can also highlight loss, particularly in terms of relationships. Change will inevitably highlight what was good about our relationships and circumsatnces,and subsequently make us miss them even more. Therefore, in the process of change, it is equally important to work through loss than it is to embrace our new circumstances. This means finding the middle ground between not hanging onto 'what was' and not letting things just move on and just focusing on the future. When working through loss in a natural way one will realise that people who have gone from our lives are going onto something good, and that is a reason to be happy.