justinbrierley
October 26th 2008, 04:23 AM
Hear the show of 11 Oct at www.premier.org.uk/unbelievable
http://www.wokingurc.org.uk/Images/pageimages/alpha/alpha.png
I'm not sure how familiar you may be in the States with the Alpha Course. In the UK it has been a very successful ten week course adopted by churches to reach people.
Michael Marsden went on the Alpha Course at "The Belly of the beast" (as he calls it) in Holy Trinity Brompton, where the Alpha Course began. He remained an atheist.
The interesting thing about what he said on the show is that he believed the Alpha Course works for people who are already "susceptible" to religious belief, but could never satisfy a hard-nosed atheist like himself.
He also suggested that the Holy Spirit experiences people claimed to experience on the course (such as healing or speaking in tongues) were far too subjective for him to possibly believe were somehow supernatural.
Is he simply unprepared to be open minded? Or is the Alpha course simply not what atheist of Michael's mold need in order to be convinced of the Christian faith?
http://www.wokingurc.org.uk/Images/pageimages/alpha/alpha.png
I'm not sure how familiar you may be in the States with the Alpha Course. In the UK it has been a very successful ten week course adopted by churches to reach people.
Michael Marsden went on the Alpha Course at "The Belly of the beast" (as he calls it) in Holy Trinity Brompton, where the Alpha Course began. He remained an atheist.
The interesting thing about what he said on the show is that he believed the Alpha Course works for people who are already "susceptible" to religious belief, but could never satisfy a hard-nosed atheist like himself.
He also suggested that the Holy Spirit experiences people claimed to experience on the course (such as healing or speaking in tongues) were far too subjective for him to possibly believe were somehow supernatural.
Is he simply unprepared to be open minded? Or is the Alpha course simply not what atheist of Michael's mold need in order to be convinced of the Christian faith?