May 15: Discussion on meaning of life

We were thinking of showing the film "the Message" based on the founding of Islam by Prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) and its early days (at least i brought my laptop and the DVD). However, it was a bit long and some of us had already seen it, so we shelved the plan. I have a DVD that was kindly given by the Islamic society (or it could be didsbury mosque) so if any of you want to borrow it, it can be arranged. For more information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_%28film%29
For those interested in many religious films, you can see the list at http://www.adherents.com/movies/

We started with Oxana sharing some Buddhist jokes from http://www.serve.com/cmtan/buddhism/Lighter/index.html (some of the jokes might need a bit of knowledge about buddhist world to appreciate)

After that we started with a discussion on the meaning of life, sharing our own views. There were various views from different perspectives discussed as to what is the meaning of life, including to get rid of suffering, to live in the fullness of life, to get close to God, to obey God's laws and his messengers, to live and not try to live, to simply exist, etc. We also spoke on how it would be to exist for a child in darfur for example. We also spoke about maths and physics and reality (inductive and abductive arguments, that there is no such thing as a perfect circle) and skepticism (that everything that is spoken is within some axioms out of which no communication is possible) and bayesians and meditation and drugs and a popular catholic priest called Brian D'arcy.

After the discussion, some of us went to falafel for some food. We decided that we would keep these meetings going for next few weeks, as long as people are happy to come along.

Mar 13: mass at Holy Name

We went to the Holy Name church and although all couldnt see properly the whole thing, it was certainly a very interesting experience for everyone. At least you can read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_%28liturgy%29

After attending the mass we went to Falafel restaurant in Rusholme and had a meal and also had grace before the meal in different languages: Bengali (from John), German (Robert) and English, and witnessed Nicholas and others breaking the Bahai fast with a Bahai prayer.

May 8: Discussion and scripture study

We had a scripture study this time, and discussed the attitudes of different religions to those who are non-believers (or apostates, or covenant breakers, or infidels, or heretics) in those respective religions. We discussed quotes from the Bible, Quran, Buddhist scriptures, Bhagavad Gita and Kitab-e-Aqdas to compare on this topic. we also discussed about some of the New religious movements (NRMs) that evmerged from some of the older religions.

May 1: Film John Safran Vs God

On Tuesday 1 May meeting, we continued watching the rest of the John Safran Vs God episodes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Safran_vs_God (you can see most of them from youtube) including the very interesting exorcism episode with evangelist Bob Larson, with Bob "exorcising" John of all the daemons he picked up during his trials of all the earlier religions!

Apr 24: Film on John Safran Vs God

We watched four episodes of John Safran Vs God. If anybody is interested, a lot of the episodes are available on youtube, such as this one (treat for those of you who hate John Safran or think Buddhism is all fluffy and cute):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUXJrO_FiWk

Hope to see you next week for the next four episodes, including the most interesting one on his exorcism by an evangelical minister.

Apr 17: Discussion on burial rituals

We had a discussion on a variety of topics including:
Burial and cremation: costs and ceremonies in different countries and different religions
Kevin's tour of Greece
Anti semitism and anti-gypsies in different european countries
10% taxes given to the Catholic or Lutheran church in Germany
Jack Van Impe, the walking Bible, who has memorised large protions of the Bible
Apocamon, a Bible revelations comic in Manga style at e-sheep.com

Next week (25 April) we will be seeing a funny film (provided by John) about a person in search of God, who gets beaten by Buddhists in Japan, asks to join KKK in America although he is jewish, confesses something nasty in a Catholic confession, etc. We will hopefully be arranging a tour to the Mosque in Didsbury the following week.

Apr 15: Sikhi Week

Its Gursharan Singh from Manchester Universities Sikh Society. I just wanted to let you guys know that there's a massive exhibition taking place at St. Peters Chaplaincy, Oxford Road on the 25th of April called 'Sikhi Centre'.
There's going to be a stall based exhibition on the basics of the Sikh faith, together with Talks by the Anglo Sikh Heritage Trail and some other eminent speakers, on topics such as Sikhs in the World Wars and Meditation etc.
Kirtan (Hymns) will be sung by Baba Fateh Singh Academy (based in India), together with a Sikh Martial Art Demo and also evening meals will be provided! It's all looking, with the grace of God, like it'll hopefully be a great day, so please come along.

So please send this information aswell as the poster attached to as many faith societies as possible.