Camino Blog – Day 1

Welcome to this Camino Blog. If you are new it might be best to start with the introduction. Otherwise, carry on.

Location: Orisson

Distance: 8km

Weather: cloudy, fine, cool

Terrain: steep road, 800m elevation

Physical condition: all good, early days. But drinking beer with Yans the German (fill in the gaps) and getting grumpy looks from Deborah.

Other: Fun communal dinner, more grumpy looks from Debs for drinking too much red wine and having robust conversations with Rob and Dianne from American and Crystal and Leia (friends) from Holland. Met people from chch, incl Dennis Perry who was involved with SWBC and KRT in the early days. What are the chances!  Discussions about charity stuff. Oh and it snowed a bit tonight! Slightly concerning given we didn’t​ pack for that.

SB 1 : There is a God

I don’t think most creeds start with this, presumably because a belief in God was virtually a given when they were drafted. At least within NZ this is no longer the case, hence why it is a “counter cultural belief”.

In fact everything religious pretty much hinges on this. In general they require a belief that there is the possibility that there is something beyond what I can see and feel and test via scientific methods and the like. Being “religious” means it is necessary to hold this belief in contrast to a whole worldview that can be based on not believing that a God is possible.

And you can hold the negative view, in fact it can be an easier option. Give or take a bit you can build, and hold to, a reasonably sound ethical framework without the belief in God. If you choose this option please stop reading this blog series as the next 11 SB’d will not make much sense. All that follows rests on this assumption.

For those that need persuading, alas I am not the person. There are others that will be able to provide you really well argued rationale which may convince you that a God could exist. I have neither the ability or inclination to match them. However, the reasons for belief are out there.

No matter how well they are argued, I find that still, eventually, you are required to decide one way or the other.

You can decide no, in which case I encourage you to live your life as best you can in that view. None of this series should influence or inform how you do that because they all these SB’s rest on something you have chosen not to believe.

Alternatively, you can choose yes, there is room for the existence of God in this world. This opens up other paths and has implications that ripple through your life. 

Images – this might be a problem. All my phone images are huge and are not uploading very quickly. We will see

Orisson

Snow!

Yans – sort or like Joost from “The Way”