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Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024

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Grill a Christian

by LightinMind

Rated: 13+ · Message Forum · Contest · #2327636

A writing contest exploring life, the universe, and God. Christian moderation-all welcome.

INTRODUCTION

This is a writing contest to explore the most important and impactful questions relating to God, life, and the universe. People of any or no religion are invited to submit their thoughts. Every month I will post a provocative question and I promise to provide a review for each submission. The winners of each month's contest will also receive a 25K Award icon, The Runner-up will get a 10K Award icon if there are more than three entries. This competition works with an essay format but I am quite flexible on that. If you think that a story or poem will answer the questions better then use those.

RULES & GUIDLELINES

Word Limit:2000 words and should be submitted in a bitem format. I prefer essays, but stories and poems will also be accepted if relevant.

Entries must not be edited after the last day of the month to qualify.

Please post your bitem entries in the prompt thread.

Entries must answer or at least wrestle with the question posted to receive a review.

The prompt and word count should be included at the foot of the submission.

While I welcome Bible quotes and indeed quotes from other religious texts you will need to situate these in a literary context that demonstrates you know what they mean and in a way that is relevant to your response to the question. I am not going to accept 'undigested proof-texting' and you will be marked down if that is your approach.

Similarly if you quote theological, historical, scientific or philosophical experts you will need to be able to explain why they are relevant and show that you understand what they were saying. Please no quote dumping. I am interested in what you think and feel about the questions, not in your attempts to rehash other people's approaches.

You can lose up to two stars for badly edited work. The other three stars are focused on the substance of what you say.

Go easy on the use of AI when trying to answer the question. Ultimately AI has no soul nor indeed a physical context, but you have both body and soul and a history that is unique to yourself. I am interested in your reflections on these questions and what they mean to you. AI might alert you to the important issues but on questions as important as these only your voice matters.

NOVEMBER PROMPT

Are you a miracle or an accident?

Is there a mind behind all things or do things just happen at random, or as a result of a long process of random events now solidified in natural laws? Has science overthrown the notion of special creation with its theories of abiogenesis and evolution? Do we live in a universe where catastrophic rapid change and supernatural interventions occur or are naturalism and uniformitarianism safer assumptions on which to base an evidential view of reality? How does your answer to this question contribute to the way that you approach life, the universe and everything?

OCTOBER PROMPT:

What does it mean to you to say that God exists or does not exist?

It is impossible to prove whether God exists or not and a futile waste of time to try and use reason or science in the effort to do so. This conviction is held, or not held, by faith, or the lack of it. However, it is a meaningful question to ask what the implications of God’s existence or non-existence are. God, in this exercise, is referred to as an infinite, eternal, almighty, all-knowing Being that created, sustains and will hold to account your existence. If He exists or does not exist what changes?

October 2024 Entrants