Life & Faith

There was a time when belief in God was assured and arguments for God's existence were about confirming what everyone knew to be true. However in the post-Christian West belief in God is increasingly considered to be an irrational belief. Michael Jensen joined Simon Smart and John Dickson on Life and Faith to discuss whether it is reasonable to believe in God in the modern world.

Life and Faith examines the way that whenever we eat, we are eating with other people. Ruth Dearnley, World Vision Australia's campaign leader for child protection and trafficking, discusses how the food we but in the supermarket can be the result of child trafficking and exploitation and what we can do to to combat this. Ruth Padilla DeBorst, World Vision International's director of Christian Formation and Leadership Development, shares her thoughts about what it means to eat in community and why Christians should seek to eat with those who are different.

The Turning is a unique cinema event. Seventeen Australian directors from diverse artistic disciplines each create one of the stories from Tim Winton's collection. The linking and overlapping stories explore the extraordinary turning points in ordinary people’s lives in a stunning portrait of a small coastal community. Simon Smart, who is a big fan of Winton's writing, watched the film and he joined Justine Toh to discuss it with a focus on one story in particular: a brutal, unsentimental but life-affirming account of a woman coming to faith.

Ruth Padilla DeBorst has been involved in leadership development and theological education in her native Latin America as a missionary with Christian Reformed World Missions for many years: first in student ministry with the Comunidad Internacional de Estudiantes Evangélicos (IFES), then with Seeds of New Creation, a ministry that trains for and promotes holistic mission in El Salvador. Ruth currently serves as Director of Christian Formation and Leadership Development with World Vision International. She came on Life and Faith to discuss the reasons behind church growth in Latin America in contrast to the decline found in the West.

William Cooper, of Yorta Yorta descent, spent most of his life in the Cummeragunja community where he was a spokesman for the Yorta Yorta in their ongoing battles for land justice against the New South Wales government. Just weeks after Kristallnacht he led a delegation to the German consulate in Melbourne to deliver a petition condemning the Nazis treatment of the Jews, which was the only private protest against the Germans following Kristallnacht. Matt Andrews joined Life and Faith to discuss what drove William Cooper to take action.

We often hear the term 'The Christian Vote' talked about at election time but is there such a thing? John Dickson, Simon Smart and Justine Toh discuss Christianity and politics, the issues that affect how believers vote and the principles that should drive the way Christians vote.

Byron Smith joins Justine Toh and Simon Smart on Life and Faith to discuss climate change, sustainable living, how his Christian faith led him to become increasingly concerned with these issues and the consequences our treatment of the environment.

Simon Smart talks to Justine Toh about the new book he co-authored, For God's Sake: An Atheist, a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew debate religion. He explains why he got involved in writing the book  and what he hopes it achieves.

Roy Williams' new book In God They Trust? examines the spiritual life of each of our Prime Ministers from Edmund Barton to Julia Gillard. He explores the ways in which - for good and ill - their beliefs (or agnosticism) shaped the history and development of the nation. He joined Simon Smart on Life and Faith to discuss his book and the interplay of religion and politics in Australia.

David Wilikinson works in the Theology and Religion department at Durham University. His background is research in theoretical astrophysics, where his PhD was in the study of star formation, the chemical evolution of galaxies and terrestrial mass extinctions such as the event which wiped out the dinosaurs. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and has published a wide range of papers on these subjects. His latest book is called Science, Religion and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. He also has a PhD in theology and on Life and Faith he discusses the place of faith in a scientific, technological age.