The Future’s So Bright…

And the Word of The Day is OPTIMISM!

OPTIMISM was the recurrent theme of my fellow panelists at the CBF “What Does the Future Hold” forum in Perth City earlier today. (Video of the whole event to come soon – Ed)

Greens MP Alison Xamon and Dr Ashley Aitken of Curtin University joined me in discussing their understanding of what the future holds.  It was a great panel, good rapport between the three of us, and some good questions. Despite the challenges presented by the world both Alison and Ashley believe that we can be optimist about humanity’s ability to overcome the challenges.

I am not.  Optimism about such things would be a triumph of hope over experience. I said that today. But I am not a pessimist either. Jurgen Moltmann said this:

People who hope for God are not optimists. They don’t need the power of positive thinking. People who hope for God are not pessimists.  They don’t need the logic of negative dialectic. People who trust in God know that God is waiting for them, that God is hoping for them, that they are invited to God’s future, so that they are holding in their hands the most marvellous invitation in their lives.

Jurgen nails it: People NEED the power of positive thinking.  However the Resurrection of Jesus does away with that need,  bringing the future into the present and guaranteeing that a future is shaped like and by Jesus.

FWIW here’s what a link to the pdf of what I said at the forum about a Jesus-Shaped-Future:

The_Future