The Many Privileges

camb indeed offers many privileges. our lecturers just cannot fail to mention that so and so who discovered such was a student/member of the department 'working in the lab just around the corner'. our supervision groups are small, sometimes led by the professors themsleves, who always assure us that they are just an email away if we need to ask any questions.

it is not until recently that it dawned upon me that the same privileges extend into personal, and spiritual, development. the veritas forum that started last friday saw many distinguished speakers wrestling with difficult, sometimes even uncomfortable, discussion topics with a socially-engaged and intellectually sharp audience. there was a baroness who spoke about religious freedom, and the president of tearfund who spoke on social pluralism; tonight alister mcgrath ( or perhaps more well-known as dawkins' nemesis) speaks on gospel as public truth.

i wish i had read dawkins' books, so that i can grasp better mcgrath's talk tonight. i foresee i will be rapidly lost in the course of the discussion because there will be many people in the audience who have read dawkins. still, i think i should go for the talk, as such an opportunity to learn from both the speaker and the audience is hard to come-by.

opportunities abound, the true lesson remains to be learning with an open mind and a humble heart. don't we pay more respect to lecturers or authoratative figures who speak gently and humbly, even in areas of their expertise?


'Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry'



p/s: if anyone is interested, alister mcgrath's talk is at 8pm tonight (4th march) at babbage lecture theatre.