IMU Inter-Religious Forum

Recently, IMU held its annual Inter-Religious Forum, and invited the religious societies to debate on the topic of ‘The Meaning of Life’. The Catholic Society was represented by Mr. Gerard Louis from HELP University College. Here’s a bit of biodata for those who might be interested.


Mr. Gerard Louis
BSc Ed (Hons) (UM), MSc (Distinction) (Guidance & Counselling) (De La Salle)

Mr. Gerard Louis has been a trained counsellor for the past 10 years. He has worked in various capacities as a Principal of a secondary school, a Program Director in a Youth Formation Center, an organizer of National and International Youth Leaders' Conference and Conventions. He is currently attached to the Center for Psychology at HELP Institute as a counsellor, lecturer and trainer.

Person Speaking: Mr. Gerard Louis (CSS). Other speakers from left to right :- The Sikhism speaker, Mr Vijaya (Buddhist Society) Mr. Nicholas Sylvester @ Muhd. Abdullah (Muslim Society), Mr Sherman Kuek (CF) and Sree (Moderator - Sem 4)

Other notable speakers included Mr. Sherman Kuek for the Christian Fellowship, Mr. Vijaya for the Buddhist Society and Mr. Abdullah for the Muslim Society. I’m terribly sorry, but the name of the speaker for Sikhism just escaped my mind – I’ll update when I remember.

Overall, the forum went quite well. The speakers bonded nicely, and there weren’t any openly hostile battles, or any of the ‘my religion is better than your religion’ propaganda. All in all, I think the speakers did their best to make the audience view religious meanings of life from each respective religion, which was the aim of the forum in the first place.

It was a shame, though, that there were no representatives for the atheists or free thinkers. There were originally plans to elect a representative, but I do not know what happened; perhaps they just decided that there was no time, or there was no one suitable enough to represent free thought as a general consensus.

There were some interesting points to ponder, especially about the concepts of abortion and suchlike – generally, everyone agreed that abortion and DNRs* were forbidden in one way or another by all major religions. The Buddhists, however, seem to have no problems with in-vitro fertilization and human cloning, and supported contraception, as they view that whether an individual gets born (or is prevented from doing so by contraception) is dependent on the karma of the parents and the unborn person. In contrast, Christianity (particularly the Roman Catholic Church – the church is very firm on this) does not condone contraception, human cloning, or in vitro fertilization, as the whole process of conception is seen to be an act of God.

At the inevitable sandwich-and-coffee session, the CF speaker, Mr. Sherman, suggested that only one speaker represent both the Catholic Students’ Society and the Christian Fellowship because “the differences between Catholic and Protestant faith are so slight that they would not show up in a forum.” Definitely something to consider for the next year.

The whole forum lasted about three hours, and everyone came away a little wiser.

And as an end note, it IS 2008, and this is a rather belated first post. But better late then never. Heh. Here’s something to think about – What is the meaning in your life? And what should it be?

Blessed 2008, everybody.

P.S. – congratulations to all the Sem 1 2s who recently received their results. And if they’re bad results, no worries…it’s only 12.5%. Just remember to give all the glory to God, be it a good or a bad result, for all things are possible with Him.

*DNR – Do Not Resuscitate – medical order given if patient is simply kept alive by means of medical equipment ie. brain dead. A form of passive euthanasia.