checkITout (now re-named "Quest for Answers")

Up until June 2000 I worked on a short-term contract for Solent Christian Trust (now called The Damaris Trust) on a multimedia project called Quest for Answers.

Quest for Answers is a new interactive multi-media CD-ROM/Internet hybrid, which will provide good answers to hundreds of questions about Christian faith. Questions such as "Why does God allow suffering?" or "Hasn’t science disproved Christianity?" or "Isn’t the Bible full of errors?" etc. etc.

Each screen will feature lots of links to other related questions such that the user’s interest is stimulated and developed - in the same way that it is in real-life debates where, with the right encouragement, people just don’t seem to want to stop asking questions and finding out about Christian faith.

The whole CD-ROM will act like an enormous internet website, linking together questions and answers with "So what?" and "Yes, but…?" buttons that lead to other parts of the CD-ROM. There will also be a facility for users to ask further questions by email direct to those at Solent Christian Trust (and these answers will be added to further releases of the CD-ROM). The whole system will also be supported with a substantial resource centre on internet.

The answers will be delivered at all sorts of levels:

video clips, pictures, animations and cartoons – ideal for the non-text generation.
quotes from pop stars, novelists, philosophers, gurus, journalists, historians
in-depth articles – by commissioned experts – for those who want to explore in more depth, e.g. on the history of the evolution/creation controversy by an expert historian of science.
complex "raw" data (such as, for example, the details of every existing papyrus manuscript of the New Testament) for those who really want to push the questions as far as they can.

So who is 'Quest for Answers' for?

Although primarily aimed at schools and university students, it’s designed for all who are asking questions about the meaning of life. It can be used:

as an evangelistic tool… by youth groups, evangelists, church leaders, teachers and students in Religious Studies, and many, many different organisations such as UCCF, Fusion, Oasis, Evangelical Alliance, Crusaders, Boys Brigade, etc.

as an aid to study… for Christians to be "prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Peter 3.15). Many have said to us "I really need it to help me with the questions which are raised by my Alpha group" or "I want it so I can resolve my many secret doubts about my faith." Tragically, it is often such questions that hold Christians back from getting involved in evangelism – because they are scared that they will not know how to answer questions they might be asked.

customised versions… are also planned for churches and para-church organisations. These will look like it is their product – with the ‘welcome screen’ and other screens and facilities built to look like it belongs to the organisation, allowing the user to find out much more about them as well as giving the answers to questions.

Quest for Answers will be published shortly

Site courtesy of Total Connectivity Providers Ltd
PO Box 454, Southampton, SO16 3WR, UK