For the first time, the QAS Religion and Philosophy department entered students into the NATRE Spirited Arts competition. Over 25,000 children and young adults entered the competition last summer; we were competing against schools nationally and internationally. To have a students work from our school featured in the winners' gallery is a phenomenal credit to the creativity of QAS students and to the hard work of the teaching staff within the department.
QAS winning entry was submitted by Yi Shan (L5).
Yi Shan explains her artwork, stating; "I am a dualist, meaning that I believe that people are made up of mind and body. In my artwork, you can see God looking over the physical and spiritual realms of existence (the two pages that the hand is flicking through), in which the mind (or soul) and body reside respectively. On the left, I have drawn three people. Along with myself (bottom) we find Plato (top) and Descartes (middle), both known for their dualistic beliefs. They have been chosen to illustrate God’s omnipresence and eternality alongside myself to show that God is experiencing each of our lives at the same time, despite the fact we come from different periods and places. Plato was an Athenian philosopher who wrote in the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. On the other hand, Descartes was a French philosopher from the 17th century, approximately two thousand years later". Read more on Yi Shan's work here.
Head of Religion and Philosophy, Dr Munro reflected on Yi Shan's achievement, saying "the Spirited Arts competition shows how vital the study of Religion and Philosophy is. If we want young people to be able to articulate their beliefs clearly and critically, to grapple with abstract ideas, and to be conceptual, creative thinkers we need to encourage them to study Religion and Philosophy because it develops all these skills, and so much more".
