Suggested Thinking

Stephen Hawking is in the news again as his new book, The Grand Design, is getting ready to be released.  It's gotten some attention because of his assertion that God is not required for the Universe to exist.  In fact, he said.

"The Universe can and will create itself from nothing."

Of course, this has sparked many on the religious side to say he's obviously wrong.  To me, it's like the old adage about what holds the world up?  At that time it was assumed to be flat.  The answer was, it sits on the back of a turtle.  The next obvious question would be, what is the turtle sitting on?  And the answer, it's turtles all the way down.

So the same logic can be applied here.  If God created the Universe where did God come from?  It seems the obvious answer must be, it's Gods all the way up.

August was another relatively slim month for movies with only 5 to review.  Here they are in no particular order.

• 11 Minutes Ago
• The Lovely Bones
• Roger Dodger
• Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
• Waiting for Armageddon

A Florida church's decision to hold a Qur'an burning event this year on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks is a sad reminder of the hate that can be directed toward a group of individuals as if they were a monolithic entity.  By the way, this is the same church that sent kids to school with shirts that said "Islam is of the devil".  And they have the gall to call themselves the Dove World Outreach Center.

This upcoming event, along with the recent protests of a planned Islamic community center in New York or the planned expansion of a mosque in Tennessee are showing the willingness to vilify an entire community for the actions of a few misguided fanatics.

It would be like saying all Christians are like Fred Phelps from the Westboro Baptist Church and therefore we should be protesting churches across the country because of his actions.  Or condemning the Christians for actions of a few who went around shooting doctors who performed abortions or who vandalized abortion clinics.  Are these actions not terrorism?

It's amazing to me that some within these two religions who at their heart pray to the same God, the God of Abraham, can hate each other so much.  And these types of attacks, although propagated by a minority, fuel the flame of the idea of a religious war being waged between Christianity and Islam.

The US has some history of this type of stereotyping.  We've all heard of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.  You would think we had learned our lesson, but then again, history tends to repeat itself, especially for those who ignore it or fail to learn its lessons.

The United States of America has long been a melting pot for many diverse cultures and faiths.  And because of the idea of religious pluralism, we've all gotten along just fine.  If we forgo this tenet of our society, we could be heading down a path that will lead to internal strife like that seen in countries around the world.  Should we become like Bosnia-Herzegovina? or Sudan? or even Iraq?  Where vying religious factions resorted to genocide to cleanse the country in what became brutal civil wars?

We need to step back and ask ourselves if we would want to be judged based on the actions of another?  Are you willing to let a distorted stereotype define you?  If not, then look at your actions and ask yourself if you're being fair to the community at large.  And then direct your energies in a way that will reflect positively on you and the country.

July was a relatively slow month for movie watching with only 5 films.  But they spanned the genre's with a documentary, a sci-fi, a couple of mysteries and an animated film.  And none got less than 3 stars.  Here they are in no specific order.

• Shutter Island
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Cube
• Lord, Save Us From Your Followers
• Despicable Me

The church I pass by driving in and out of my neighborhood has a new sign this week.

"Live today as though you will face God tomorrow."

That message pretty much sums up the Christian faith for me...Fear.  You better behave yourself before you end up in front of the ultimate parent figure that will dispense his judgment on you.  On the one hand, eternal life in heaven, on the other, eternal damnation in hell.  It's pretty black and white.  (I'll skip the bits about purgatory and the "age of reason" that excludes children, as those rules seem to vary.)

It always seemed odd to me that a God would create us knowing that the large majority would ultimately end up suffering for all eternity.  He created you with all your flaws, left you in an imperfect world to fend for yourself.  He left you a book that has been translated dozens of times, to be interpreted by these same flawed humans, resulting in thousands of religions with their rituals and rules.

You're on your own to figure out exactly which one might be right (hint...they're all wrong) and what he wants you to do.  If you guess wrong, he will banish you to hell to suffer until the end of time.

But he loves you....the ultimate contradiction.

Christians speak of morals provided by God, but the morals they follow are out of fear.  The retribution of God is harsh, so we better obey.  I see no value in morality from fear.  Why be good to gain a reward?  Seems like a selfish reason.  Why not be good for the value of being good?  Why do I need a God to threaten me into acting well?

I don't.

I bought a blu-ray player a few months ago and since then I've mainly been watching regular DVD's.  But this month I finally upgraded my Netflix account to blu-ray and many of the movies I received were on blu-ray.  The first thing I noticed was the sound....the DTS-HD Master Audio is freakin' amazing.  Yes, the picture was good and certainly better than DVD, but the sound was leaps and bounds above what DVD offered.  So no turning back, blu-ray is the deal.

But blu-ray and better sound does not a great movie make...as seen in my reviews of this months movies which include:

• Sherlock Holmes
• Liberty! - The American Revolution
• The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
• Brothers
• Avatar
• Daybreakers

Philip Pullman, author of the popular trilogy, His Dark Materials, has a new book out called The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ.  Now, it's well known that Pullman is no fan of religion and His Dark Materials books have been labeled as atheist propaganda, so it's no surprise that this new book is getting some people up in arms.

It's a retelling of the life of Jesus from conception to death.  In this version, Jesus has a twin brother called Christ.  Jesus is the outspoken prophet while Christ is content to stay in the shadows recording the events and words of his brother and in some cases making small changes to help clarify the meanings.  Jesus believes the kingdom of God is imminent while Christ is more forward thinking concerned about building a structure for the future of the ministry that could last for centuries to come.

I listened to the audio-book which is a short 3 and a half hours, read by Pullman himself.  He does an excellent job of telling his own story and it moves along briskly.  The end is somewhat predictable but enjoyable none the less when it arrives.  I especially liked the chapter when Jesus is about to be arrested.  He's gone off to a clearing by himself to express he feelings to God about what is coming and his own revelation...there is some great writing in there.

This book probably won't appeal to anyone who is overtly religious, but if you take it as I did, as just a story and enjoy it for its literary merit, you may just find it worth the read.

I heard about this book because of a video that made it's way around the net.  It's of Pullman responding to someone complaining about the title of his book being potentially and purposefully offensive.  Here's his response, which in my view is one of the better defenses of free speech I've heard in a while.

The Baptist church I pass by going in and out of my neighborhood has a new sign up this week.  It says:

"To get to Heaven:  It's whom you know that counts."

As you can probably guess, I've got a problem with this.  They are referring to the passage in the Bible about Jesus being the only way to heaven.  John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

There's nothing in the book that says you'll go to heaven if you honor the 10 commandments.  In fact, there's very little in the Bible about getting to heaven, so I can understand the religious grasping at this bit of information.

But what this statement implies is that someone who leads the worst possible life can get into heaven with a deathbed conversion...just like the thief on the cross next to Jesus, he's dying and suddenly decides he needs to save his soul (Luke 23:40-43) and sure enough, Jesus accepts him into Heaven.

This is in complete contrast to a person who might have lead a good and selfless life, but doesn't accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.  Even if this person saved thousands of lives, lead a moral life and sacrificed their own, by Christian logic, this person would still go to hell.  Makes perfect sense right?  The Christians obviously have no concept of karma.

But this leaves some open questions...like, what about the millions of people who lived and died before Christ came along?  What happened to all of them?  Did they go to hell since God hadn't yet gotten around to knocking up his virgin?

And considering the communication systems of the time after Christ, it took many hundreds of years for the message of Christ, carried by word of mouth, to propagate around the world.  Seems like a terrible way for an omnipotent being to get such an important message out to the world.  I would think He could find a better way to broadcast it to everyone quickly.  I guess you work with what you have or maybe He just doesn't care that much about us.

Basically, I'm left with another message from the church that I just can't understand.  But everything they say raises questions in my mind.  I can't seem to put it together in a way that makes a coherent story.  But in their minds, they know the truth.  However, they only think they know the truth, that's why it's called faith.

"I've never understood how God could expect his creatures to pick the one true religion by faith -- it strikes me as a sloppy way to run a universe." - Jubal Harshaw in Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

The month of May saw the end of LOST, the TV show.  I for one thought they did a great job with the series, including the ending.  I was satisfied that not everything was answered, but that the human side of the story was what mattered.

As for films this month, there were 6...3 of which were nearly great and a couple of which were stinkers.  Here they are in no specific order.

• Capitalism:  A Love Story
• The Blind Side
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• On the Road With Judas
• The Amateurs
• The Road

As always, click through to read my short reviews and see the ratings.

Does this scare the crap out of anybody else??

Just remember, these people hold the power over what you're children will learn in Texas public schools.