A Strange Dream about Humanities Students

Friday, July 22, In the year of our Lord 2011

My House, Caronport Saskatchewan

Preparing Brunch, 1:07PM

Weather = overcast and pleasant

I had a very strange dream about the Humanities students here in Caronport. Now Humanities students are strange to begin with (chuckle) but this did not help that situation.

In my dream I happened to be in a food court, I think in the Moose Jaw Country Mall. A friend was there with me (we shall call him SE) and my brother eloquently told us that it was to snow tomorrow and that the cafeteria would be closed. He invited us to 'sup' with him and his friends upon armadillo cake and that there was plenty for us all. SE inquired as to the type of armadillo cake, because as every humanities student knows there are many different types, some good and some bad. They were yet unsure and the other humanities students (whom I recognized at other tables and behind some of the food bars) discussed it.

The general consensus was that they wanted to try a bad armadillo cake. Perhaps one with laced with frog innards or perhaps the one laced with frog 'outards.' After all, it would be an exotic experience, something that none of them had ever done before or tasted. SE did not have time for this sort of fiddle faddle and the idea of eating armadillo cake containing unknown ingredients unsettled him. He told them strongly that if time permitted he would TEACH them how to make proper armadillo cake, but he would not eat bad cake.

The pastor (we shall call him KF) looked on amusingly as he contemplated the mysteries of the universe. The English professor (we shall call him SD) motioned to SE to contemplate the offer for a time. He smiled knowingly and made the motion of juggling invisible balls and laughed to himself. "That's all I'm going to say," and he looked at us meaningfully.

Now SE was in a bind for SD was quite correct. The juggling of exotic experience and the humdrum of life was something to be considered for all time. And so we contemplated the mysteries of the universe until a lady from from house church (we shall call her SS) told us that she once stuffed frog lungs with buffalo innards.

Now I thought that this was ridiculous and asked her politely "umm... why?" (For some reason 'how' wasn't a valid question in this context) The answer came to me as soon as I asked my question. What could be more delightful than bacon flavored gushers? They would be for dessert of course.

Then I woke up.

If you have any idea what it could all mean, please leave a comment.

'Proof' for an Intelligent Designer

Friday July, 8 in the year of our Lord 2011

Distance Learning Office, Caronport, Saskatchewan

Responding to annoying fallacy, 12:28PM

Weather = Warm and Sunny

On the news today there was a story about stem cell research finding the cell responsible for creating red blood cells. It is a fantastic discovery, one that shows off the human body's incredible complexity. Indeed, the sheer depth of complexity and how every piece fits together so well is astounding. Then I read the first comment under the story which was as follows:

"Anyone who don't believe there isn't an Intelligent Designer is naive. This finding is another proof!"

Now, I'm not sure if this was just horrible grammar or if the writer was trying to invoke a double negative. Either way it doesn't matter. This line of argument is pointless.

In Christian Fundamentalism's war with Science this is a common strategy of finding something incredible about the world and saying that it is 'proof' of God, or at least 'proof' of an intelligent designer. Incredible geological formations, breathtaking astronomical wonders, the intense complexity of micro-biology. In all of these things the Christian can see the wonder of God, the work of his hands, but it is not any proof to the scientist.

Why? It's not because God doesn't exist or that he did not create these things, it is because science doesn't care nor can it ever know. Science is the study of physical things and assumes a sort of naturalism, which means that it will only ever look for natural causes of things. It doesn't matter how heart stirring or spiritually enriching something is, science will only ever recognize the natural processes inherent in nature.

For instance, for many years this argument was used on a specific type of rock that had unexplainable red spirals all throughout it. Christians said that this was proof of God's design. After a bit of study the geologists said, "actually no it isn't. We can trace these red particles to that hill over yonder. What happened was that the rocks rolled down the hill picking up debris and the rolling motion is where the spirals came from."

I'm not sure if that was a good example, but the general theme has always been Christians claiming God's divine creation on this or that object and then science uncovering a naturalist explanation of why that thing is the way it is.

I think this whole issue is really annoying because it literally gets us nowhere.

Even if we had some sort of object that was indeed created by God, science wouldn't be able to recognize it as such and would create a naturalist explanation for it. That's what science does, and it has lead to the greatest advancements in medicine, architecture, and standard of living. A type of Christianity that tries to scientifically prove what is scientifically unverifiable will always fail and be pushed back and back on the defensive.

Now philosophically this is a completely valid argument, the principle that everything seems to be structured so incredibly well, fine tuned exactly to the sliver of a decimal so that even if something were off by even the minutest point, human life would not exist. However, science doesn't recognize this either. If you want to talk about proofs for God then enter a philosophical discussion and draw examples from science, not vice-versa.

Theology in Cartoons

Thursday July 7, In the year of our Lord 2011

Distance Learning Office, Caronport Saskatchewan

Posting pre-written post, 1:16 PM

Weather = Hot and Sunny

Theology in Cartoons

Cartoons. Those children’s shows that flood you with nostalgia or make you roll your eyes in embarrassment because you once watched that show and enjoyed it. My spot in the spectrum of cartoons is a rather unique one. I remember old cartoons like Bugs Bunny, the original Babar, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Inspector Gadget, Tintin, even a host of unnamed cartoons made in the second world war, but I also am quite familiar with the more recent Digimon (and all of its knockoffs), Sponge Bob, and a host of eastern inspired shows. Part of what I am interested in is what a cartoon is. Is it purely entertainment or is it educational? What happens when a cartoon that is supposed to be entertainment carries with it a strong worldview and presents it to young people in their formative years?

DISCLAMER: I am not going to advocate banning cartoons that do not have a Christian message since that is no longer the type of society we Canadians live in and ‘Christian cartoons’ are and have always been pathetically lame (more on that later)

I just find it so fascinating how cartoons can carry with them an entire worldview and present it to school age children in a way that is effective and even more pervasive than a ‘religious’ course would be in school. I remember Babar giving moral lessons such as ‘how to deal with bullying,’ ‘the consequences of lying,’ ‘responsibility,’ and ‘how to get along with your Retaxus.’ I also remember being taught the philosophy of Ying and Yang from Rupert. I’m not sure if it is because I am just more aware now or if cartoons have changed a little bit, but I sense a much more serious and intense environment when it comes to cartoons, even slap stick humor like the Jackie Chan cartoon. Uncle explains how to properly use your Chi, which I discovered is actually the root of eastern occultism. One of the lead characters in the 3rd or 4th series of Digimon has a revelation to stop fighting evil, “don’t you understand? Light and darkness must be in balance! The brighter the light, the greater the darkness!” This was quite the ‘digivolution’ from the first series where the power of friendship, courage, hope, and other key fluffy things always combine to stop evil and save the day. Then there was Shaman King and the entire focus on animistic spiritual shamanism, or Yugi-oh and the spiritualism behind it. There was even an anime about kids training to become assassins, I don’t think it lasted very long but it was quite dark surprisingly realistic and it was here that I realized that a line had been crossed. Things had gotten serious and dark in cartoon land. Then there were also the dumb knockoffs of these more mature and heavy shows.

I’m not advocating that these shows are sinister / subversive and are trying to distort young minds because of some sort of spiritual battle with the Devil, what I am saying is that these shows have been able to portray basic and sometimes profound points of many different worldviews and I find this very interesting. However, if young people are constantly hearing the message of dualism between light and dark they will assume that that is how the world actually works as many people (even professing Christians) believe.

These are the types of things that children were interested in when I was in highschool, and maybe things have changed a little bit now. It seems that my, as well as up and coming generations, find these sorts of ideas very attractive. I’m not condemning it, but I do think it is a time when we as Christians need to be responsible and wise, teaching our children what is true because there are so many worldviews bombarding us in society, on the internet, and also on Saturday morning and after school. I think that it is better to teach our children how to be wise and how to think than to attempt to restrict the enormous tide of culture, wasting all our time and energy on arguments that don’t hold weight in the public sphere. Are these shows dangerous? Yes and no. Yes in that they preach messages contrary to Christ which will affect the way children see reality but also no in that pre-emptively teaching Christian children to be wise and discerning makes these shows more of a training for ministry than a passive entertainment. Besides, what sort of ‘Christian Cartoon’ would you try to replace these with?

Bible Man?
Gerbert?
Kingdom Adventure?
Adventures in Odyssey?

Maybe I’m out of touch with recent development in Christian Cartoonism, but I have an awfully difficult time trying to find anything that would entertain anything above the average 9 year old. Don’t get me wrong, all of these (with the exception of Bible Man) were cartoons that I watched and loved when I was very young, but what has there ever been for older kids or pre-teens?

Recent Christian movements in pop-culture have had the unfortunate habit of creating a ‘Christian Alternative’ of whatever is popular, which almost always has resulted in sub-par product that is inferior to what it attempted to copy but is considered ‘ok’ because it is ‘Christian.’ Maybe for this reason I am glad that Christian pop has not made it to the cartoon network anytime recently. Seriously… Bible Man?!

But now my post has taken a turn that I didn’t expect it to. Hmmm. If we as Christians wanted to be creative and tried putting a Christian spin (as opposed to the popular spiritual / eastern spin) on a cartoon that was fun, exciting, maybe even thrilling, what would it take? I think part of the answer is violence. With the exception of SpongeBob and Fairly-Odd Parents everything revolves around violence. Whether it’s getting power-ups to turn into some sort of ancient super warrior or acquiring some sort of monster thing to fight for you, violence is very important for holding attention. But to make it Christian we need to also have a salvation story, the realization of sin, the forgiveness of God, the challenge of exercising personal faith, and the spreading of the Gospel. Now how can we do this without making it obviously lame? Maybe Christian themes (omnipotent God, purpose in life, time with a beginning and an ending, the struggle of hope and trust in someone you can’t see, fighting deception and false ideas, and clear right and wrong, and no more of this dualism as though God had to work really really hard to defeat evil) instead of an overt 4 steps to salvation would be a far better action. For some reason I think a platform like Reboot, Beast Machines, or even Digimon could have actually succeeded at putting forth a decently solid Christian worldview if they wanted to. That, or a return to good ol’Babar… Hmm.

The other question I have is ‘is this even necessary?’ and ‘should it even be done?’ I would like to see it somewhere. An actually accurate and solid portrayal of Christian themes somewhere in cartoons or movies is sorely lacking. I see agnosticism, Spiritualism, Occultism, Ying and Yang, Multi-Culturalism, emotionalism, and choose-your-own-belief-ism as well as all sorts of other worldviews able to expound basic principles of what they stand for, but when Christians try to do this it just doesn’t seem to work very well. We need to be very creative and perhaps unorthodox if we want to join in.

Those are all my thoughts for now
Greg Out