"Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning."
C.S. Lewis
"The fingers of your thoughts are molding your face ceaselessly."
Charles Reznikoff
"Art, like morality, consists in drawing the line somewhere."
G.K. Chesterton
"Humility enforces where neither virtue nor strength can prevail, nor reason."
Francis Quarles
"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."
C.S. Lewis
Resistance Thinking Culture
Culture is a term used to describe why humans act the way they do. The study of culture attempts to explain why certain behaviours have special significance for some humans, where as for others it is completely meaningless. Culture encompasses everything from watching television and surfing the web, to doing yoga and having pre-arranged marriages.
All of the human behaviours that make up a particular culture are founded on a certain set of ideas. For instance, Islamic women wear a hijab for modesty because of teahcings in the Hadith and many Christians wear a cross around their neck in rememberance of Christ. These are human behaviours that are founded on a very clear set of ideas. Ideas are expressed in human behaviours that make up a certain culture.
In this culture section you will find articles, news and reviews on an extrememly diverse range of topics that relate to culture: the media - TV, news, magazines, movies etc., other religions - Islam, Judaism, New Age, Buddhism, Hinduism etc., philosophy - postmodernism, existentialism, humanism, consumerism etc., popular culture, music, Christian culture - music, moviews etc., and a whole lot more!
Microsoft's new toy for the Xbox 360, the Kinect, goes on sale tomorrow. In fact the Kinect is so much more than a toy. It is sophisticated enough to do a number of things you could only dream of. Firstly, the Kinect has been designed to attempt to tap into the Wii market by doing away with the need for a controller. In this regard it goes one step further than the Wii. Instead of nunchucks the user acts as the controller and, in games which allow, all gestures are mimicked on screen. This is pretty revolutionary in itself. Reviewers continually compare this with the precog machine that Tom Cruise uses in the Minority Report. While such a comparison will get cliché rather quickly it is probably the most accurate representation of what this technology actually is. Picture sweeping gestures to minimize and a zoom function that results from flicking your wrist.
We are now deep into the Entertainment Awards Tour 2012. The Nominations for the 84th Academy Awards have just been released and the countdown is on for February 26th, that night of nights.
One movie that has created a critical stir (though only produced one Oscar nomination) is the new The Muppets movie. My wife and I went to see this on our honeymoon at the Mansfield Armchair Cinemas. Unfortunately the movie could not match the settings of this cinema. Bizarrely Rotten Tomato rates this movie at 96% which places the movie in the category of "Critical Acclaim".
I cannot share such sentiment regarding The Muppets. While it is indeed a family-friendly movie (in so much that there is limited violence, no sexual references and no swearing) this movie had disappointing messages. The substance of the movie is to believe in yourself, and becoming who you want to be. The secondary theme of The Muppets relates to the importance of sharing your life with someone.
It's not that these messages are completely wrong, merely that they are simplistic to an extent where they are almost inconsequential. The concept of believing in yourself is one that has no roots in a biblical worldview. It focuses on self in an individualistic sense and is antithetical to belief in God's purposes for you. One cannot become whomever one wants to be if their life is in Christ. They are reborn in the newness of Christ and they should seek righteousness.
The importance of sharing your experiences with someone else does not lend itself to as much criticism as the theme mentioned above. After all, relationships are far more important than work aspirations and making a profit. Yet, of all the purposes that one could write into a Hollywood script this was one of the two that writer/actor Jason Segal (and Nicholas Stoller) decided to place at the centre of this family-friendly movie.
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Such rudimentary themes spell out the difference in worldviews that we, as Christians, experience daily as we butt up against society's secular components. For example, Courageous would be my personal preference as the best movie to hit cinemas last year. It won't get close to winning any Hollywood awards and it was slammed by critics who said "While the filmmaking is fairly competent, Courageous is overall worthless to anybody who doesn't subscribe to its dogmatic agenda". I find myself bewildered that these are the same critics who ranked The Muppets as 95% likable.
Courageous is a movie brimming with a message that society is crying out for. Fathers need to be present in their families and their actions have long-reaching consequences. Such an ideal may be scoffed at or disregarded but it has infinitely more value than the ideals presented in The Muppets.
It leaves me wondering, without God is this the best values that we can get?
It is extremely unusual that I agree with Susie O'Brien and she seems just as startled that she would agree with "reactionary Right-wing columnists". However, when events like the Forever Young Festival occur both sides can align. Here is how Susie O'Brien describes the event:
"How do you feel about bondage? If you are an adult, I don't care what your answer is.
Tie yourself up. Knock yourself out. Whatever gets you there is fine by me.
But it's not OK for children. Children shouldn't even know about that stuff.
And yet, a kids-only music event, Forever Young Festival 2011, to be held in Melbourne in three weeks, is headlining an artist whose hit song describes bondage in graphic detail. In fact, Wynter Gordon's Dirty Talk track appears to endorse it, along with promiscuity, violence and masturbation.....
Our children are immersed in a culture that sees music with suggestive, outrageous, pornographic lyrics as not only acceptable, but totally normal.
Take some of these lines from Dirty Talk, and work out for yourself whether it's something you'd want your year 8 student listening to: "Kitten heels, lingerie, pantyhose, foreplay, Legs up, on the bar, In the back of your car/ Latex, champagne, bubble bath, whipped cream, Cherry pop tactic/ Can you make me scream."
And this: "Blindfold, feather bed, Tickle me, slippery, G spot, nasty pose/ In a video, love machine, by myself/ Climax, hot wax, S&M on the floor, I like it hardcore."
Now I am not against adults having a good time. In fact, I am whole-heartedly for it and some of these suggestions are probably even on the to-do list of many married mothers.
We all know sex sells. But who do we want sex sold to? Certainly not to our kids.
Does anyone think that these are the sort of lyrics we want our kids to be humming on the way to school?...."
Click here to go to the full editorial in the Herald Sun.
I usually don’t agree with sociologists and feminists. However, on this rare occasion I find myself assenting with a woman who is both of these. Gail Dines is Professor of Sociology at Wheelock College in Boston and an advocate for the anti-pornography movement.
This week Gail Dines appear on Lateline to promote her new book entitled Pornland. Having seen her interview and read an excerpt I cannot promote this book enough.
Gail makes several key points through-out her interview. One is that pornography is about the debasement of women. Well, this is obvious. However, Dines expands on how much women are being exploited in these films.
Gail Dines also makes reference to the addictive nature of pornography and how, like the tobacco and alcoholic companies, they employ such addictions to sell their product. Again, seems pretty obvious. But if people were actually listening then Gail wouldn’t have to writes books like Pornland.
However, pornography is not just an issue for adults. With the internet being what it is, young children have no problem accessing pornography. Gail highlights this major concern and emphasises that the vast majority of boys at age thirteen have been exposed to pornography more than once.
Gail Dines explains that this difficulty occurs because parents do not understand the dangers of the internet. Most parents do not realise what their children have been accessing.
Anyway, watch the full interview on Lateline’s website and join me and other concerned citizens to Stop Porn Culture.
Tim Tebow's team the Denver Bronco's may be out of the running for this year's Superbowl but he's still in the news. The Punch reporter Anthony Sharwood expressed his disgust with Tebow's blatant Christianity:
"The fact is, there is something vulgar about wearing your religiousness on your sleeve. It's like rooting in public. It's not right. Get a room. Or more to the point, get a church...."
Well that's a classy comment. Thankfully there is a balance of public opinion. Janet Albrechtsen writing for The Australian had this to say:
"Just by being a nice, clean-living guy who walks the Christian talk with his missionary and charity work Tebow is one heck of a weapon against secularists who wouldn't dream of ridiculing any religion except Christianity."
There's also a great introduction to Tim Tebow's history over on Lifesitenews that expresses how Tim almost didn't make it into the world and the perils that his mother went to in order that he be born:
"When she conceived, she went to see the local doctor, who told her "it wasn't a baby at all; it was a mass of fetal tissue, and I needed to abort him immediately if I were going to save my life... Said it was a tumor."....
It is also a powerful testimony to what the world loses when a woman aborts her baby. No one - not even most pro-lifers - would have blamed Mrs. Tebow for saving her own life. But she believed her baby would live - in fact, she bet her life on it - and he did live, in a big way....."
If only we all were grateful for our existence. Tim Tebow continues to defy both critics and physicians. His story is a strong testament of God's purposes coming to fruition.
Some ideas are best left in television shows. The problem is that, most of the time; the impressions given by these shows are taken on board by young viewers. Take, for instance, the story today of a Facebook site that has been started allows people to post rumours about others. Usually pretty scandalous rumours too. Unfortunately shows like Gossip Girl are affecting teens in a very negative sense and are influencing the way they relate to each other.
I cannot share such sentiment regarding The Muppets. While it is indeed a family-friendly movie (in so much that there is limited violence, no sexual references and no swearing) this movie had disappointing messages. The substance of the movie is to believe in yourself, and becoming who you want to be. The secondary theme of The Muppets relates to the importance of sharing your life with someone.