I recently re-watched the Star Wars prequel series. While it leaves a lot to be desired from its predecessor Episodes I, II & III have unbelievable graphics and awesome lightsaber duals. Perhaps the most memorable battle from the whole Star Wars saga is when Obi-Wan Kenobi confronts a rampaging (and very red-eyed) Anakin Skywalker on the volcanic world of Mustafar. It seems an apt place to conclude the prequel and segue into the 1977 film A New Hope.
What is very interesting about this confrontation is the dialogue through-out the fight (I’ve got to be honest, the lightsaber battle starts getting a bit stupid when they fall into the volcanic river). While it is no drama scene, not since the father-son bonding in The Empire Strikes Back, (where Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker spend a pleasant afternoon bungee jumping off Cloud City and trying out arm amputations - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6sj89xgnl4) has there been a dialogue as powerful and revealing as the discourse between Anakin and Obi-Wan. See below:
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Anakin, in one of his regular fits of anger, blames his previous best friend, Obi-Wan, for turning his closet-wife against him. Thus generates some particularly eye-opening dialogue which I want to address. The first is Obi-Wan’s comment:
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“Only a sith deals in absolutes”. There are several things ironic about this statement. The first is that this statement is a logical fallacy in and of itself. For instance, the making of such a statement itself is an absolute statement (sith are the ONLY ONES who deal in absolutes). However, the hypocrisy doesn’t end there. Surely the Jedi, who are supposed to be "the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy" would be required to deal in absolutes. After all, comments like “you have become the very thing you swore to destroy”, “I have failed you Anakin, I have failed you” and “Emperor Palpatine is evil!”, all of which are uttered by Obi-Wan in this exchange, are objective comments (that is, remarks of absolutes).
This divide, between relative morality and objective morality is very much in play in our time and in this galaxy. Many people believe that morality is merely a construct of the human mind, thus we each subjectively find both meaning and morality within ourselves and from our culture. Because of this we should not impose our morality on others (a common relativist argument). As Greg Koukl states:
If relativism is true then there is no standard like that standing outside of us so there's no sense to the notion of justice or fairness. There's no accountability. Everybody does their own thing. There's no possibility of moral improvement or moral discourse, you can't even discuss things morally in an intelligent fashion because there's no better or worse morality in the context of relativism.
I think it is clear that the Jedi-way, as depicted in the Star Wars universe, is one of absolutes and not relativism. Mind you, it’s no wonder Obi-Wan is confused. What with him participating in a Buddhist-like cult. For instance, compare a Jedi to a Buddhist monk. We see such great similarities that one can only deduce that what is occurring is a misunderstanding of worldviews. A worldview like cosmic humanism (or Buddhism) does not lead to condemnation such as “Emperor Palpatine is evil!”. Only a God like the one who gave Moses the Ten Commandments has the power to ordain rules and distribute justice.
Also worth noting is Anakin’s philosophy. “I do not fear the dark side as you do. I have brought peace, freedom, justice and security to my new empire!”. Anakin believes that the ends justify the means. Because of his relativistic position he can rationalise using the “dark side of the force” for, what he deems, is the good of the empire. Many people rationalise their actions as Anakin does.
But Anakin’s actions go further than this. He ultimately makes a deal with the devil (i.e. Emperor Palpatine) in an attempt to save his wife. George Lucas has pointed to Faust, a German legend, as inspiration for this characteristic of Anakin Skywalker. The gist of this story is the man who has power desires more. Indeed this is what the Emperor offers Anakin:
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And there you have it again. Palpatine tells Anakin “good is a point of view”. George Lucas may not mean to associate relativism with Satan’s lies but it is unmistakable that this is the strongest lie in Palpatine’s arsenal (well, this and how he has the power to save Padme’s life).
By the end of Episode III Anakin has been transformed into a hate-filled monster where only his desires and ambitions drive him. Yet we shouldn’t be surprised. As Greg Koukl asserts in regards to relativism “[t]here's got to be something wrong with an allegedly moral point of view that produces a moral champion who has the moral substance of a sociopath”.
"What this all goes to show is that nonsense remains nonsense, even when talked by world-famous scientists."
John Lennox
It seems very popular for an "eminent scientist" to bring a book out that claims that they have made God obsolete. It's safe to say that most of the time this seems to be a publicity ploy in an attempt to sell copies. Usually humanistic scientists don't bring anything new to the debate (see Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion). Occasionally, though, a scientist postulates a new reason for God's non-existence. This leads us to Stephen Hawking's newest book The Grand Design which seeks to convince us, the readers, that God is not needed because of "a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing".
Of course, such a challenge can not go unimpeded and two of the most eminent Christian apologists have taken up Hawking's (and co-author Leonard Mlodinow's) challenge. As an initial point The Grand Design claims that philosophy is obsolete:
Traditionally these are questions for philosophy, but philosophy is dead. It has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly in physics. As a result scientists have become the bearers of the torch of discovery in our quest for knowledge.
The Grand Design, pg 5
This claim seems similar to Richard Dawkins and one can't help feeling that such an assertion is merely an attempt to discredit those who would vehemently disagree with the findings of the author. William Lane Craig, as a Christian philosopher, provides a measured response:
The most important conclusions drawn in [The Grand Design] are philosophical, not scientific. Why, then, do they pronounce philosophy dead and claim as scientists to be bearing the torch of discovery? Simply because that enables them to cloak their amateurish philosophizing with the mantle of scientific authority and so avoid the hard work of actually arguing for, rather than merely asserting, their philosophical viewpoints.
Beyond that, apologist and Oxford Mathematics lecturer, Professor John Lennox, has written a short book entitled God And Stephen Hawkingwhich spends 96 pages describing some mistakes that are made in The Grand Design. Of note Lennox states:
It is seldom that one finds in a single statement two distinct levels of contradiction, but Hawking appears to have constructed such a statement. He says the universe comes from a nothing that turns out to be a something (self-contradiction number one), and then he says the universe creates itself (self-contradiction number two). But that is not all. His notion that a law of nature (gravity) explains the existence of the universe is also self-contradictory, since a law of nature, by definition, surely depends for its own existence on the prior existence of the nature it purports to describe.
God and Stephen Hawking, pg 31- John Lennox
This book is cheap and short and is well worth the handful of dollars it costs. However, if one did not want to purchase it then check out John Lennox's hour long lecture which goes over his main assertions in the book:
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It is not just Christian apologists who have disagreed with Hawkings book. Many humanist scientists are unhappy with the way Stephen Hawkings has used the M-theory, from physics, to declare the extinction of God. One such physicist who is not taken by The Grand Design is Roger Penrose who is adamant that the inability to observationally test M-theory is an extreme shortcoming of the theory:
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I will leave the final word up to Professor David Gross, whose field is particle physics and string theory and he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics (again, he is not a theist):
One thing that is sure to generate sales for a book of this kind is to somehow drag in religion. The book's rather conventional claim that "God is unnecessary" for explaining physics and early universe cosmology has provided a lot of publicity for the book. I'm in favor of naturalism and leaving God out of physics as much as the next person, but if you're the sort who wants to go to battle in the science/religion wars, why you would choose to take up such a dubious weapon as M-theory mystifies me.
So Finance Minister Penny Wong has announced that she and her partner Sophie Allouache are expecting a child. Bill Muehlenberg, again, read my mind and has penned this article on the announcement.
"Is God interested in government? Does God’s word have anything to say to us today about godly governance? Does character matter when it comes to running a nation? Are economic issues related to moral issues? Does the strength of a nation rest only in political and economic matters? These and related questions are certainly very timely, and Christians of all people should address them carefully.
Given what looks like another global financial crisis, tied in with economic meltdown in Europe and the debt crisis and downgrading of the credit rating in the US, along with Britain in flames, we certainly need to think through these matters.
Indeed, given how many people who call themselves Christians were happy to vote for atheists, homosexuals, pro-abortionists, and so on at the last Federal election, it seems that some believers have not been thinking carefully about these matters at all.
When we think about the various leaders running Australia, America, and other Western nations today, and assess them in the light of Scripture, we would appear to be in a very precarious place. Simply consider Australia. Our two leaders, Gillard and Brown, are both hostile to Christianity. Indeed they revel in their atheism and ungodliness.
She is a pro-abortion socialist who is shacking up with her boyfriend. He is a pro-abortion socialist who is shacking up with his boyfriend. Both are living lives far from what Scripture upholds as leadership material. And today we read of another high-ranking government minister who is also publicly flaunting her ungodly lifestyle.
Finance Minister Penny Wong and her female lover have just announced that they are expecting a baby through IVF. This is another nail in the coffin of marriage and family, and is another blow to the well-being of children. All children have a fundamental right to be born into and raised by their own biological mother and father. To deliberately deprive them of this is a form of child neglect, if not abuse.
But this is typical of the leadership we have in this nation. And many other Western nations would also have such political figures running their countries. In the US we have the most militantly pro-abortion and pro-homosexual President ever to hold office.
And of course these nations are now in a real mess. Australia might think it can escape the economic collapse taking place in Europe (especially the PIGS: Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) and America, but in a global economy this will be unlikely. We will all be impacted by the global financial meltdown.
We clearly need to recall the strong connection made in Scripture between the state and fate of a nation and its spiritual and moral condition. The Bible of course speaks to this time and time again. Let me offer just a few passages here:
Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. Proverbs 29:2 When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked rule, the people mourn. Proverbs 11:14 Without wise leadership, a nation falls. Psalm 14:1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”.
When we take passages like this and put them together, we get a pretty good explanation as to why Australia, America and the West is in such a mess today. When we – and especially our leaders – abandon God, indeed, shake our fists at God, we are asking for trouble.
Solzhenitsyn said this decades ago when he looked at the disaster which had befallen the former Soviet Union: “It is because we have forgotten God. That is why all this is happening to us.” Or as Yahweh put it when his covenant people asked why great disaster had befallen them: “All this happened because you people sinned against the LORD and did not obey him” (Jeremiah 40:3).
One American commentator has just penned a piece which also deals with these matters. Michael Brown entitles his piece, “It’s the Morality, Stupid!” He says, “Could it be that there’s more to the story? Could it be that we make a serious and fundamental mistake when we separate economic issues from moral issues? Could it be that we are often treating the symptoms rather than the cause? There was bipartisan disgust as the nation watched the president and both political parties wrangling over a solution to the current financial crisis, and in the end, all we got was a very small, largely ineffective band aid. As one political cartoonist depicted it, the congressional ‘solution’ was like slowing down the speed with which the Titanic was sinking.
“Across party lines, there was a feeling that we were not really getting to the root of the problem, but few, if any were suggesting that it is impossible to separate economics from morality. Eventually, our moral choices will have a definite and direct impact on the money (or lack thereof) in our pockets.”
He mentions four root areas which are having a decided impact on the nation and the economy: “1) Instant gratification. 2) We have become consumers rather than producers. 3) The breakdown of the family. 4) Abortion.”
Consider the last one: “With all the concerns about Social Security defaulting, very few leaders are talking about the 800 pound gorilla missing from the room, namely, multiplied millions of working Americans who are not here to pay into the system and contribute to the economy because their lives were cut short in the womb. Yes, there is an economic consequence to abortion as well.
“Perhaps, then, it would be wise for political candidates who really care about what’s best for America to change their slogan to, ‘It’s the morality, stupid.’ Or is this slogan too true to be good?”
Yes moral, spiritual and cultural issues need to be looked at as closely as we looked at the trade balance or fiscal policy. But most leaders today are secularists living immoral lifestyles, so those are the last sorts of things they wish to consider. They think that tinkering around the edges of the economy, or making crafty political moves will somehow fix everything up.
Sorry, they are deluded, and are deluding the nations they lead. Our problems are far deeper than what these leaders imagine. Until we get our priorities right, and stop leaving God out of the picture, the West will continue to head down the gurgler.
A great article appeared on Christian Post the other week sharing Christian apologist Josh McDowell's views on the detrimental effect the internet is having on Christian children.
"Atheists and skeptics now have equal access to our children as we have, which is why the number of Christian youth who believe in the fundamentals of Christianity is decreasing and sexual immorality is growing, apologist Josh McDowell said.
“What has changed everything?” asked the apologist from Campus Crusade for Christ International as he spoke on “Unshakable Truth, Relevant Faith” at the Billy Graham Center in Asheville, N.C., Friday evening. His answer was, the Internet.
“The Internet has given atheists, agnostics, skeptics, the people who like to destroy everything that you and I believe, the almost equal access to your kids as your youth pastor and you have... whether you like it or not,” said McDowell, who is author of two books on Christian apologetics, More than a Carpenter and New Evidence that Demands Verdict.....
McDowell, who considered himself an agnostic before accepting Christ, warned that the sexual immorality through the Internet was “marginalizing the maturity of the witness of Christ…all over the world.” It’s an “invasive, intruding immorality… that is all just one click away.” He said the majority of questions young people ask him are about sex, mainly “oral sex.”
The majority of all the 2.2 billion people who go to the Internet daily are between 15 to 25 years of age, he said. And there are 4.2 million pornographic sites. “Do you know how many pornographic emails would be circulated just today? 2.5 billion…just one click away.”...."
