Petty, Trivial, Unworthy?

I spent the morning listening to the Dawkins and Lennox debate on The God Delusion... right at the end it came down to one thing which Richard Dawkins says...

“It all quite really comes down to the resurrection of Jesus. It has a fundamental incompatibility [with] the sophisticated scientist,”
“It’s (resurrection of Christ argument) so petty, it’s so trivial, it’s so local, it’s so earth-bound, it’s so unworthy of the universe.” - Richard Dawkins in the debate

 I found that very interesting...

For more information on the resurrection have a look here:
  
The Historicity of the Empty Tomb of  Jesus 

Contemporary scholarship and the  resurrection of Jesus

Is there really solid evidence for  the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Be-Engaging :: The Last Supper

What if you were posed with a question and situation that could change the world? What if you invited someone round for dinner and found out that they had thoughts and ideas that were very wrong and evil? What if you could rid the world of one evil person in order to save hundreds... what if Hitler came to dinner at a time when he was a young man, many years before he did all those horrible things - what would you do knowing the truth of his actions many years later?

Big Questions.

This film, "The last supper" is about the problem of evil. Its also an exposure of justice and how we think of Evil. 

The scene is around a dinner table where good food is served and good wine is poured. But there is a twist. The wine doesn't taste so good and the company doesn't seem so much fun anymore. A group of university graduates invite controversial people round for dinner, knowing that their ideas and thoughts are quite radical and perhaps very wrong. These students took the liberty to kill off these guests in order to save man kind.

But then it gets out of hand. Suddenly they were killing people that they simply disagreed with. The table turns - who is evil here? There conscience plays against them and they cant shake off the feeling that perhaps what they are doing is wrong... 

This film is brilliant and one of my favorites because it has many twists and turns and delves into some extreme ideas. It gets you thinking about the big questions in life. 

And the questions I would ask are:

1. Who is evil? 

2. What is evil and where did it come from?

3. Do we, like the students, think that we should take justice in our own hands and kill off people we disagree with?

4. Is there any room for persuasion and conversation?

5. What does the Gospel say?

Well I want to tie in what the Gospel says about who is evil, because I think thats the most important question and Jesus answers it:

      And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
(Mark 7:20-23 ESV)

This list from Jesus doesn't excuse anyone. Which means that the problem of evil is the human heart and everyone has a human heart like this and therefore we come to a conclusion that the answer to the question "Who is evil?" is me and you. Suddenly I sit at that table and I know I am not pure and cannot judge other people - for my heart is evil. And I think thats what these students suddenly come to realise in the film, they saw that they themselves have an evil heart with wrong thoughts - they were no better then those they were killing. 

But there is hope and the Gospel offers hope. On the one hand Jesus says the problem is our hearts, but on the other hand he offers us a renewed heart and salvation. 

 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [Ezekiel 36:26]

How amazing is that?

For more resources on the problem of Evil, do look at the bethinking website.

9 questions to engage a film with

Engaging with film is a seminar by Andrew Fellows, which you can find on the bethinking website.

Andrew Fellows explores how Christians can engage with film and the culture that we are in. I am just going to outline Nine questions that we should ask to uncover the films worldview. This is a good framework to have when watching anything and hopefully this will change the way we watch, read or listen to any forms of media.

1. How does the story reflect what it means to be human? - the glorification or the depravity of humanity? Evil and goodness?

2. What kind of universe exists? - Is it naturalist? Is it legoland? Is it super-naturalist (The Matrix etc)..

3. How does the story reflect history? - Is it tragic? Do our choices determine the outcome?

4. How is evil portrayed in the story? - Are we entertained by the evil in the film? Does it take evil seriously?

5. Does existence have meaning? - Do we have to create the meaning or is it bestowed upon us?

6. How does the story deal with the issue of justice? - We long for justice, does the story reflect this longing?

7. How does the story reflect relationships? - Does it show that we are relational people? What happens when its perverted?

8. How is redemption reflected in the story? - Who needs saving? Who is the Messiah?

9. Does the story have hope when it looks to the future? - is there a future we can look forward to?

These are all deeply embedded in the christian worldview. We need to learn to evaluate film from this perspective.

I hope you have found this helpful!

BE - Engaging :: The Culture around us

This is where we are right here right now. Emmersed in our culture, filtered into our mindsets and standpoints. It is useless to think that our culture doesn't effect us, it does. It effects how we think, learn and act in many different ways.

In many ways our culture presents a world view that contradicts our christian mindset, but where does that leave the Christian? On the outskirts of postmodern living, tongue tied in relativity and losing faith in a multifaith society...

Christians need to wake up and start engaging with the culture around them. Learning to discover what is society portraying in their media and art, what are the cries of desperation that society to is longing for, what are the morals, what is the crutch and framework of their ideology?

With those questions in mind, I want to ask:

And how does this fit in with the Gospel?
How can the Gospel relate to what society craves and the image that they are displaying?

I want to be like Paul as he looks around in Acts 17 "For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship" Paul is observing the culture, observing the idols and then from there he can begin to relate to them, to preach the Gospel in a way that is relevant and captures them so that they realise that the idols they were after are worthless compared to God.

We can do this now. We can pass along and observe the books, films, magazines, adverts, conversations, art, music and fashion and see the objects of worship. Learn to observe and not to hide away from culture.

So what I have decided to do is a series in BE-Engaging and look at various books, music and films and see what they portray and the messages that have been given out through them and the see what the Gospel says. How can we preach the Gospel to the world when a thousand other messages are coming to their ears??