Making the World a Better Place - Motivation vs Model

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Michale Malice is not wrong to say people should have the motivation to make the world a better place. But the problem is without a comprehensive model for how to make the world a better place, misplaced motivation can easily destroy the world in the name of making the world a better place as we see with Stalin and Walter Duranty. Christian theology points to Jesus being the best model to making the world a better place through self-giving love, in as much as Christians follow the way of Jesus, we will truly be making the world a better place.

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Joe Rogan - On the Question of Techno Utopianism

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The idea of using micro electrodes in the brain to program away faulty thinking reminds me of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World which uses drugs instead of electromagnetism to manage brains creating a crime-less society with unmitigated happiness. The problem of course is that a society which does not have a sense of freewill ends up into becoming a rather boring society. One of the characters, John Savage, finds such a world so meaningless that he tries to find meaning in suffering, lashing himself with a whip, and eventually taking his own life away. Why would a society filled with easy ways for chemically induced happiness be rather boring and meaningless?

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Can the Historical Trajectory of a Nation be Changed?

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Yes, people can change history of they have a singular passion for an idea and are willing to die for it. But for this change to create any kind of last peace in a Christlike way, the means and the ends have to align. Using coercive power may give short term results. But one cannot use coercive powers of destruction to create lasting peace, case in point Nechayev’s Revolution. One can only use self-sacrificial love of the way of Jesus to create lasting peace.

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Tiger King - The Addiction to Spectacle

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If we are craving attention, seeking self-aggrandizement, becoming addicted to our spectacles the way Joe Exotic is, then we will self-destruct like Joe Exotic. We will be crushed under the weight of our own spectacle. The way to freedom is to away from the addiction to the self-aggrandizing spectacle is to, one, always perform for the audience of one no matter what. Two, remember that we are the beloved of God no matter what others may think about us or say about us. This is the good news, that we are the beloved of God, in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

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Narcos TV Show: How to Endure Suffering?

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Our ability to endure suffering comes from the power of our identity. From a Christian standpoint our identity as children of God gives us an eternal perspective on suffering, by reminding us that our citizenship is in the eternal world. Our identity in Christ also gives us a new purpose, to love our neighbors. It means our suffering does not define us, our suffering is redeemed by investing in loving, building the kingdom of love and peace.

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Lord of the Rings - Attachment vs Trust

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When we are stuck in obsessions, trying to find our happiness and rest through some attachment of ours, the way to let go of our obsessions is to to trust in God for our rest and happiness. Life is a journey with God. It is a journey filled with wonder towards freedom. It is our trust in God who fuels this journey of wonder towards freedom.

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The Crown, On Standing Tall

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Sometime we are tempted to approach faith as something that can "help" us to live comfortable lives. Voltaire said, "I would rather have a servant who has faith so that he will not steal from me." This kind of way of looking at faith is the kind of faith that is there to "help" people. Faith of this kind is seen as something that helps people to be less anxious, to be more hopeful, so that one feels good about one’s life. This is not necessarily bad, but it is not complete either. The faith that God calls us to in Jesus is not this "it helps" faith, rather it is a form of "it is everything" faith.

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God's Pathos in Gib Singleton

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A.W.Auden said, "only a suffering God is an interesting God." Suffering is a universal fact. Singleton is a genius in teasing out this aspect of God's pathos in his sculptures, showing solidarity with human suffering. Even as the world may try to overwhelm us with suffering, in Christ our suffering is taken up on God, and we are affirmed as the beloved of God.

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Georgia O'Keeffe, a Glimpse of the Gospel

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The Gospel does not take away our pain in this life at least, rather it transmutes our pain to a new paradoxical blessing. In O'Keeffe's vision we encounter life with all its incongruities, giving us a glimpse of the paradoxical call of the Gospel to embrace the suffering, the sharp and even hurtful edges of life and find in the midst of it the delight of God's grace flowering forth.

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Joker Falling Through the Christless Cracks!

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We live in a society which is increasingly fragmented. Millennials are one of the loneliest generation. The UK has appointed a minister of loneliness because it has realized the importance of being connected to community, for the overall health of well being of individuals and the hence the nation. Durkiem was a sociologist who analyzed the pattern of suicide in the early 20th century. He found that the persons who committed suicide often were isolated individuals. Joker is one such anomie, in fact one of his jokes in the journal read, "may be my death will make more cents than my life." Arthur Fleck was an anomie who if he had been living in the early 20th century would have committed suicide. But the Joker of the 21st centruy is an anomie becomes a psychotic murderer.

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Theology in Toy Story 4 - Beloved Trash

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In the movie, the good news is that Woody figures out a way to prevent Froky from running for trash bin. Forky's value, says Woody, does not come from what Forky is made from but rather Woody's value is bestowed upon Forky by the love that Bonnie has for it. In more ways than one, this is a representation of the Gospel. Our values does not come from what we are made out of, or what we are capable of, rather, our values comes from the love that is bestowed up on us by God through Jesus Christ.

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Lesson from Tony Stark's Sacrifice

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When the actions we do is not easy to come, our identity becomes our motivating force just as it did for Tony Stark when he had to chose to give up his life to save planet earth. Next time you face a tough choice, going against the values of the culture, whether it be finding time to pray or going the extra mile for a friend, or to listen without arguing, take a breath, appropriating Tony Stark, remind yourself, "I am a disciples of Christ," and way of Christ-like self giving love.

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Loneliness vs Connection

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The problem with our society is that we are moving more and more into a society which is determined by I-IT relationships. Christopher Lash in his book the Culture of Narcissism says we are becoming a society of "happy hookers," where the goal is to sell oneself to people around us, where it a boss at work or a potential date at a coffee shop. This I-IT-happy-hooker way of life is causing more fragmentation and greater isolation. It is no wonder that the UK recently appointed a special cabinet minister post to address the problem of loneliness.

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Reflections on the movies, Signs

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The movie Signs with Mel Gibson and Jacqulin Phenoix is an alien invasion movie. But what makes it unique is that the real drama of the movie is the so much the interaction between the aliens and human beings, but the crisis of faith within a family.



The protagonist of the movie, Graham (played by Mel Gibson), is the father of 2 children. He lost his wife 6 months ago. With that he lost his faith, quit his Church of which he was the priest. Graham is angry at God for letting his wife die in a freak accident. As the aliens visit earth, it raises up existential crisis among earthlings. 



Graham says in the movie that there are two types of people in the world. One who believes in miracle and ones who think that everything is a coincidence. People in the 'miracles' group have hope that there is someone who is looking out for them. Graham, having left his faith, he no longer is in the miracles group. 

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The movie of course ends with Graham coming back to faith. He realizes that the death of his wife served the purpose of saving his family during the alien invasion. His son gets poisoned by the alien being. Then Graham prays to God to bring his son to not die. His son lives.



So superficially the movie seems to be a vindication of faith. The faith represented in the movie partially aligns with the kind of faith that the bible talks about. 



Romans 8:28 says that God works all things for the good of those who love God. So in that sense the movie seems to align with Christian faith. In that sense, the death of Graham's wife is something that is worked out for the good. 



At the same time, Christian is not outcome oriented. When we pray we are promised answers. But it is also true that God is not some prayer answering machine. God gives us His presence as a gift through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. The essence of faith is to believe in God as the loving presence, Jesus as the face of God, and Holy Spirit as the power of God. Prayer is a way of being in God's presence. In Psalm 27 David says he wants to be in God's temple all the days of his life, gazing on Him all the time. 



Graham, having lost his wife, is in a state of detached shock. In this he has distanced himself people around him, even his kids. He has distanced himself from God too. The way out of his grief come by his finally getting to a place of address himself to God, the first words he says is, "I hate you." In so doing, Graham acknowledges God's presence. In a sense this way of Graham talking to God is a form of a lament prayer - the Psalms often take the form of lament. These lament prayers is one where God allows the petitioner to just pour our his/her heart to God.



In some ways Graham is going through an experience that is analogous to Jesus saying, "why God have you forsaken me?" which is a quote from Psalm 22, a lament Psalm. The point of the movie Signs is that, at times, our faith we may go through a dark night of the soul. The key in those moments it to keep the communication with God open, channeling our feelings to God, even if that feeling is despair or anger. God works it all for the good. His presence is the best goodness we could ever have!

Tolkien's 2nd Age, on Amazon - Dig in!

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The account, of Souron and the Numenorean men, is a retelling of the Genesis chapter 3 account of the Fall of man. In Genesis the devil, in the form of the serpent, plants an idea in the mind of Adam and Eve - the idea that God was "holding out on them." God was preventing them from eating the fruit, becoming God-like. Once Adam and Eve allowed this distrustful seed to take root, the bait was taken.

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Mary Poppins, a Christmas Movie!?

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The movie Mary Poppins also depicts a form of biblical pathway of redemption in the sense that Mary Poppins comes down to earth as an incarnation to instigate transformation. In a superficial sense Mary Poppins serves as the Christ figure who comes from the heavens to the earth to save people, as in helping people to see that relationship matter more than material things. Mary Poppins, as in Mother Mary, births new life. Though we have the potential for both good and bad in us, we often need help from the outside to change. The idea of God incarnating into the world as Jesus Christ in order to redeem humanity is the essence of the Christmas story. Using this incarnational lens, it is possible to see Mary Poppins as a Christmas movie in its essence. Mary Poppins like Jesus, comes down to earth to save the broken lives of people, making Mary Poppins a Christmas movie.

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Princess Bride - A Story Desire Re-Orientation

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Ironically, the core of Princess Bride is not the Princess or her suitors, but the love between a grand father and his grand son who open and close the movie. What stuck me this time was how the relationship between the grandfather and the grandson was en example of the relationship between God and human beings - depicting our strategies of distraction and resistance, and, God's relentless pursuit. 

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Brahms Requiem - Promising Purpose through the Pain

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The language of music is the language of the human psyche. Genius artist are one who have a deep grasp of how the work of art, born authentically out of human pathos can speak authentically to the universal human condition. I think some where in the mystical realms between Movement II and Movement III was teleported into the timeless realm of my own conscientiousness and experienced a shift that resolved some deep angst within, helping me reemerge a more grounded individual with a deeper faith in, "the word of the Lord (that) endures for eternity," promising purpose in spite of the pain. 

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