Journeys with Tim

"nothing will prepare you..."

Going to see The Passion today with some friends later tonight. I spoke with another friend last night who's already seen it. He said it was deeply moving, profound and added "nothing will prepare you for what you're going to see." I think it's great there's a movie that so overwhelming. No wonder people are seeing it in droves, we crave profound experiences, especially if they're slightly dangerous.

still more rules

the rules.

Rule No. 435: There is no upside to karaoke.

Rule No. 321: On forms where it says "sex" and you write "yes!" they have the right to crumple up your document and fire rubber bullets at your groin.

Rule No. 393: A man wearing a brightly colored fanny pack is 7/8th of a man.

Rule No. 431: Never let a motion picture from a trans-global media conglomerate that's been test-marketed and had several scenes re-shot to hone its appeal for a key target demographics touch your very soul.

mardi gras

Some of my more Orthodox friends remind me today is Fat Tuesday, which of course means Lent starts tomorrow. Being a Protestant I ask: What's Lent? Just kidding. Lent is the season of fasting and praying; a time of reflection and preparation for Resurrection Sunday.

Given all the hype about the Passion lately, I almost forgot tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. But I'm sure the Passion will put me in the right frame of mind.

self-delusion

Tonight I'm renting Blade Runner and pondering the difference between man and machine, and whether one can be completely self-deluded. (Apparently one of the replicants in the movie doesn't believe she is a machine). And of course the real question is whether Rick Deckard is a replicant.

Will such philosophical candy make its way into one of my future classes? Possibly.

It also allows me to overcome frustration at Outlook for deleting all of my email messages over the last 18 hours or so. Arrrh! Ergo, if you sent me an email last night or this morning you'll probably need to resend it. Thanks.

"...it depends who you ask"

Teaching ethics makes people say some strange things. For example I often ask my students, as I did this past week, what they think about a moral dilemma. There is one answer that always seems to come up: "...it depends on who you ask."

My gut reaction to that phrase is to say: you, you moron, I want to know what you think, that's why I'm asking!

My reaction aside, the more I think about it, the stranger that phrase appears. Is the utterer saying that rightness or wrongness is literally dependent on what people say? So if someone says cheating on your taxes is okay, does that make it okay? That's just crazy.

Or are they saying that different people have different views? If that's what they mean, then isn't that obvious and completely irrelevant?

Here's what I really think. I think people simply don't like to make moral judgments. The culture has beaten into our heads the idea that moral disagreement is to be avoided at all costs. Thus people are uncomfortable taking a stand. There are too many moral cowards. Of course no one likes moral bullies either, but it seems that for now, the pendulum has swung toward moral cowardice.

is atheism irrational?

John E. Hare, a professor of philosophical theology at Yale, gave a lecture today on Kant called "Kant and the Rational Instability of Atheism". It was Hare's view that Kant thought there is a dilemma for the atheist who wants to be moral. Kant thought that you could be a good person and an atheist, but you faced a "rational instability" because while you may know the good, you have no motivation to do the good.

I'm sympathetic to Kant's view, but I need to give the paper a close read to say anything definite. I did read one of Hare's articles last Christmas which was quite good.

I love the questions this topic raised: Can someone be a rational atheist? Is there a motivation to do the good if you're not a theist. Good stuff.

...

Looks like I'm teaching ethics again next semester so I'm been thinking about ways to improve the class from the previous year.

One thing I'm thinking about doing is focusing on fewer ethical issuses but in greater depth. The problem is deciding which hot topic issue to present.

Also, I'll like to show more movie clips, and somehow use novels or current events, but incorporating them in the class is a challenge.

Any ideas?

talking points

Mel Gibson is a filmmaker (one of the best), not an apologist, yet he handled himself wonderfully last night.

I loved his personal approach: rather than getting involved in theological debates, he gave personal testimony about the power of Christ. (Theological debates have their place, but experience is the language of the day). After telling about the emptiness that accompanied his success, including thoughts of suicide, he tells us that he simply cried out for help.

And there it is my friends: the offer of the gospel in a nutshell - a dead life reborn.

That he is flawed is almost a better argument for the gospel than anything else. I couldn't help but notice how snobby and boring the interfaith "scholars", and his other critics looked by comparison. Mel was genuine, not angry; hurt by the controvery, but full of life and engaging.

The interview was a success - people will be talking about this for a while. And even his critics had to admit that neither Mel nor his film were anti-Semitic. Game, set, match.

BTW, I though his anecote about Jack Nicolson was priceless.

This film is a gift: the essential story of the gospel, told by the maker of Braveheart.

Can't wait.

Commentary on Gibson

Some of the writers at National Review comment on ABC's interview with Mel. Here's Tim Graham...

I can't agree ABC was fair, at least not in comparison. Please remember that when they spent 60 minutes promoting "The Da Vinci Code" a few months ago, there were no critics or offended opponents asked to speak on camera.

z Yes, Gibson was terrific, but he was also questioned and quibbled with at every turn by Sawyer and others. It may have made Gibson more endearing to face the knitted brow of Diane Sawyer, whose own husband just recently made the theologically absurd HBO film of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America."

z To me, Sawyer's proddings about Gibson's beliefs seemed a lot like her asking Ken Starr about him growing up in religious circles that did not believe in dancing -- they were designed to make him look abnormal and wacky. And could we have an ABC special without absurd "Jesus scholars" like John Dominic Crossan touting their theories that Jesus was just a social revolutionary, a misunderstood hippie before it was popular?

Overall I thought Mel was great, even though I would have answered some of the questions differently. Either way, the publicity is great.

ecce homo

Mel Gibson speaks tonight on ABC's Primetime Live. After months of hearing critics of the Passion, we finally get to hear the man behind the movie.

I'm willing to bet that Mel's passion and artistic creation will mute a lot of criticism, especially when folks hear about Mel's own spiritual journey. I expect a great interview.

was calvin a precog?

The December issue of Wired Magazine features a story on Philip K. Dick, the sci-fi writer who's books are quickly being made into movies.

I remember philosopher Richard Purtill visiting Talbot and saying that science-fiction is the literature of ideas. Never really liked sci-fi myself, I can count the number of sci-fi books I've read on one hand, but still, some of the ideas that get batted around are interesting.

Philip K. Dick traded in some of the most basic questions: Minority Report's Calvinist challenge to free-will; Blade Runner and the limits of humanity; Total Recall and Paycheck both question whether the senses can be trusted.

It's heady stuff, and I'd like to know more. Pedagogically, science fiction seems like a gold mine; people seem much more likely to talk about ideas when couched in story form (maybe science fiction can be the parables of our time).

every man must know...

the rules.

Rule No. 70: It's possible to actually become dumber by watching TV news-magazines.

Rule No. 62: No matter how greasy the pizza is, you can't blot it out with a paper towel and expect to be taken seriously.

Rule No. 111: The stupider the man, the slower he walks.

Rule No. 125: When it comes to personalized stationery, men don't have it.

expectations

It looks like Passon will open big later this month. Yahoo! has some interesting details. Also, ABC will have an hour interview with Gibson next monday.

passion

Our church, like others, has reserved a few showtimes for Passion's opening day Feburary 25th. Yesterday during the service we saw a trailer and a video greeting by Gibson and Jim Caviezel, who plays Christ.

I'm expecting it to be graphically violent, yet moving. Just watching the trailer made some wince yesterday. But this is all for the good; it will be good to shake things up a bit.

sean penn goes to baghdad

Tucker Carlson has an article in Esquire about some of the private security guys hired by the Pentagon to provide protection in Iraq. He's got a tid bit about Sean Penn.

The week before I arrived, Sean Penn came to Iraq on some sort of special assignment for the San Francisco Chronicle. The actor was getting out of a cab in downtown Baghdad when a group of contractors spotted him. The contractors didn't share Penn's politics. Plus, they found the idea of him annoying. So they took his camera and made him stand in the rain for forty-five minutes while they ran an imaginary security check on his equipment. There was nothing Penn could do about it. They had guns. He didn't. Tough luck.

Ain't life grand?

from faith to Kant

At the end of the Critique of Practical Reason of 1788, Kant wrote, "Two things fill the mind of ever new and increasing admiration and awe the more often and more euduringly reflection is occupied with them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me."

Today I'm working on an essay question for my Kant class which is related to the first thing: what are the basic principles of knowledge which can explain how is it that we have knowledge of the starry heavens. I just hope I can understand Kant's answer.

faith

I subscribe to the Christian Quote of the Day email newsletter which contains a wonderful definition of faith by New Testament translator J. B. Phillips (1906-1982).

It [faith] requires not merely intellectual assent but a shifting of personal trust from the achievements of the self to the completely undeserved action of God. To accept this teaching by mind and heart does, indeed, require a metanoia ["transformation"], a revolution in the outlook of both heart and mind.

When so many people misunderstand 'faith' to mean uncritical acceptable of belief, it's nice to hear a biblical understanding.

another one?

The UNL plaza cam tells the story. Another snow storm has hit Lincoln; we're expecting another 4-6 inches by tonight. It started too late to cancel classes, which would have been great because I've got things to do. Looks like I'll have to race to class through the storm.

fell deeds awake

Test day for my philosophy 106 students today.

Some looked clearly apprehensive. Many thought they would not survive. So I greeted them with the words of King Théoden in The Two Towers:

Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath! Now for ruin! And a red dawn!

Students may not realize this, but instructors are always a bit nervous when they give exams. They wants their students to have a fair shot at doing well while not making the test too hard or too easy. Even my fellow TA and I were thinking about how well we prepared our students during our discussion sections.

Many of the students will be happy that the professor's grading scale ensures high scores. Honestly though, my tests would be harder.

images and lectures

About 160 students take the class for which I TA. The classroom is outfitted with the latest high tech capability (computer, large screen projection, sound system, etc.,) but the professor still uses hand written overheads. Cracks me up. I would definitely use Power Point. I would love to use images and video for my lectures, maybe show movie clips on DVD to make a point. Wouldn’t that be fun? A chalkboard is still essential, but most content can be put up rather nicely on PP.

I think with a class that large it’s imperative to keep things sharp and aesthetically pleasing. And of course a laser pointer, just to be cool.

...

Lectured today on informal fallacies, and barely made it back home. The snow started falling just as I left this morning, and continued to fall on and off throughout the morning, making the streets slippery.

It's really starting to come down now - 12 inches are expected by tomorrow.

A perfect day to spend with Harry Potter.