Christ and Pop Culture - Latest Comments

Re: ‘Ender’s Game,’ Genocide, and Moral Culpability

Raymond Z — Mon, 24 Feb 2014 01:39:01 -0000

Radford made a connection between Ender and Hitler.
Another possible connection: Could Card have been referring to those children (in real life) who lost distinction between video games and reality? I remember in the news there were several incidences that kids playing video games either a) killed other people, or b) killed themselves because they believed it was a video game.

Also, Radford states how it is highly unlikely for these planets to be separated by race, nationality, religion, etc. The question is, is it really that unlikely? Card's explanation for this separation is that people themselves are drawn to similar communities. The colonists to other planets will leave behind everything. They would obviously want to take with them the things that are most familiar and precious to them; their culture, friends, family. Alternately, Card could have been connecting the segregated planets with Earth's segregation of communities. If you think about it, it matches to some degree. People who live on the continent of Africa are mostly Black. People who live in Asian countries are most likely, Asian. Yes, some countries have evolved into multi-culture countries, there are still those who are segregated.

Another question: did Card want us to believe that Ender really believed that the Formics had to be exterminated? In other words, is Ender's claim that he would have killed the Formics even if he had known it wasn't a game?

Card states how Ender was capable of extinguishing the alien race because he thought he was playing a game. This is shown in the book that shows Bean's perspective of Ender's Game. Bean states how he was more technically capable than Ender, but he was unable to do the job (of genocide) because he was aware. It is implied that Ender is only able to kill the Formics because he was unaware. Card's statement that Ender would have done it -- destroyed the aliens -- even if he had known it, could be false.

However, in a later book, Card again brings out the possibility that Ender WOULD really have done it. The captain on the ship is very obviously compared to Ender. Despite understanding that it was not a game, the captain launched the Doctor at Lusitania.

Also, Card states how the Formics also were unaware that humans were intelligent species. I call complete BS on that. The Formics were aware that the gold-extracting-worms were intelligent species. How could they not understand the patterns and coordination in their battles with the human fighters? The Hive Queen even states later that she noticed how intelligent and creative the human fighters were. Therefore, is Card stating that all these people who say that they were not aware of the destruction they were causing, and that they would have or would not have done so if they had known, is he saying that these claims are all false? That we would do anything to protect ourselves?

So, we are left in the dark as Card presents us a problem in Ender's Game, and gives us two contradicting answers in another two books (one answer in each book).

Next, what about the new books that Card has published? What is the significance of Earth Unaware and Earth Afire? To us humans, we hate the Formics for extinguishing all life in their attempt to terraform Earth. What difference does this have with the human colonists? What about those who have extinguished the descolada, and the "blood worms", in order to make the planet habitable for humans. Is Card calling the human race naturally inclined to be hypocritical? What about Lusitania, the one exception?

Finally, there are many loose ends I am confused about. What happened to the people who created the descolada? What is the significance of Card stating that these people created descolada to completely destroy a race regardless of the consequences? That they created the Pequeninos? Also, I feel that Card is playing with our minds. Someone who read the entire Enderverse CHRONOLOGICALLY, would first hate the Formics (Earth unaware, afire), love the Formics (end of Ender's game), love the piggies (when Ender first arrives at Lusitania), then hate the piggies (at the murder of the xenobiologists), and finally love the piggies again. We then hate the descolada for being the antagonist of the story for a while, then waver a bit when Quora (was it her?) who claimed that the descolada were intelligent. In the end we feel neutral about the descolada. We hate the creators of the descolada.
At first, the reader WANTS the Formics to lose, but later, the reader wants them (the Hive Queen) to blossom. We've generally loved the Piggies. However, Card's pattern with the descolada are slightly stranger. I think that Card simply wanted to tie that loose end by making it clear that the descolada were not intelligent.

Re: Music Matters: David Bowie, Still Not Quite an Atheist

Smiley M.M. — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 04:11:16 -0000

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Re: How I Changed My Mind About Abortion

myintx — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 01:59:13 -0000

"that many of us do not accept that a few cells of human DNA constitute a human being" - I assume you're talking about a human zygote? First: it doesn't stay a 'few cells' for very long. By 5 weeks, an unborn child has it's own heartbeat, by 11 or 12, all it's major organs, limbs, fingers and toes. If not miscarried, or intentionally killed, what will happen? will it turn into a dog? a cat? will it have 'dog consciousness'? NO, it will be born as a newborn. Therefore, when a woman has an abortion, she is killing a human being. That's reality...

Even scientists know an unborn child is a human being.

"Zygote: This cell results from the union of an oocyte
and a sperm. A zygote is the beginning of a new human being (i.e., an embryo). The expression fertilized ovum refers to a secondary oocyte that is impregnated by a sperm; when fertilization is complete, the oocyte becomes a zygote."
Keith L. Moore and T.V.N. Persaud, The Developing Human (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1998). (FYI: Keith Moore is an embryologist)

Re: How I Changed My Mind About Abortion

myintx — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 00:20:51 -0000

No thought given to the unborn child whose life was 'silenced and oppressed'... sad.

Re: Alone Yet Not Alone and the Racial Tone-Deafness of Conservative America

Guest — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 23:51:55 -0000

The evidence was that what we call the Native Americans were, in fact, the first humans in the Americas; they didn't displace anyone else. In other words, they truly were--in contrast to the European settlers--"a people without a land going to a land without a people."
Of course, if one wanted to be contentious, there were some megafauna that went extinct after the first humans came, probably by a combination of natural climate change and human over-hunting. But that's the story in much of the world as well.

Re: On the Anniversary of His Execution, What Can We Learn From the “First Martyr of Science”

William J E Dempsey — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 18:34:56 -0000

Opposing virgin birth - is Science

Re: On the Anniversary of His Execution, What Can We Learn From the “First Martyr of Science”

William J E Dempsey — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 18:32:16 -0000

Strictly speaking, White did not say,
in your quoted excerpt, that Bruno supported Galileo's Copernican
idea. White merely says that Bruno was there, working on his ideas;
and then after him, Galileo and his (own) ideas.

Is the private school you are working
for, a religious one?

Of course the Church opposed Science.
And still does. Every day it supports supernatural miracles.

Re: The Persecution Complex of the Modern Introvert

LW — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 03:59:06 -0000

Coming in late to the party (because as an introvert, late is the ONLY way I'll come to a party!)... I agree with you that introverts don't need to turn life into a pity party. However, in the past week I have witnessed what I consider to be a slap in the face of introverts. (I won't call it "persecution" because I think that is an insult to people who really ARE persecuted.) In our church, we take communion every week, and we are encouraged (but not required) to take it in groups. Our pastor believes that during communion you are communing not just with God but with each other. I don't personally agree -- I think he's taking liberties with the words by saying that "communion" is related to "community" -- but I just take the elements back to my seat and have communion alone, just me and God. I do have to ignore the noise of people talking as they take communion in their groups, but I've gotten pretty good at tuning it out. However, last Sunday, the pastor said, "Don't be afraid to make a little noise while you take communion together. It's not supposed to be about you and God -- you could do that at home. Here, you're supposed to interact with one another!" I was horrified. The noise that was always a side effect of group communion has now received the pastor's endorsement and blessing. People like me, for whom communion is a sacred, mystical experience, are now officially out of luck -- not to mention out of favor. So yeah, at this point I really do feel that at least in my church, there is a deliberate attempt to encourage extroverted behavior and marginalize introverted behavior.

Re: CAPC Podcast #4: Hot Pockets, Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church, The Beats Music App

BrendtWayneWaters — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 12:30:31 -0000

"The Code" (and its companion indoctr..., er um, I mean, coloring book) is definitely creepy, if for no other reason than the fact that the only other place I've heard that phrase is "Dexter". But I would have liked to have heard more discussion on the issue of planting shills in the congregation.

The Furtick worshippers, er um, I mean, drones, er um, I mean, disciples, er um, I mean, oh whatever.... Those people are spinning The Code to make it not sound as Jim Jones-esque as it is -- "look, it's got 'God' right there". But there's no way to spin LYING, and that is exactly what the shills are implicitly doing.

Re: CAPC Podcast #4: Hot Pockets, Steven Furtick’s Elevation Church, The Beats Music App

Marty C — Fri, 21 Feb 2014 10:32:55 -0000

Good discussion on Elevation. I live in Charlotte and have some friends that attend Elevation and have some that have serious reservations about the church. Personally, I've had experiences with that church that will keep me from attending, but it's a very touchy subject around here

Re: Authenticating Ourselves to Death

Alan Noble — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 23:07:06 -0000

I love Salinger, but I don't think he should be read by the young, typically. Because it's too hard to see the layers of criticism built into his stories. It's too easy to misread him and then go off and shoot John Lennon because he became a phony.

Re: Authenticating Ourselves to Death

John Turner — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 21:06:14 -0000

Thanks, Alan! Although I was of more or less the right generation, I was too dense to "get" Salinger, maybe too caught up in my self-image (which existed only in my own imagination) as a do-gooder, a bold modern knight crusading for justice. Ironic, huh?

Re: Truth, History and 18th Century Missionaries

Censored — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 04:44:56 -0000

The proper attitude to other cultures and other gods is Jefferson's.

"But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." ~Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782

This apology of missionaries reads like something like Pravda explaining how Stalin came to "bless the nations, unpopular though it may be."

Re: On the Anniversary of His Execution, What Can We Learn From the “First Martyr of Science”

shart of turin — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 10:22:20 -0000

Yes, Pope Urban was angry. Angry because he could see that Galileo's writings countered certain 'truths' taught by the church. Play with the semantics all you like, in the end Galileo was punished by the church for his advocacy of truth and science.

Re: On the Anniversary of His Execution, What Can We Learn From the “First Martyr of Science”

James — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 09:42:02 -0000

So, blame the victim? Again, not very convincing.

The reason people were and are skeptical of religious authority is the fact that they've never remotely met their burden of proof for the radical claims they make. Simple as that. When one has to silence skeptics rather than produce the evidence required to support the veracity of such claims, then religious authorities are exposed for what they really are: frauds.

Re: On the Anniversary of His Execution, What Can We Learn From the “First Martyr of Science”

VorJack — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 09:28:12 -0000

When the authority has been going through a major schism and is getting a bit touchy about their authority, it is probably best to question them from a distance. Failing that, there's always tact. A number of skeptics managed to undermine confidence in the eternal verities and were not only tolerated but sometimes promoted by the church. You just had to aim your arguments at the protestants.

Re: On the Anniversary of His Execution, What Can We Learn From the “First Martyr of Science”

J_Bob — Wed, 19 Feb 2014 08:50:02 -0000

One should be careful about judging past generations. Wonder how the current generation(s) will be judged by future ones.

Re: On the Anniversary of His Execution, What Can We Learn From the “First Martyr of Science”

James — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 15:10:44 -0000

Moral of the story: don't question authority, especially not church authority, or suffer the consequences. Got it. Not very persuasive, though.

Re: READY Tim Tebow Can Do All Things, So He Should Quit

Ambrose Fontaine — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 12:41:52 -0000

Don...you are way off. When you receive the Holy Spirit and accept Jesus into your heart, you will then be able to discern the truth as Christ spoke it in Matthew 19:21. He is simply referring to the ruler's heart, and his priorities. T2 has both his heart and his priorities totally in line with Christ's intent here. Tim uses his wealth for amazing good and the service of God (see his Philippines ventures, his Tebow foundation, etc.) Jesus is fully revealed through Mr, Tebow...and Tim would gladly give away everything if Christ commanded it to Him.

Re: READY Tim Tebow Can Do All Things, So He Should Quit

raquel — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 12:08:09 -0000

another tebow-hater, idiotically twisting what tebow stands for, NFL will or will not call, and its all good either w/ him

Re: READY Tim Tebow Can Do All Things, So He Should Quit

Ambrose Fontaine — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 12:02:21 -0000

Has no one seen the Dilfer segment on ESPN? Dilfer, a known critic of T2, spent days with Tim analyzing his progress since his Patriots release. Dilfer's conclusion, "any GM of head coach that doesn't take another look, is crazy. This kid has got it." So, to all the naysayers...get ready...your heads are gonna explode when the kid makes it work.

Re: ABCFamily’s “The Fosters” and the Power of Adoption

Amy Peterson — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:13:01 -0000

Thanks Suzannah! (Actually, I think your tweets about it may have been one of the reasons I started watching it.)

Re: ABCFamily’s “The Fosters” and the Power of Adoption

suzannah | the smitten word — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 11:11:26 -0000

the fosters is one of my very favorite shows. i knew i could count on you to write it up thoughtfully:)

Re: The Surprising Parenting Problems of Unlimited Screen Time

Amy Peterson — Mon, 17 Feb 2014 10:52:28 -0000

This was really interesting! Thank you.

(PS - here's an app that teaches coding to kids: https://www.gethopscotch.com/)

Re: Living with Longing

Daniel Lee Fee — Sun, 16 Feb 2014 18:08:26 -0000

Yes, big big big thanks. For bringing up these themes and notions. I
have to say that being invited into others' marital/parenting/family
lives cuts more than one way.

For example, one visits only to find oneself in the midst of what even
generous moods and thoughts would have to call, "dysfunction."

Or, one visits, only to receive a truly tasty, vivid demonstration of all
that relational life to which one is and is likely to remain (as gay, as
unmarriage-able, as whatever?) basically an "outsider." The 3 AM
willies is still going to show up in dreams that usually cannot quite be
recalled in any detail, just trailing that familiar vague jetstream of
developmental-relationship isolation. Even the most sincere hug ... or
extended round of hugs? .... cannot really embody/convey what we would
all likely be giving and receiving if we were married and making love?

Finally, who can fail to mention the profoundly icky and shame-inducing
"encouraging guidance," .... often more or less to the effect that if we have a
viable relationship with God through Jesus in the Holy Spirit, raw human
lack just neatly fails to reach us as we contemplate eternal bliss,
back-lit with that whiter than white light always mentioned when angels
appear in scripture? Alas. Lord have mercy.
drdanfee