tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20689110362218045472024-02-18T22:43:12.198-05:00NVGAE MAGISTRI CVIVSDAM"τί πρῶτόν ἐστιν ἔργον τοῦ φιλοσοφοῦντος; ἀποβαλεῖν οἴησιν: ἀμήχανον γάρ, ἅ τις εἰδέναι οἴεται, ταῦτα ἄρξασθαι μανθάνειν." - Epictetus, Discourses II.17James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-37279881783429145872018-07-18T11:29:00.000-04:002018-07-18T11:29:05.433-04:00Don’t Buy a Full Frame Mirrorless Camera, You DoltNearly nobody needs a full frame DSLR or mirrorless digital camera. Still, many people at all levels of photographic skill and experience buy one anyway. Consumers get taken in by the quasi-mythical reputations of 35mm CMOS sensors, and they feel - nay, they know - that this is the pinnacle of digital imaging, the goal towards which any serious photographer must steadfastly advance.<br />
<br />
Except that it isn’t.<br />
<br />
There must be some secret cabal of full frame conspirators clandestinely orchestrating global PR campaigns, because everyone knows the virtues of the large imaging sensor: the shallow depth of field, the dynamic range, the resolution, the high ISO noise performance! There are only two types of photographers, surely: those who shoot full frame and those who can’t afford it yet.<br />
<br />
That’s a half-truth. In fact, there really are only two types of photographers: those who shoot full frame and those who haven’t been punked by their own irrational gear-lust. There are serious downsides to shooting full frame, and consequently serious advantages to shooting with APS-C or MFT cameras.<br />
<br />
Here’s the dirt on full frame cameras that <i><strike>the government</strike></i> Sony doesn’t want you to know!<br />
<br />
<b>1. Cost and Weight</b><br />
<br />
Bigger sensors mean bigger cameras. Bigger sensors also mean bigger lenses. Bigger lenses mean bigger filters. Bigger cameras, lenses, and filters mean bigger camera bags. Bigger cameras, lenses, filters, and camera bags mean bigger price tags.<br />
<br />
There are several prices to pay for having a big sensor, and the steepest one is literal. At the time of writing, the cheapest available full frame digital camera is the Sony α7 at $798, which is inexplicably still for sale despite being released in 2013. The latest version of that same camera, i.e. the one you’d actually want to buy right now, the α7 III, costs $1,998. The α7 III, however, is not Sony’s newest or most full-featured camera body; that honor goes to the new α9 at a decidedly not-affordable $4,498. The most expensive mirrorless camera without a full frame sensor is currently the Panasonic GH5S at $2,498. <span style="font-size: x-small;">(*I’m excluding Leica here because, well, all of their stuff is hilariously expensive and not in direct competition with Sony or Olympus.)</span><br />
<br />
The differences in cost and size for full frame and APS-C/MFT mirrorless bodies aren’t drastic, on the whole. But let’s talk about lenses for a moment. Here are a few lens comparisons between Sony full frame and Olympus MFT for the gear most photographers would have in their kit:<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;">(Note: images not to scale! The MFT lenses are considerably smaller. See weight figures.)</span><br />
<br />
<b>A fast standard zoom</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNASSyqgnBLyuP486RhkzDc3iCWju6XfdIUHQjcRbLFA8pEIi1dsvPTSpGQFx3F4YszV5qYPsAdbLBDS8WGsI3hyphenhyphenDmoDZW_lRMU54BC38B37OiQsSZVkafuaST7h6cxUzDGboapDFb6wo/s1600/standardzoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="500" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNASSyqgnBLyuP486RhkzDc3iCWju6XfdIUHQjcRbLFA8pEIi1dsvPTSpGQFx3F4YszV5qYPsAdbLBDS8WGsI3hyphenhyphenDmoDZW_lRMU54BC38B37OiQsSZVkafuaST7h6cxUzDGboapDFb6wo/s320/standardzoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
</td>
</tr>
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<td>Sony FE 24-70mm f/2.8 GM</td><td>Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 </td>
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<td>1.95 lbs.</td><td>0.84 lbs.</td>
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<td>$2,198</td><td>$999</td>
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<b>A fast wide zoom</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZZCF6F2PWwJRzX73_lwEGN2wYVAzbZoDCLspYmDEtyEJr8SnlRtaVYE-LW5wjS7qhyA6Z57Dst2JKbt62FRasp2_Phn4mBfj1RaRAZRln_HhokUB4tLt6QzTGYa3xLMKvxKkidMzAU4w/s1600/widezoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="500" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZZCF6F2PWwJRzX73_lwEGN2wYVAzbZoDCLspYmDEtyEJr8SnlRtaVYE-LW5wjS7qhyA6Z57Dst2JKbt62FRasp2_Phn4mBfj1RaRAZRln_HhokUB4tLt6QzTGYa3xLMKvxKkidMzAU4w/s320/widezoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</td>
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<td>Sony FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM</td><td>Olympus 7-14mm f/2.8 </td>
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<td>1.5 lbs.</td><td>1.18 lbs.</td>
</tr>
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<td>$2,198</td><td>$1,299</td>
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</tbody></table>
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<b>A fast telephoto zoom</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHy42BzkJkK0xVukQoenxl99s4lKVvG_veGq0hqPMT02UVMKNSdnvprEtzqB8-kJ7KjP49RAcI3KMbJMFGwZEB_Y-73bDY5hYf69z45agi5ceLrmCkHXRRPP0uO4I_bSNpeypLcn4CIvs/s1600/telezoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="500" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHy42BzkJkK0xVukQoenxl99s4lKVvG_veGq0hqPMT02UVMKNSdnvprEtzqB8-kJ7KjP49RAcI3KMbJMFGwZEB_Y-73bDY5hYf69z45agi5ceLrmCkHXRRPP0uO4I_bSNpeypLcn4CIvs/s320/telezoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</td>
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<td>Sony FE 70-200mm f/2.8 GM</td><td>Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 </td>
</tr>
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<td>3.26 lbs.</td><td>1.94 lbs.</td>
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<td>$2,598</td><td>$1,499</td>
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<b>A fast telephoto prime</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEillx7d56UWxNiZrgLtC36ztsyKChYyZ1rz0Dx6WLRrMfLsXXLuEFUOVhC65Kzn1-SEpf0cc5D_m-EZ3ef_vFa49m4-zlihxIpAjwjCgMD_XmuWdIFmer1D7J4TYbtgaXFgPYg5piKT0SI/s1600/portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="500" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEillx7d56UWxNiZrgLtC36ztsyKChYyZ1rz0Dx6WLRrMfLsXXLuEFUOVhC65Kzn1-SEpf0cc5D_m-EZ3ef_vFa49m4-zlihxIpAjwjCgMD_XmuWdIFmer1D7J4TYbtgaXFgPYg5piKT0SI/s320/portrait.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<td>Sony FE 85mm f/1.4 GM</td><td>Olympus 45mm f/1.2</td>
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<td>1.81 lbs.</td><td>0.9 lbs.</td>
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<td>$1,798</td><td>$1,099</td>
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<br />
<b>Total cost and weight of these 4 lenses</b><br />
<br />
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<td>Sony full frame</td><td>Olympus MFT</td>
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<td>8.52 lbs.</td><td>4.86 lbs.</td>
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<td>$8,792</td><td>$4,896</td>
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<br />
The MFT kit costs and weighs roughly <i>half </i>of the Sony full frame kit and covers the same effective field of view at the same constant maximum aperture. This is a fair comparison in that these lenses are as similar as offered currently by Sony and Olympus (remember that MFT has a 2x crop factor). That said, there are some noteworthy differences. For example, the Olympus wide zoom is wider than the Sony; the Olympus standard zoom is longer on the telephoto end; the Olympus tele-zoom is considerably longer on the telephoto end, such that it isn’t even a fair comparison, but there is no 70-300mm f/2.8 zoom available for Sony (nor will there likely ever be - see #6 below for more on that); the Olympus telephoto prime has a faster maximum aperture. So in all cases the Sony full frame equipment is nearly twice as expensive, twice as heavy to lug around, and generally not as useful as the MFT equivalents.<br />
<br />
You might complain that this is a worst-case-scenario - there are cheaper lenses available than these top-tier professional offerings. That argument doesn’t work either, because of full-frame-dirty-little-secret number 2.<br />
<br />
<b>2. Soft Corners, Vignetting, Distortion</b><br />
<br />
One unpleasant surprise awaiting photographers who upgrade their crop sensor gear to full frame is how noticeably worse the corners and edges of the frame now look. This is because lenses are best at their centers and <a href="http://www.photoreview.com.au/tips/lenses/lens-quality-and-image-sharpness" target="_blank">worst at their edges</a>. Crop sensors conveniently eliminate this problem by only capturing the light projected onto the middle 50-60% of the image circle:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYbU_8z2IJJIoivBkkUFjTe7NtozXUcd34Y3xo5uaM_IWQtpi5f3B6awrtynjcin4cz0z2AJ0xgpMrYQYZu1vOStCtqQNKyklz8hb3YSHNaWLzzsue6iONbqm5h_eGgvy6B3KSQ-yT1M/s1600/imagecircle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYbU_8z2IJJIoivBkkUFjTe7NtozXUcd34Y3xo5uaM_IWQtpi5f3B6awrtynjcin4cz0z2AJ0xgpMrYQYZu1vOStCtqQNKyklz8hb3YSHNaWLzzsue6iONbqm5h_eGgvy6B3KSQ-yT1M/s320/imagecircle.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
This changes the effective field of view (the so-called “crop factor”) but also hides the optical shortcomings of large lenses. If you’re using a camera lens that works on both full frame and APS-C bodies (like Canon EF, Nikon F, or Sony E-mount) on a crop body, it probably looks amazing. Mount that same lens onto a full frame body, and now you’ve got a tragedy on your hands, especially if you shoot wide open. The edges of a full frame image will look considerably softer, darker, and more distorted than those of a cropped image. <i>Womp womp</i>. Yes, that massive, high-resolution sensor you’ve got will capture even the smallest detail - including the flaws of that consumer-grade lens you bought so that you could afford to spend a couple thousand dollars on that big dumb sensor. But wait, there’s more!<br />
<br />
<b>3. Shallow Depth of Field</b><br />
<br />
Wait a minute - this is one of the good things about full frame sensors! All of that dreamy out-of-focus area, those spherical highlights, that background separation! Here’s the problem you never thought your full frame camera would give you: not enough depth of field. Yes, when you have a fast lens and shoot wide open on a 35mm body, you get really shallow depth of field. Like, <i>too</i> shallow. So shallow that there’s barely anything in focus at all in your photo.<br />
<br />
Lemme drop a hypothetical on you right quick. Let’s say you’ve got a Sony α9 with the Sony FE 55mm f/1.8 T* prime lens, and you’re in a dimly lit bar with a big group of friends and family members - maybe it’s a wedding weekend or college graduation or something. You’re walking around pretty damn proud of yourself with your $5,500 worth of photo gear, and you’re taking pictures of everybody. You grab two nearby friends and tell them to stand together for a nice photo with some pimp-ass background blur (you know they’re gonna make this their FB profile pic when they see it and tag you for the credit). You stand about 3 feet away and shoot wide open at f/1.8. You turn the camera around and give them a glimpse of the shot, and from a few feet away everybody loves it. Then you get home and open it in Lightroom only to see that one of your friend’s faces is in sharp focus, while the other poor sap is blurry as shit. That’s because with a 55mm focal length at a distance of 3 feet and an aperture of f/1.8, you have 1.09 inches of depth of field. Some guy next to you took the same shot with an Olympus E-PL8 and a 25mm f/1.7 ($850) wide open and got both faces in focus.<br />
<br />
So what could you have done to get the shot? Well, stop your lens down for more depth of field, obviously. But now you’re losing light gathering power, which means shutter speeds have to go down or ISO has to go up. More risk of motion blur or more noise, while the crop sensor shooters can shoot at similar apertures without worrying about these problems. Everyone wants a full frame camera and a fast prime, nobody realizes that you can’t actually shoot wide open most of the time. Want to shoot at f/1.4 in broad daylight? You’ll be shelling out another chunk of change for a neutral density filter to screw onto the front of your 77 or 82mm filter thread. <br />
<br />
<b>4. The Telephoto Blues</b><br />
<br />
Another nasty surprise awaiting the new full frame user is the complete lack of reach from the telephoto lens that was doing a fine job on an APS-C body. It can be downright disheartening to realize just how little you get from 200mm on a full frame camera - it’s scarcely long enough to do any serious wildlife or sports photography. Add to that disappointment the large cost and cumbersome size and weight of something like a 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom lens, and it’s enough to trigger instant buyer’s remorse. We all like those 70-200mm zooms when they’re really more like 112-320mm on a crop body. Even that standard zoom lens you were walking around with barely seems as useful now. If there’s a thing far away and you’ve got a full frame camera, you are not taking a photo of that far away thing. <br />
<br />
<b>5. Sorry to <i>Burst</i> your Bubble</b><br />
<br />
That was a terrible pun and I apologize profusely for it. But your full frame camera is woefully slow when it comes to continuous shooting, and you should feel bad about it. The new α7 III can manage 10fps with its mechanical shutter, which isn’t totally embarrassing compared to older models. The MFT Olympus OM-D E-M1 mark II, of course, shoots 15fps with its mechanical shutter and up to 60fps (!) with its electronic shutter. If you want to take pictures of stuff that moves, full frame is not your best friend.<br />
<br />
<b>6. Limitations on Lenses</b><br />
<br />
Big full frame sensors create a problem for lens designers: they need to make an image circle large enough to illuminate all 35mm of the sensor, and physics gets in the way quickly. With their considerably smaller sensors, crop cameras have fewer limitations on lens design, and as a result, there are lenses that exist for crop body cameras that do not (and practically cannot) exist for full frame cameras. These otherwise unthinkable lenses are bridging the gap between the capabilities of the two camera types and rendering full frame systems less and less attractive by the day. Some notable examples:<br />
<ul>
<li>Panasonic Leica DG Elmarit <a href="https://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/panasonic/200mm-f2.8-power-ois-leica-dg-elmarit/review/" target="_blank">200mm f/2.8</a>. This effective 400mm f/2.8 prime lens for MFT does now have a Sony full frame equivalent, but it costs <a href="https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1369634-REG/sony_fe_400mm_f_2_8_gm.html" target="_blank">$12,000</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED <a href="https://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/olympus/300mm-f4.0-is-pro-ed-m.zuiko-digital/review/" target="_blank">300mm f/4 IS</a>. This effective 600mm f/4 prime lens has no Sony counterpart. Canon makes one, though: it costs <a href="https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/754508-REG/Canon_5125B002_EF_600mm_f_4L_IS.html" target="_blank">$11,500</a>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Handevision IBELUX <a href="https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1056300-REG/handevision_hvib4085m43_ibelux_40mm_f_0_85_lens.html" target="_blank">40mm f/0.85</a>. This manual focus prime lens only exists for mirrorless cameras. f/0.85! </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED <a href="https://www.imaging-resource.com/lenses/olympus/12-100mm-f4-is-pro-m.zuiko-digital-ed/review/" target="_blank">12-100mm f/4</a> IS PRO. This effective24-200mm f/4 standard zoom lens has no full frame counterpart on any system.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Olympus <a href="https://www.olympus-global.com/news/2017/nr00630.html" target="_blank">17mm, 25mm, 45mm f/1.2</a> PRO. These autofocus prime lenses are faster than any autofocus lens available for Sony.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Biased Conclusions</b><br />
<br />
No, Olympus hasn’t paid me to write this (although if anyone from Olympus would like to offer me cash retroactively, please contact me). The truth is that I shot full frame Canon DSLRs for several years (the original 5D and then the 5D mark II) before selling all of my gear for MFT, and I haven’t looked back. My collection of lenses is smaller, lighter, and more capable than my old Canon L glass, and I shoot more because of it. Is there a difference in image quality between Sony alpha full frame cameras and Olympus MFT cameras? Not one that matters to most photographers. 20MP photos already well exceed the resolution of any device I’ll ever view a photo on, and they’re big enough to print (even though I never do that.) I don’t believe there’s really any type of photography that can’t be done as well on a MFT camera as a full frame camera, and the differences between them are only going to get less and less pronounced as the imaging technology improves. My E-M1 mark II, for example, has a higher overall <a href="https://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Compare/Side-by-side/Olympus-OM-D-E-M1-Mark-II-versus-Canon-EOS-5D-Mark-II___1136_483" target="_blank">DXO benchmark score</a> than my old Canon 5D mark II. Yes, the 5DII is a much older camera, but it’s the same resolution as the E-M1 II and the sensor is <i>four times</i> larger. There was a time when there was a difference between full frame and crop cameras that actually mattered, but those days are gone.James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-48413456531994724432016-10-06T08:14:00.000-04:002016-10-09T07:03:05.883-04:00Every Season of The Simpsons Ranked<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiSlCenbCHlfucDikFG-UlupkWMBniAGTy_gBBwq77I2ka7sDkvKbVrZgOTG6V1Op2um4uiqxANTtNz0MzFAi8IBMmx15Z8cZXxbtvUgvL2cbE1Dv-u24TCUY6RyN9ycmMN7aYHJrJWWk/s1600/Simpsons_cast.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="140" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiSlCenbCHlfucDikFG-UlupkWMBniAGTy_gBBwq77I2ka7sDkvKbVrZgOTG6V1Op2um4uiqxANTtNz0MzFAi8IBMmx15Z8cZXxbtvUgvL2cbE1Dv-u24TCUY6RyN9ycmMN7aYHJrJWWk/s400/Simpsons_cast.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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The Simpsons was an animated American sitcom that aired between October, 1990 and May, 1999.* Although it only lasted for 9 memorable seasons, The Simpsons still easily managed to become the greatest television show in the history of the universe and perhaps even the single greatest achievement of <i>homo sapiens</i>. While it is widely understood that these 9 seasons of The Simpsons are outstanding practically beyond description, it is not widely understood which of those 9 seasons is the best. This is an important question, as determining which season of The Simpsons is the best will consequently determine which year was the best for the human race, as the people who were alive at that time had the opportunity to experience the unparalleled joy of the 20+ episodes of the show for the first time. This would have been, it follows, the most joyous time to have been a denizen of our planet.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Note: The television program discussed in this article
is not to be confused with "The Simpsons," which aired between 1989 and
1990, or "The Simpsons," which began in 1999 and continues through the
present and features the same nominal cast of characters.</span><br />
<br />
Understanding the task of ranking the 9 seasons of The Simpsons to be a gravely serious and important one, I did not enter into the commitment lightly and without due reverence, for I comprehended my task to be one of the most consequential ever undertaken by any person who has yet lived. Thus I resolved to be thorough and rigorous in my method, which was generally the following: First, I illegally downloaded all 9 seasons of the show (I don't have TV or a DVD player, ok?) and put them into individual folders. Then, in an attempt to remove any preexisting biases about which seasons were superior to others, I renamed the folders with random strings of letters and then sorted them alphabetically to randomize the order. From there I began to watch the episodes from season beginning to end and rate each one (with the exception of clip shows, which I did not include) on a scale of 1-10. (In hindsight I can see that this was an absurd idea, as it implies that it is possible for an episode of The Simpsons to score something less than, say, a 6 or 7. That is obviously not possible. Irregardless!) I kept a fastidious spreadsheet of the randomized season names and the ratings of each individual episode of each season, which I then averaged for comparison. After tallying the average scores for each season, I was able to compare the averages and determine when mankind's greatest achievement occurred.<br />
<br />
So, without further Apu, here is how the 9 seasons stack up, from least to most awesome.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">9th Place: Season 9</span> </b><span style="font-size: small;">(average: 7.46/10)</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0V5LKR2y9YOaClAXgwXiyp_72By2jdgWPylwdF39cNvUjtvAgemTamZdYR7S7NRdOX62oo-bxOjXOrII0JlGDbFG9J0P6O8p3VvfigCQKpyIQLNSq-D-37saDuxopTfAbXrOtF2OtCk/s1600/Season9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl0V5LKR2y9YOaClAXgwXiyp_72By2jdgWPylwdF39cNvUjtvAgemTamZdYR7S7NRdOX62oo-bxOjXOrII0JlGDbFG9J0P6O8p3VvfigCQKpyIQLNSq-D-37saDuxopTfAbXrOtF2OtCk/s1600/Season9.jpg" width="500px" /></a></div>
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By the lofty standards of The Simpsons, season 9 is rather mediocre. The writing is already in noticeable decline at this point, and the characters are beginning to become less lovable, less recognizable as their iconic selves from previous seasons. Although this season scored just one perfect 10 with "The Last Temptation of Krusty," there are still some gems here, most notably "The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson," "Bart Star," and "Girlie Edition."<br />
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<table align="center" style="width: 100%px;">
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<tr bgcolor="E7F1FF">
<td><b>The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson</b></td><td width="5px"></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Principal and the Pauper</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Lisa's Sax</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Treehouse of Horror VIII</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>The Cartridge Family</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Bart Star</b></td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>The Two Mrs. Nahasapeemapetilons</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Lisa the Skeptic</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Reality Bites</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Miracle on Evergreen Terrace</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Bart Carny</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Joy of Sect</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Das Bus</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>The Last Temptation of Krusty</b></td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td>Dumbbell Indemnity</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Lisa the Simpson</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>This Little Wiggy</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Simpson Tide</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>The Trouble With Trillions</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Girlie Edition</b></td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Trash of the Titans</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>King of the Hill</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Lost Our Lisa</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"></td><td>Natural Born Kissers</td><td width="5px"></td><td>7</td>
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</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">8th Place: Season 2</span></b> <span style="font-size: small;">(average: 7.54/10)</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDweCjkSezeKoN2yRHvH0zq0Mid1GJvaSSaoKd4ujUbxDWZ-dWxvfsxWWVmGZWgiVYe_N7phMQVN_2G8I97aJca2PShj7wI4HfyEbQgLJqTPUovGkRvieHBhnRphJIPeXYXsacbTFSMxo/s1600/Season2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDweCjkSezeKoN2yRHvH0zq0Mid1GJvaSSaoKd4ujUbxDWZ-dWxvfsxWWVmGZWgiVYe_N7phMQVN_2G8I97aJca2PShj7wI4HfyEbQgLJqTPUovGkRvieHBhnRphJIPeXYXsacbTFSMxo/s1600/Season2.jpg" width="500px" /></a></div>
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Season 2, which is confusingly the first season of The Simpsons, depicts a show still in its infancy and finding its singular comedic voice. As is characteristic of the first few seasons, the show is much more sentimental than it is outright funny; some of the most memorable episodes deal with important moments for the characters, like Marge and Homer's high school prom night, Bart's surprisingly genuine disappointment at failing a test (and subsequent elation at eventually passing it), Lisa's attachment to her substitute teacher Mr. Bergstrom, or Homer believing he was going to die after eating improperly prepared blowfish. Season 2 also contains the first "Treehouse of Horror" episode, a tradition continued by every subsequent season.<br />
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<td>Bart Gets an 'F'</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Simpson and Delilah</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Treehouse of Horror</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Two Cars in Every Garage and Three Eyes on Every Fish</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Dancin' Homer</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Dead Putting Society</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Bart vs. Thanksgiving</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Bart the Daredevil</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Itchy and Scratchy and Marge</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Bart Gets Hit by a Car</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Bluefish</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>The Way We Was</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Homer vs. Lisa and the Eighth Commandment</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Principal Charming</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>6</td>
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<td>Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Bart's Dog Gets an 'F'</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Old Money</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Brush With Greatness</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Lisa's Substitute</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The War of The Simpsons</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Three Men and a Comic Book</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Blood Feud</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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</tbody>
</table>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>7th Place: Season 10</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (average: 7.65/10)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMAhxaiU_DaIfOg_BTdAVq6R481NqnNR3Ls4c0qvnyNYApKyLPMGEYyN6EFBX2GMq0I4zL1GKPdAz3webqD6FlGKVkjbSkqWqcQyTlAlQKf6XW9CrMOnXJg_ynUUwrc72-yx2FB37UJE/s1600/Season10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsMAhxaiU_DaIfOg_BTdAVq6R481NqnNR3Ls4c0qvnyNYApKyLPMGEYyN6EFBX2GMq0I4zL1GKPdAz3webqD6FlGKVkjbSkqWqcQyTlAlQKf6XW9CrMOnXJg_ynUUwrc72-yx2FB37UJE/s1600/Season10.jpg" width="500px" /></a><br />
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The 9th and final season of the show, Season 10 is firmly situated within the decline towards the program's end. There are some disappointingly mediocre episodes here, like the generally forgettable "Make Room for Lisa" and "The Old Man and the C-Student," but there are thankfully a few brilliant episodes to prop up the average. Stephen Hawking still stands out as one of the best "celebrity" cameos ever in "They Saved Lisa's Brain." This season's "Treehouse of Horror" episode is particularly memorable, and "Thirty Minutes over Tokyo" is easily one of the best episodes in any of the last few seasons.<br />
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<table align="center" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr bgcolor="E7F1FF">
<td>Lard of the Dance</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Bart the Mother</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Treehouse of Horror IX</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>When You Dish upon a Star</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>D'oh-in in the Wind </td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Lisa Gets an 'A'</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Homer Simpson in Kidney Trouble</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<tr bgcolor="E7F1FF">
<td>Mayored to the Mob</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Viva Ned Flanders</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Wild Barts Can't Be Broken</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Sunday, Cruddy Sunday</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Homer to the Max</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>I'm With Cupid</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Marge Simpson in "Screaming Yellow Honkers"</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Make Room for Lisa</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>6</td>
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<td>Maximum Homerdrive</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Simpsons Bible Stories</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Mom and Pop Art</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Old Man and the C-Student</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>6</td>
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<td>Monty Can't Buy Love</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>They Saved Lisa's Brain</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Thirty Minutes over Tokyo</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>6th Place: Season 3</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (average: 8.14/10)</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgglu3UpPg1JkErG7Jmp4Oq-LsDxgHVjcXTBU3QX014pS1ginXVNMxbJ7s1v8R0nSKUQZ97ChzknPBMNEBxW8koxQJ8Fd7Tbv9d4_BOfhsQo0CxF1n19dIN1Fg-jA8d6AjfWR8lH157uzU/s1600/Season3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgglu3UpPg1JkErG7Jmp4Oq-LsDxgHVjcXTBU3QX014pS1ginXVNMxbJ7s1v8R0nSKUQZ97ChzknPBMNEBxW8koxQJ8Fd7Tbv9d4_BOfhsQo0CxF1n19dIN1Fg-jA8d6AjfWR8lH157uzU/s1600/Season3.jpg" width="500px" /></a></div>
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The average score gap between 7th and 6th place is the largest between any two seasons on the list; from here to the top, there really are no bad episodes. Every season from those remaining (3-8) should be widely celebrated as the "golden age" of The Simpsons. Season 3 only scores one perfect 10, but it's one of my all-time favorite Simpsons episodes: "Homer at the Bat." Sentimentality and moral tales abound in this season as well, but the trademark Simpsons humor clearly shines through every episode. Season 3 brought us the "Flaming Moe," the fabricated tragic story of "Timmy O'Toole," and the folksy country stylings of Lurleen Lumpkin. All that's left to say is, "Goodnight, Springden. There will be no encores."<br />
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<table align="center" style="width: 100%px;">
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<td><b>Stark Raving Dad</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>When Flanders Failed</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Bart the Murderer</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Homer Defined</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Like Father Like Clown</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Treehouse of Horror II</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Lisa's Pony</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Saturdays of Thunder</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Flaming Moe's</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>I Married Marge</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Radio Bart</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Lisa the Greek</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Homer Alone</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Bart the Lover</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<tr bgcolor="E7F1FF">
<td><b>Homer at the Bat</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Separate Vocations</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Dog of Death</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Colonel Homer</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<tr bgcolor="E7F1FF">
<td>Black Widower</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>The Otto Show</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<tr>
<td>Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Bart's Friend Falls in Love</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>5th Place: Season 5</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (average: 8.32/10)</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggf_m33Va8ple2W6cz-vJZkn9MzJ_8z3EwZnnKdjcnu96x-l6QiZiKs6bvTd-82sONDnlZBE0ntyoKu5vTt1_YalfnqBuQ9M7eGQghH7cMU17zDYtE5ShVokQG4DpJR10cMIYe20kn_7o/s1600/Season5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggf_m33Va8ple2W6cz-vJZkn9MzJ_8z3EwZnnKdjcnu96x-l6QiZiKs6bvTd-82sONDnlZBE0ntyoKu5vTt1_YalfnqBuQ9M7eGQghH7cMU17zDYtE5ShVokQG4DpJR10cMIYe20kn_7o/s1600/Season5.jpg" width="500px" /></a></div>
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Season 5 of The Simpsons, or as it was known briefly, The Thompsons, ("...I think he's talking to you") only contains one perfect episode in my estimation, but it's an iconic one: Homer's Barbershop Quartet. 8 other episodes, however, come damn close at 9/10, giving season 5 the most classic Simpsons episodes of any season so far. Homer blasts into space, Marge is involved in a high-speed police chase in a stolen car, Lisa strikes a blow for equality with the Lisa Lionheart doll, Bart wins an elephant from a local radio station, and Sideshow Bob performs Gilbert and Sullivan's <i>H.M.S. Pinafore</i>. "We'll take the Spruce Moose! Hop in! ...I said, <i>hop in</i>."<br />
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<table align="center" style="width: 100%px;">
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<td><b>Bart Gets an Elephant</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Bart Gets Famous</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<tr>
<td>Bart's Inner Child</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Boy-Scoutz 'N the Hood</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>Burns' Heir</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Cape Feare</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Deep Space Homer</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Homer and Apu</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Homer Goes to College</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Homer Loves Flanders</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<tr>
<td>Homer the Vigilante</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Homer's Barbershop Quartet</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<tr bgcolor="E7F1FF">
<td>Lady Bouvier's Lover</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Marge on the Lam</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Rosebud</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Secrets of a Successful Marriage</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Springfield</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badass Song</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Boy Who Knew Too Much</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td><b>The Last Temptation of Homer</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Treehouse of Horror IV</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>4th Place: Season 6</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (average: 8.33/10)</span><br />
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Even with 5 perfect episodes ("Bart vs. Australia," "Itchy & Scratchy Land," "Lemon of Troy," "Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part I)," and "Treehouse of Horror V"), Season 6 is still just the 4th best season of The Simpsons. That speaks more to the brilliance of the seasons ahead of it than to the inadequacy of this one, because some of the show's most iconic moments are found here, including what is probably the best "Treehouse of Horror" episode of any season. Season 6 has left its mark if the phrase "purple monkey dishwasher" means anything to you, or if you know all of the words to Mr. Burns' epic "See My Vest" song-and-dance number. "Now let's all celebrate with a cool glass of turnip juice."<br />
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<td><b>A Star is Burns</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>And Maggie Makes Three</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Bart of Darkness</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Bart vs. Australia</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td><b>Bart's Comet</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Bart's Girlfriend</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Fear of Flying</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Grandpa vs. Sexual Inadequacy</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Homer Badman</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Homer the Great</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Homer vs. Patty and Selma</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Homie the Clown</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Itchy & Scratchy Land</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Lemon of Troy</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td>Lisa on Ice</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Lisa's Rival</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Lisa's Wedding</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>'Round Springfield</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Sideshow Bob Roberts</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>The PTA Disbands!</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>The Springfield Connection</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Treehouse of Horror V</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td><b>Two Dozen and One Greyhounds</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part I)</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>3rd Place: Season 8</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (average: 8.48/10)</span><br />
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It's difficult to look at the episode list for season 8 and understand how it <i>isn't</i> the best season of The Simpsons. It certainly contains some of the single greatest episodes the show has ever done, including "Bart After Dark," which is my personal all-time favorite episode. Add in Frank Grimes, Shary Bobbins, Rex Banner, and Hank Scorpio, and season 8 seems like the undisputed champion. While the highs are astronomical, though, there are too many episodes that are simply <i>ok</i>, and they drag the average down enough to be bested overall by two other seasons. Any top 10 list of <i>episodes</i>, however, would certainly have more selections from season 8 than any other. The periodic brilliance of season 8 makes the general mediocrity of season 9 even more baffling. "In your face, space coyote!"<br />
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<td><b>Bart After Dark</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>A Milhouse Divided</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Burns, Baby, Burns</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td>Grade School Confidential</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Homer vs. The Eighteenth Amendment</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Homer's Enemy</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Homer's Phobia</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Hurricane Neddy</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>In Marge We Trust</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td>Lisa's Date with Destiny</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Mountain of Madness</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>My Sister, My Sitter</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>The Brother from Another Series</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Canine Mutiny</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>The Homer they Fall</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td>The Old Man and the Lisa</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Secret War of Lisa Simpson</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>The Springfield Files</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>The Twisted World of Marge Simpson</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Treehouse of Horror VII</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>You Only Move Twice</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><br /></td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td><br /></td>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>2nd Place: Season 4</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (average: 8.52/10)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdN03tYccEEshezZyl5HGh2Gh-nWBs7uj7BbjTl6H_3Og_bJzT-T1UmCsA853_rGZnrVU6B3rKOjPC97oWNagSDa9EDAWPRfc408tuebtsErx24l0j5HIpvg9MK9KElQIbaILKvYvqNk/s1600/Season4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRdN03tYccEEshezZyl5HGh2Gh-nWBs7uj7BbjTl6H_3Og_bJzT-T1UmCsA853_rGZnrVU6B3rKOjPC97oWNagSDa9EDAWPRfc408tuebtsErx24l0j5HIpvg9MK9KElQIbaILKvYvqNk/s1600/Season4.jpg" width="500px" /></a></div>
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Season 4's brilliance is the complete inverse of season 8's. If season 8 is a smattering of supernovae against relatively cold background radiation, season 4 is a sky full of shimmering constellations. There are only a few perfect episodes here - "Marge vs. The Monorail," "Selma's Choice," and "Treehouse of Horror III" - but the rest of them are damn close. You won't find the best known Simpsons moments in season 4, but you will find a consistent comedic voice that's constantly firing on all cylinders, and it is glorious. Choose any episode from this season and sit back and enjoy the perfect mix of soul and silliness. "Duff Gardens... Hurrah!"<br />
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<td><b>Kamp Krusty</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>A Streetcar Named Marge</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Homer the Heretic</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Lisa the Beauty Queen</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Treehouse of Horror III</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Itchy and Scratchy the Movie</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Marge Gets a Job</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>New Kid on the Block</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Mr. Plow</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Lisa's First Word</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Homer's Triple Bypass</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Marge vs. the Monorail</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td><b>Selma's Choice</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Brother from the Same Planet</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td>I Love Lisa</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Duffless</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Last Exit to Springfield</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>The Front</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>Whacking Day</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Marge in Chains</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>7</td>
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<td><b>Krusty Gets Kancelled</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>1st Place: Season 7</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"> (average: 8.87/10)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWwImpU-YW86rVCS-Sv7kk8fGEqcK21sen7XkMC6z4Ttn3ZshMdycc84il8wq2n1syxLfdOJZUO96e-CnFEF9_rzSdekaxck7jtaXIlD9gwHDA9SqaNDnYfaxQFRaYMmjt7oZqRQHPblw/s1600/Season7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWwImpU-YW86rVCS-Sv7kk8fGEqcK21sen7XkMC6z4Ttn3ZshMdycc84il8wq2n1syxLfdOJZUO96e-CnFEF9_rzSdekaxck7jtaXIlD9gwHDA9SqaNDnYfaxQFRaYMmjt7oZqRQHPblw/s1600/Season7.jpg" width="500px" /></a></div>
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Not only does season 7 have the most perfect episodes (6), but it also is the only season in which every single episode scored 8 or higher. There isn't really even a mediocre episode in season 7, let alone a bad one. It's the season that gave us "embiggen" and "cromulent." The season of Marge's Chanel dress, Homer's predictably disastrous stint as Mr. Burns' assistant, Lisa's controversial investigation into the <i>real</i> Jebediah Springfield, and Bart's search for his soul (after selling it to Milhouse). The season of "Up and AT THEM!" and "My eyes! The goggles do nothing!" The season of "Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins. Homer Simpson, smiling politely." and "Buy me Bonestorm or go to hell!" The season of this, from "Homer the Smithers":<br />
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"Here are your messages."</div>
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"You have 30 minutes to move your car."</div>
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"You have ten minutes."<br />
"Your car has been impounded."<br />
"Your car has been crushed into a cube."<br />
"You have 30 minutes to move your cube."<br />
(phone rings)<br />
"Is it about my cube?"<br />
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<td><b>Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part II)</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>Radioactive Man</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Home Sweet Homediddily-Dum-Doodily</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Bart Sells His Soul</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Lisa the Vegetarian</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>Treehouse of Horror VI</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td><b>King-Size Homer</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Mother Simpson</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Marge Be Not Proud</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Team Homer</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Two Bad Neighbors</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td>Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Bart the Fink</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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<td><b>Lisa the Iconoclast</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Homer the Smithers</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td>The Day the Violence Died</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>A Fish Called Selma</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Bart on the Road</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>22 Short Films about Springfield</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td>
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<td>Raging Abe Simpson and his Grumbling<br />
Grandson in the Curse of the Flying Hellfish</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td>Much Apu about Nothing</td><td width="5px"><br /></td><td>8</td>
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<td><b>Homerpalooza</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>10</b></td><td width="10px"><br /></td><td><b>Summer of 4 ft. 2</b></td><td width="5px"><b><br /></b></td><td><b>9</b></td>
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It is reasonable to conclude that The Simpsons achieved perfection in season 7, and therefore humanity did as well. Thus, the peak of human civilization and the best possible time to have been alive was between September, 1995, and May, 1996. I have spoken.</div>
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James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-27710328234422378542016-09-22T04:52:00.000-04:002016-09-22T11:28:29.868-04:00The Elevator Problem, or Why There is No Hope for HumanityAs a resident of the <a href="http://wearetop10.com/top-10-cities-with-the-most-skyscrapers-in-the-world/" target="_blank">most vertical city in the world</a>, I spend a lot of time in elevators. I live on the 12th floor of a 22 story building, which means that elevators are part of my daily commute. Besides their obvious practical functionality, elevators also sometimes accidentally provide a window into human psychology - the awkwardness of long, silent rides with strangers too close for comfort, the futility of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo_button" target="_blank">pushing the door close button</a>, the compulsion of pushing the call button when it's already activated. But I've noticed a particular problem in my building of residence, a disturbing observation of inexplicable human behavior that I'll simply refer to as "The Elevator Problem."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpEYGYcBJoswhUtbMREMWjOhyGUL24cnReoRMf_Q7MLR-Dvf1pSDsBL4nXYQmqYp_HXeECia1JQOQXUWJRKAAFqnDikiOiEJblIF3YK8RMB5nQAFy19UsfPrNhP94RqLM81w5CH-vH_U/s1600/Elevators.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCpEYGYcBJoswhUtbMREMWjOhyGUL24cnReoRMf_Q7MLR-Dvf1pSDsBL4nXYQmqYp_HXeECia1JQOQXUWJRKAAFqnDikiOiEJblIF3YK8RMB5nQAFy19UsfPrNhP94RqLM81w5CH-vH_U/s400/Elevators.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of many crime scenes in my building</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
No, this is not some logical/mathematical conundrum like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lb-6rxZxx0" target="_blank">Monty Hall Problem</a>, which also coincidentally involves three doors. This is a much more insidious indictment of human cognition. Allow me to elaborate: In my apartment building, there are 3 elevators, as shown in the image above. There are two call buttons: one between the left and center elevators and another between the center and right elevators. For some reason that I cannot in any way descry, these two call buttons are completely dissevered from each other. That is, pushing one of the call buttons does <i>not</i> automatically light the other one; they can only be operated individually. This explains the difference visible in the image: the left call button only operates the elevator on the left; the right call button operates both the center and right elevators. As I said, I have tried in vain to theorize as to why these elevators were designed in this way. The three elevators are functionally identical: they are all exactly the same size and capacity, and each one stops on the same floors, G and 3-22. It makes no difference whatsoever which one you use, no matter what floor you're on or to what floor you're going.<br />
<br />
<b>The Elevator Problem</b> <br />
<br />
Perhaps you can anticipate what I deem to be the problem: residents of the building routinely press <i>both</i> elevator call buttons. This guarantees that <i>two</i> elevators will be called to that floor, the one on the left and either the center or right elevator. If this doesn't seem like such a big deal, let me point out the practical consequences of this behavior. Pushing both call buttons means that up to 50% of all elevator stops are unnecessary. In my most recent trip down from the 12th floor, for example, the elevator stopped twice, on the 7th and 6th floors, and both times the doors opened to reveal an empty void where a thoughtless individual had stood before one of the other elevators collected her. I can only hope there's a special place in hell for the offenders on the 22nd floor; when one of those oblivious oafs presses both call buttons, the rest of us have to wait while one elevator makes a completely pointless trip to the top of the building where nobody will enter it. When I see two elevators going to the highest floors I want to run up the stairs and start mashing the call button on every floor in between so that it takes 10 minutes for those moronic top-dwellers to reach the earth.<br />
<br />
The only thing I'm really struggling with here is whom to blame for this needless frustration, the elevator designers or the hapless passengers. I can only assume that this was an intentional design choice by the manufacturer - it's too big an oversight to have happened accidentally. As you might also be able to see in the image, each button is beneath an LED display that indicates which floor the elevator is currently on and which direction it's headed if it's been called. There is no practical reason to give this information to prospective passengers except to aid in determining which button to press. If I've reasoned correctly, then the engineers at OTIS have grossly overestimated the capacity of the average elevator user in what I can only assume is an honest attempt to build a maximally efficient transportation system. Still, I have a difficult time envisioning how this independently operating design could ever be better than linking the buttons together and having a disinterested computer making the decisions because, as I'll unpack next, people are on the whole terrible and useless.<br />
<br />
<b>Carefully Measured Analysis</b><br />
<br />
So all that's left to analyze is why people (literally every person in the building but me, as far as I can tell) push both buttons. There are many possible reasons; none of them bodes well for the future of the human race:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrcJ3m-8u0tSbCfjf_PfgZyF07sjygDEgxQZXWzxwdn2GlRA29Q-Hs1DJ3lLK1W1GiOUY-pStHvO_ev1Z7ct9IFp9gr9xbKriqHRijKGVixFaUsiodwszbXKJFdvjiecucy_x0w6m-ls/s1600/stupid+people+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXrcJ3m-8u0tSbCfjf_PfgZyF07sjygDEgxQZXWzxwdn2GlRA29Q-Hs1DJ3lLK1W1GiOUY-pStHvO_ev1Z7ct9IFp9gr9xbKriqHRijKGVixFaUsiodwszbXKJFdvjiecucy_x0w6m-ls/s1600/stupid+people+1.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>IGNORANCE</b></div>
The first possible explanation is that some people simply do not realize the correlation between their multiple-button-pushing behavior and the disruption in travel that it causes. It's hard for me to believe this, since it is obvious when pushing one button that the other one does not light up, and every single resident routinely experiences the irritation of elevators stopping for absolutely nobody on the way down. Still, I can't completely rule it out, because most people are genuinely stupid, and having considered the alternatives, this is actually the most innocuous explanation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tgzOCo-qibwX8noFZmKnXffC0ghO9-mHWbcz6FxV8vTytpebduGMMrMKv7juhqw6Vxpn0BYVrkAv0ouWa49KqITWH_6X7nA8Yuc-Rg1ZEoV4y9EjSTmuH6p3uZMJLBiXun6PU6QDEr0/s1600/Selfishness-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2tgzOCo-qibwX8noFZmKnXffC0ghO9-mHWbcz6FxV8vTytpebduGMMrMKv7juhqw6Vxpn0BYVrkAv0ouWa49KqITWH_6X7nA8Yuc-Rg1ZEoV4y9EjSTmuH6p3uZMJLBiXun6PU6QDEr0/s1600/Selfishness-2.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>SELFISHNESS</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The second possible explanation is that people are generally aware that pushing both buttons calls two elevators, but they simply don't give a shit. They want to get where they're going as quickly as possible, and if that means inconveniencing other people, no big deal. The horrible irony is that it doesn't work - when everyone does this, as everyone does, it actually takes <i>longer</i> for us all to get where we're going, because the overzealous button-pressing of each person affects the travel time of every other person. The worst thing about this theory is that the perceived advantage of it doesn't even actually exist.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b> </b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEtDWAT7GjgIpsKfNIyNGzt-pqfbrEaAJjgS9-Eu88c2FHbR5h7nv0wVN_7l0WDgtV9-CExW-mL04lsbkKvd9uLR8nIzWcNYqgjCuSfOErfXUd-qDvABu2TYXpoBMwdW_0Kk74iZwPivA/s1600/index.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEtDWAT7GjgIpsKfNIyNGzt-pqfbrEaAJjgS9-Eu88c2FHbR5h7nv0wVN_7l0WDgtV9-CExW-mL04lsbkKvd9uLR8nIzWcNYqgjCuSfOErfXUd-qDvABu2TYXpoBMwdW_0Kk74iZwPivA/s1600/index.jpg" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>HERD MENTALITY</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The third and only other possible explanation, as far as I can reason, is that people press both buttons because everybody else presses both buttons. Maybe they haven't actually paused to consider how these elevators operate and just do what everyone else does, which is push both buttons. Maybe they've witnessed someone with some perceived authority press both buttons, like the doorman at the desk on the ground floor or a smartly dressed banker. Maybe they've all just accepted that this is the way the elevators work in this building; we all just press both buttons and then live with the consequences.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<b>Irresponsible Extrapolations for Comedic Effect</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
This is just one small glimpse into human behavior, but I think it's a grimly telling one. I feel the number and diversity of the subjects of this ongoing failed experiment give me confidence to state plainly that we as a species have no hope of progress. I've seen the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the affable and the apathetic unfailingly push both buttons. We clearly cannot be trusted to manage something as utterly quotidian as pushing elevator buttons; entrusting us with any task of greater significance would be the daftest folly.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
I'll leave you with an anecdote, but a poignant one, as I believe it was the moment when I fully and permanently lost all hope for <i>homo sapiens</i>. I was standing alone before the three elevators on the 12th floor. I had already carefully studied the information on the LED panels above the call buttons and concluded that either the center or right elevator would likely reach me first. I had pressed the right call button, and only the right call button, and one of the two elevators operated by it was dutifully in transit. In the interim, a darling old Chinese lady shimmied up to the elevators, her little shopping trolley in tow. The scene before her was unambiguous: someone had already arrived and taken the initiative of calling an elevator to our floor. Someone was already patiently waiting for an elevator that had clearly already begun its journey to us. She saw all of this. She saw all of this, and she waddled over to the elevator on the left, and you already know what she did. <i>She pushed the other button. She pushed the other fucking button, </i>and I knew it was all over. My hope for the human race shattered unceremoniously as I fantasized about beating an elderly Chinese woman to death with her own shopping trolley. We can't have nice things, friends. We can't have nice things because we can't even solve The Elevator Problem.<b> </b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b> </b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b> </b></div>
James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-59164637439130158842016-08-14T10:22:00.002-04:002016-08-14T10:22:31.465-04:00Stop Identifying with Political Parties<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Are you a Democrat or a Republican? A Libertarian?
Independent? A fiscal conservative? A democratic socialist? No you’re not. You’re
none of these things, because no one is actually any of these things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Identifying with a political party (and, generally, labeling
oneself or others in almost any way) is an exercise in the application of broken
reasoning. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks to our ill-conceived
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting" target="_blank">first-past-the-post</a> voting system, the political landscape has been
bifurcated into the falsest of false dichotomies: Democrat vs. Republican. In
order to have any hope of making our political voice heard, we Americans must
align with or at the least vote for a candidate from one of these two factions.
A vote for a third-party candidate is often in practical terms indistinguishable
from not voting, so the options on that first Tuesday after the first Monday in
November will be, as usual, Red, Blue, or stay home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Few people are satisfied with these choices, yet they
persist in being the only two of consequence available to us every time we turn
up at our polling places. Contributing to this perennial misery are the many
people who bafflingly continue to identify as Democrats and Republicans. Here
are five reasons why you need to stop self-identifying with these labels:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>1. They are utterly devoid of nuance.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What does it even mean to be a Republican or a Democrat? Of
course you can just go to the two parties’ respective <a href="https://www.democrats.org/party-platform" target="_blank">official websites</a> and
<a href="https://www.gop.com/platform/" target="_blank">read their platforms</a>, but does that mean that everyone using the label “Republican,”
for example, holds the same views? Of course not. In fact we just witnessed a
Democratic National Convention in which Bernie Sanders was <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000004550605/bernie-sanders-booed-in-philadelphia.html" target="_blank">summarily pilloried</a>
for endorsing Hillary Clinton, the nominal candidate of choice for the party, and
a Republican National Convention in which Ted Cruz was <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/07/21/rnc-convention-ted-cruz-booed.cnn" target="_blank">likewise heckled</a> for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> endorsing Donald Trump, the nominal
candidate of choice for the party. There is little concord even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">within the parties themselves</i> these days,
which ironically now reflects the views of the voting public more than ever. What
is the use, then, in identifying as a Democrat or a Republican? Does it really
make sense to refer to a fundamentalist Christian in Alabama and an openly-gay
fiscal conservative in Connecticut by the same label, as if these two people
will find themselves in agreement on most issues? What about a socially liberal
Catholic in New York and an irreligious democratic socialist in California?
What is the utility in applying a label to yourself that can be applied to
another person with whom you would disagree on important issues?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2. They are laden with negative connotations.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Identifying as a Democrat or a Republican carries baggage with
it similar in quantity to that accommodated by a Boeing 747. You may announce in
conversation “I am a Republican” and hear in your head “I support small
government and a strong free-market economy” while others around you will have
clearly heard “I’m a jingoistic, small-minded xenophobe with a 7<sup>th</sup>-grade
education and several assault rifles to keep my family safe from the Muslims.”
Or perhaps you might mention in passing “I’m a Democrat” and fancy yourself “committed
to civil rights and saving the environment” while others will distinctly recall
you saying “Meat is murder! War is murder! Everyone is a homo/trans/Islamo/xeno
-phobe!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People will hear what they
think you mean when you use these labels, not what you actually mean.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>3. They stop important conversations from happening.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the single biggest problem with identifying with a
political party: it gives other people an excuse not to talk to you about
important issues. Expressing your actual view on a politically divisive topic is
nearly impossible once someone assumes he knows what you think. <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0235%3Atext%3Ddisc%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D17" target="_blank">Epictetus</a>
figured this out almost 2,000 years ago and sagely remarked, “It is impossible
to begin to learn that which you think you already know.” It doesn’t even
matter whether the other person also identifies with the same label you do -
the result is still no conversation, either because of perceived agreement, in
which case why bother, or perceived irreconcilable disagreement, in which case
why bother? Calling yourself a Democrat or a Republican lets other people
decide that they agree or disagree with you before you’ve even uttered a word.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>4. They don’t actually represent anyone.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back to false dichotomies – the suggestion that there are
only two sides to a proposition when in reality there are more – as in “you’re
either with us or you’re <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpPABLW6F_A" target="_blank">with the terrorists</a>” or “you’re either a feminist or
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dddgkEg2XSA" target="_blank">you’re a bigot</a>.” No person is entirely a Republican or entirely a Democrat, even
if those labels could be defined in satisfactorily uncontroversial terms. To
demonstrate this, go to <a href="http://www.isidewith.com/" target="_blank">I Side With</a>,
answer as many questions as you have a cogent view on, and then look at the
results. Here’s what happens when I do it, for example:<br /><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh84cjgVuntZQ4SbGvnMNKjTaj9156-or1qRdww3Lt4U37JlsxhzPj1JCXfij2UEFJVOpNHdcmzrM0XXa5BXUnRQCCV22phF5AUZSogEw5DI2DKJPXgKFpy_eyJFx4AfFUKyIePSH5R9xs/s1600/ISideWith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh84cjgVuntZQ4SbGvnMNKjTaj9156-or1qRdww3Lt4U37JlsxhzPj1JCXfij2UEFJVOpNHdcmzrM0XXa5BXUnRQCCV22phF5AUZSogEw5DI2DKJPXgKFpy_eyJFx4AfFUKyIePSH5R9xs/s320/ISideWith.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Everyone’s results are going to be different, because no two
people in human history have ever agreed about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">everything</i>. Whatever your results are, the important thing is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the percentages don’t add up to 100%.</i>
Nobody, not even the political candidates themselves, would take the test and
get a result that looks something like this:<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEU1YTI2u0a9tOjDJ-Iebl-dZDr-hZwxioz76sconJwz0u4wI_U1gdydEjyzD5VK2p1wTdr2WnMl2o8q_PUKgoeZe8BrXsOAmtGyxgHYYrYwX7-Fy1fVgMstpUE8o5WV1a-5-ry3w418/s1600/ISideWith2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKEU1YTI2u0a9tOjDJ-Iebl-dZDr-hZwxioz76sconJwz0u4wI_U1gdydEjyzD5VK2p1wTdr2WnMl2o8q_PUKgoeZe8BrXsOAmtGyxgHYYrYwX7-Fy1fVgMstpUE8o5WV1a-5-ry3w418/s320/ISideWith2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
That’s because there are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
only two sides to every public policy issue, and the two political parties have
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> staked out wholly oppositional
stances on opposite ends of the spectrum. To be a Republican is, at least in
some measure, to be a Democrat, and vice versa. Everyone’s views are some
particular mixture of liberal and conservative, of libertarian and
authoritarian.<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>5. They adumbrate the myriad views people actually hold.</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Probably the best reason not to identify as a Democrat or a
Republican is that it implies that the whole of your political worldview can be
expressed adequately in a single word. That’s not even something you should <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">want</i> to be true. It intimates that you’re
either incapable of or unwilling to derive your own personal set of views on
political questions and would rather have them prefabricated and handed to you.
This is shameful – an abdication of responsibility unbecoming of any able-minded
adult living in civilized society.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, stop calling yourself a Republican or a Democrat. Stop
sharing divisive partisan write-ups from news sites on social media. Stop
generalizing about political candidates as if they’re mere proxies for their
parties rather than individuals with ideas for the direction of public policy. Develop
your own views purposefully rather than perfunctorily, and don’t be concerned
that they all fit neatly into one of two boxes placed before you. Admit that
you might not have enough information to have a strong opinion on a complex
issue like welfare or immigration. Consider that your views on some issues might
require explanation and not fit on a bumper sticker or in 140 characters.
Encourage others to ask about a specific issue if they want to know your view
rather than probe for a party affiliation. If you lament the state of two-party politics in the US in any way, don't allow yourself to be defined through it. </div>
James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-40070047126717539102016-07-24T02:40:00.000-04:002016-07-24T02:40:38.983-04:00An Encomium of Milo YiannopoulosMilo Yiannopoulos. He is many things to many people: darling to the alt-right, scourge to SJWs, receptacle to black wangs. Transcendently polarizing, he is adored and vituperated in seemingly equal measure.<br />
<br />
Nearly everything that Milo says and does is, by careful design, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/milo/2016/06/26/milo-to-lead-gay-pride-march-through-muslim-ghetto-sweden/" target="_blank">outlandishly offensive</a>. He has elevated online trolling to an art form, so successfully so that Twitter has found it necessary on now two occasions to single him out for draconian and <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/07/20/milo-nothing-wrong/" target="_blank">undeserved</a> punishment. All of this only to discover that Milo is the Hydra, and Twitter is no Hercules: after he was <a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/123377/20160112/twitter-removes-verified-status-of-controversial-british-writer-milo-yiannopoulos.htm" target="_blank">stripped of his verification</a> credential, his popularity soared on social media; after a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/technology/twitter-bars-milo-yiannopoulos-in-crackdown-on-abusive-comments.html" target="_blank">permanent ban</a>, he's now practically a household name. Since the ban, anyone literate enough to string words together has either <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/20/milo-yiannopoulos-twitter-ban-reignites-accusation/" target="_blank">rushed to his aid</a> or <a href="http://observer.com/2016/07/milo-yiannopoulos-does-not-deserve-twitter/" target="_blank">gleefully celebrated</a> his demise.<br />
<br />
Yet whatever you think of Milo Yiannopoulos, he is <i>necessary.</i><br />
<br />
If you hadn't heard his name before this week and all you know about him is that he was banned from Twitter for a spat with actress <a href="https://twitter.com/Lesdoggg" target="_blank">Leslie Jones</a>, take a moment to explore the <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/search/?s=Milo" target="_blank">rich tapestry</a> that is his journalistic body of work before writing him off as an insensitive, misogynistic, fat-shaming xenophobe. For, you see, behind the bleach-blonde facade of targeted abuse and flame-fanning, Milo exudes an indispensable commodity: well-argued unpopular opinion.<br />
<br />
I don't agree with Milo about very much. I'll admit to being endlessly entertained by his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiESisEL43c" target="_blank">outrageous slanders and take-downs of feminism</a>, for example, but our views are decidedly more divergent than concordant. I need only point to our respective views on the candidacy of <a href="http://trumpdonald.org/" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a> (or "Daddy," as Milo disturbingly refers to him) as a case in point. Yet it is this dissenting worldview, this contradiction of many of my intuitions and values (he famously enjoys trolling atheists) that earns my attention. Milo Yiannopoulos is what so many people on the liberal (and regressive) left desperately need - an echo-chamber-shattering contrarian - though few seem to realize it.<br />
<br />
We all benefit from a fecund and cosmopolitan marketplace of ideas. There is no societal progress without discussion, without disagreement. There is no personal growth without exploring the possibility that our most deeply-held and strongly-believed views are categorically mistaken. Yet in our online communities we stake out little agreeable enclaves of safe space and populate them exclusively with others amenable to our worldviews. We slap labels onto other people as an excuse not to have to interact with them intellectually or consider any viewpoints diametrically opposed to our own.<br />
<br />
A glance around any social media platform will reveal the grim consequences of this behavior - a world in which narrative has supplanted reality.<br />
<br />
This is a world that <i>needs</i> Milo Yiannopoulos. A world that <i>needs</i> someone who will embark on a "Most Dangerous Faggot" tour and go to college campuses and declare confidently that "feminism harms women," or "Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization," or "being gay is a choice," or "the gender wage gap is a myth," or "Angela Merkel's immigration policy is a disaster," or "free speech is under assault on college campuses." Not because these statements are necessarily true, but because you'll never even consider whether they're true unless someone forces you to. Is the gender wage gap real? How do you know? Have you ever really looked into it? Could you hold your own in a discussion with someone in possession of a mountain of facts and figures, or would you end up sounding like an imbecile?<br />
<br />
There are three ways to handle Milo Yiannopoulos. The first is to ban him from voicing his opinions. This is what many <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/oct/7/milo-yiannopoulos-julie-bindel-banned-from-uk-univ/" target="_blank">college campuses</a> have done and what Twitter has most recently and most famously done. This generally results in a massive increase in his visibility and popularity, which is precisely what happens whenever anyone bans anything. The second is to dismiss his views outright without consideration or to ignore him. This is a possible option, although Milo is not easily ignored. The third (and in my view the most productive) is to engage with him and his ideas. If you think he's entirely backwards about something, try to prove him wrong. He has even done you the favor of articulating <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/social-justice/2016/03/21/how-to-beat-me-spoiler-you-wont/" target="_blank">exactly how to beat him</a>. It's not easy - it requires remaining calm, removing emotions from the discussion, waiting for your turn to speak, and doing your homework. This is how discussion takes place in civilized society, and if Milo Yiannopoulos is the only person left who understands this, then we need to let him speak.<br />
<br />
Besides, just look at him. #FreeMilo<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZk7AdvcO6pJ2zzC9x69p__UFfTHabMDqcSZ3A82eS8-18Rd3V-0RaVCtDfggPx3buk44-u5rGrZMz6rP8GkAwAU6Cy8GZN4CYcuYGYgL8Vd44xddfmF01XFRUduzvzRLu2sixTsUA8qw/s1600/01-milo-yiannopoulos.w1200.h630.1x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZk7AdvcO6pJ2zzC9x69p__UFfTHabMDqcSZ3A82eS8-18Rd3V-0RaVCtDfggPx3buk44-u5rGrZMz6rP8GkAwAU6Cy8GZN4CYcuYGYgL8Vd44xddfmF01XFRUduzvzRLu2sixTsUA8qw/s1600/01-milo-yiannopoulos.w1200.h630.1x.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-66613097898995370982016-03-06T09:06:00.000-05:002016-03-06T23:01:28.261-05:00...About That New Ghostbusters MovieSony Pictures Entertainment released the first official trailer for the <i>Ghostbusters </i>reboot this week. This film is a terrible idea. Here's an excessively long explanation of why.<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w3ugHP-yZXw/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/w3ugHP-yZXw?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
<b>Why was the original <i>Ghostbusters </i>good?</b><br />
<br />
<i>Ghostbusters </i>is almost a perfect movie. Of course any discussion of art is going to entail subjectivity, but <i>Ghostbusters </i>is widely acknowledged to be a great movie. Roger Ebert gave it <a href="http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ghostbusters-1984" target="_blank">3.5 stars</a> when he saw it in June of 1984, declaring, <i>"Ghostbusters is one of those rare movies where the original, fragile
comic vision has survived a multimillion-dollar production ... [i]t
uses its money wisely, and when that, ahem, monster marches down a
Manhattan avenue and climbs the side of a skyscraper ... we're glad they
spent the money for the special effects because it gets one of the
biggest laughs in a long time."</i> It has a "certified fresh" score of <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ghostbusters/" target="_blank">97% on Rotten Tomatoes</a>, with the critical consensus <i>"an infectiously fun blend of special effects and comedy, with Bill
Murray's hilarious deadpan performance leading a cast of great comic
turns."</i> The film quickly cemented itself in pop-culture and spawned an empire of cartoon spin-offs and toys.<br />
<br />
But is <i>Ghostbusters </i>really that good, or are we just looking back on a cultural icon of the 1980's with rose-colored nostalgia goggles, perhaps exaggerating its brilliance and whitewashing its deficiencies? Well, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy92fXa6yBrLnKdW1pYJlMw" target="_blank">moviebob</a> took almost 40 minutes to explore that very question, and (spoilers!) the answer is yes, <i>Ghostbusters </i>really is that good.<br />
<br />
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<br />
But what makes <i>Ghostbusters </i>so good? We might sum it up succinctly in three words: <i>Bill Fucking Murray</i>. While the whole cast plays off each other brilliantly, Murray steals the show. Most of the film's memorable lines come from him ("Yes, it's true. This man has no dick."), although every single character contributes unforgettable one-liners ("Ray, when someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!"). The film was written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd, two comedy geniuses in the prime of their writing and performing careers. Ramis by 1984 had already written several comedy classics (<i>Caddyshack, Meatballs, Groundhog Day, Stripes, National Lampoon's Vacation</i> and <i>Animal House</i>), and Aykroyd had been an award-winning writer and performer on <i>Saturday Night Live </i>as well as writing and starring in <i>The Blues Brothers </i>and <i>Trading Places</i>.<br />
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<br />
Besides the aforementioned Murray, the rest of the cast is great as well - Sigourney Weaver is the perfect straight character to Murray's insanity, Rick Moranis is the quirky, awkward accountant neighbor, and even Annie Potts nails the sarcastic office secretary role. The film even has a genuinely unlikable villain in William Atherton as Walter Peck. In short, <i>Ghostbusters </i>is the result of an unrepeatable convergence of writing and acting talent that produced one of the greatest comedy films of all time.<br />
<br />
<b>Ghostbusters 2016</b><br />
<br />
So that brings us back to 2016 and to the reboot. I think it's actually more appropriate to question why this film <i>does</i> exist rather than provide reasons why it <i>shouldn't</i>. Who was clamoring for a <i>Ghostbusters </i>reboot without Bill Murray, et al.? Why was this movie even made? Let's not forget that this experiment was basically run in 1989 with <i>Ghostbusters 2</i>, a decidedly disappointing sequel that was written by and starred <i>the same people</i> who had made the original such a success. Harold Ramis <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/25/arts/film-slime-don-t-worry-the-ghostbusters-are-back.html" target="_blank">even admitted</a> that nobody had ever intended to make a sequel to the original film, and the writers only agreed after pressure from Columbia Pictures to release a new movie because of the huge box-office success of the original (which has raked in over $300 million.) So the answer to the questions I posed above are, respectively, "no one" and "to capitalize on brand-name recognition and make an easy few hundred million dollars."<br />
<br />
It would be naive to think that Aykroyd (who did have a hand in writing the reboot) decided to return to the franchise over 30 years later because he desperately wanted to tell a third tale about paranormal investigations and eliminations, especially one in which he and his talented buddies won't be starring. No, this movie exists for the same reason that the dozens of other recent remakes and reboots exist: as low-risk money-making ventures that will almost certainly cash in based solely on nostalgia for a well-known and fondly-remembered name. Whereas the original <i>Ghostbusters</i> was a film written to make people laugh and happened to make a lot of money, <i>Ghostbusters 2016</i> is a film written to make a lot of money and might happen to make people laugh. I find that to be a not-trivial distinction.<br />
<b> </b><br />
The sad reality is that a high-concept film like <i>Ghostbusters</i> probably wouldn't get made today. Big studios are too terrified of losing money to take risks creating new iconic films. For every original idea that makes it to the screen there are innumerable cash-grab sequels, prequels, remakes, and reboots of successful movies of the past, and it's getting worse. If that seems hyperbolic, take a look at this <a href="http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/remakes/36637/106-movie-remakes-and-reboots-currently-in-the-works" target="_blank">list of 106 remakes and reboots</a> currently in some state of production. The list includes, in alphabetical order, <i>Bloodsport, Cliffhanger, Clue, The Crow, The Fugitive, Highlander, I Know What You Did Last Summer, It, Jumanji, Kickboxer, Logan's Run, Major League, Memento, The Mummy, Naked Gun, Nosferatu, Police Academy, Predator, Road House, Scarface, Shaft, Short Circuit, Sister Act, Spider Man </i>(again)<i>, Stargate, Starship Troopers, Stuart Little, The Ten Commandments, Tomb Raider, Toxic Avenger, Van Helsing, </i>and <i>Weird Science.</i> Remember those? Wanna see them again, with worse writers and actors? Tough shit, because that's what you're getting.<br />
<br />
Lest you accuse me of being unnecessarily cynical about the quality of remakes and reboots, I present for your consideration a table of remade films from the past few years, along with the Rotten Tomatoes scores of both the originals and the remakes. See if you can spot a pattern:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" style="width: 100%px;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Robocop (1987)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">88%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Robocop (2014)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">49%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Point Break (1991)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">68%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Point Break (2015)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">9%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Poltergeist (1982)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">88%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Poltergeist (2015)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">31%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>National Lampoon's Vacation</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">93%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Vacation (2015)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">27%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">40%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">21%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Annie (1982)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">50%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Annie (2015)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">27%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Gambler (1974)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">86%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>The Gambler (2014)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">46%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Endless Love (1981)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">25%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Endless Love (2014)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">15%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Carrie (1976)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">95%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Carrie (2013)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">62%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Evil Dead (1981)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">88%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Evil Dead (2014)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">49%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Total Recall (1990)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">85%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Total Recall (2012)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">30%</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ghostbusters (1984)</td><td><span style="background-color: #b6d7a8;">97%</span></td><td width="10px"></td><td>Ghostbusters (2016)</td><td><span style="background-color: #ea9999;">4%*</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan="4"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>*author's estimated Rotten Tomatoes score for Ghostbusters 2016 </i></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
It's nearly impossible to remake an old film and create something that will compare favorably with the original, let alone equal or surpass it. <i>Ghostbusters 2</i> had the best shot at doing that, having been made by basically the same people just a few years later, and it failed. There's no reason to think that <i>Ghostbusters 2016</i> will buck this trend - in fact, there are lots of reasons to believe the exact opposite. Let's actually take a look at that trailer.<br />
<br />
<b>The Trailer</b><br />
<br />
I've learned everything I need to know about what kind of movie <i>Ghostbusters 2016</i> is going to be from the trailer. First of all, the text at the beginning reads "30 years ago, four scientists saved New York." <i>That's not even accurate</i>. Winston Zeddmore's character was <i>not</i> a scientist. I mean, I know this sounds pedantically nit-picky, but come on, just replace that word <i>scientists</i> with another word so it's a correct description of the original film. Christ, we're off to a great start. At the 0:42 mark, we see our first gag, which looks like a recreation of the famous scene in the original when our protagonists encounter a ghost for the first time. One of the characters in the new film is holding a video camera as Ray does in the original, and one of the others is attempting to talk to the ghost, as Peter does in the original. I won't recount what happens in that scene in the original (because you already know), so by comparison, here's what happens in the same scene in the new film: the ghost vomits an absurd amount of green ghost barf all over the Peter analog. This is not nearly as smart or clever as the same scene in the original.<br />
<br />
The next segment from 0:45 to 1:18 is basically pointless exposition (in a trailer? why is this in the trailer?) about who the Ghostbusters are and why they're involved in this business. They <i>literally</i> say "we've dedicated our whole lives to studying the paranormal," "Holtsman, you're a brilliant engineer," "Erin, no one's better at quantum physics than you," and "you guys are really smart about this science stuff, but I know New York." NONE of this nonsense was needed in the original film. We find out who the main characters are and why they decide to start a ghost-catching business entirely through the visuals and situations, not through painfully obvious exposition in which the characters basically announce to the audience who they are because the screenwriter can't figure out how to get that information across in a different way. It's laughably lazy writing. In the original film, we know that Ray, Peter, and Egon are psychologists because we meet them in a university context. Peter is conducting an experiment, Ray is looking for a video camera and excited about a recent paranormal disturbance at the New York public library, and Egon has a stethoscope pressed to a table at the library. We get that Egon's the smart one because of the way he looks and talks. We assume he's smart enough to make all the complicated ghost-catching equipment because he just <i>looks and acts like a scientist</i>. We find out everything we need to know about our main characters by how they act. In this new film, either the screenwriter is too incompetent to be able to do this effectively or thinks that the audience is too stupid to understand what's going on unless the characters <i>blatantly say what's happening</i> in the film.<br />
<b> </b><br />
1:20 to 1:26 introduces us to the new Ecto-1, which is a Cadillac hearse (as opposed to a Cadillac ambulance) because reasons. Why is this so similar to the original? This was an opportunity to distinguish the new film from the original by choosing a novel and fun vehicle for the Ghostbusters to tear around town in, but instead the film just recycles almost exactly what the original had. It's even got the "Ecto-1" license plate, as if two groups of people would independently settle on that vanity plate designation. Yawn.<br />
<br />
1:27-1:33 is the next... "joke" to show that the ghostbusters are neophytes who haven't quite gotten the hang of their job yet. Two of them try to say "let's go" in an uncoordinated way, because that's funny I guess. Do I have to mention how the original film showed the audience that our heroes had no idea what they were doing? All of the scenes in the Sedgewick Hotel are hilarious attempts at figuring out how to use the equipment to catch a ghost successfully, during which they terrify and nearly incinerate a cleaning woman ("What the hell are you doing?" "Sorry... thought you were someone else.") and make such waste of the hotel ballroom that one wonders if perhaps things weren't better before the ghostbusters' efforts. (And before you cry apples to oranges, the cleaning woman scene is in the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teGxHLo9Qcc" target="_blank">original theatrical trailer</a> for <i>Ghostbusters</i>.) <br />
<br />
2:09 to 2:23 is where I need to bow out. According to yet more staggeringly direct exposition, ghosts have the ability to possess humans. (They do in the original too - remember the keymaster and the gatekeeper?) The trailer decides to show us a completely brainless scene in which one of the ghostbusters is slapping and yelling at one of the other ones who is possessed by a ghost. Screaming and smacking someone in the face. There's no wit or nuance to any of this. It's lowest-common-denominator physical comedy handled in the broadest way possible. I'm done.<br />
<br />
<b>CGI</b><br />
<br />
Another point that strongly favors the original film over the remake is the use of special effects. The original <i>Ghostbusters</i> had a fairly large budget - $32 million - and made frequent use of special effects of various types. Some of them are laughably bad, like the poorly-animated clay terror dogs, but most of the time the effects are practical rather than computer-generated, and they look (mostly) real. The film was even nominated for an academy award in 1984 for visual effects. There are multiple shots of CGI ghosts in the <i>Ghostbusters 2016</i> trailer, and they all look like bland, fake computer renderings. We're so spoiled by ubiquitous computer-rendered special effects these days that we've become completely apathetic about them. Special effects don't have the ability to dazzle the audience anymore, not like the scenes with the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man did in 1984. The budget for the new <i>Ghostbusters</i> film is reportedly $154 million, but nobody is going to be impressed by the visual effects in the new film. Paradoxically, the practical effects of the film 30 years older are more believable and impactful than the renderings of today's most powerful computers. Not only are they <i>real things</i>, but the actors in the scene can interact with them in a believable way. As powerful as CGI has become, the technology limits creative possibilities in some cases rather than expands them.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRf4GFeEXqjciZ7T42FGOAKdEN1Jz6c6d1phKfbk8p1rxv8mwKYdapBlw8OQ1iDseFpY7aTkZ7uoGIjGlB1piu5qADU0Nx9EzCNG7Hk-h-u5AZ9lRm3BzJZ0H6_PLa25DGqZ1JkWWKZ6k/s1600/GB1film1999chapter18sc011.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRf4GFeEXqjciZ7T42FGOAKdEN1Jz6c6d1phKfbk8p1rxv8mwKYdapBlw8OQ1iDseFpY7aTkZ7uoGIjGlB1piu5qADU0Nx9EzCNG7Hk-h-u5AZ9lRm3BzJZ0H6_PLa25DGqZ1JkWWKZ6k/s400/GB1film1999chapter18sc011.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nightmare fuel for children in the mid-80's</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>And Finally, for you SJWs</b><br />
<br />
You might have noticed that I've made it this far without mentioning that the main characters in the 2016 reboot are all women. That's for good reason, namely that <i>the fact that the main characters are women is irrelevant to the quality of the movie</i>. People on the Internet™ are making quite a fuss about the fact that the film has been remade with an all female cast, as if that's somehow interesting. As if there exist actual people who will <i>not</i> go see a movie simply because it stars [insert minority] rather than land-owning white males aged 18-34. This is absurd. Equally absurd are the people labeling every criticism of this new film as brash sexism and misogyny. This is the same sort of repugnant nonsense that George Lucas tried to peddle when nobody would distribute his pet project <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/red-tails/?search=Red%20Tails" target="_blank"><i>Red Tails</i></a>, a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VVMVtuN9FY" target="_blank">terribly-written film</a> about the Tuskegee airmen in World War II. Since it featured a primarily black cast, Lucas <a href="https://youtu.be/PigBCbjfwy4?t=3m45s" target="_blank">hurled accusations of racism</a> at Hollywood in general for not wanting to distribute his film, when in fact executives who saw it more probably just noticed that it was awful and didn't want to pay to promote it. As others have already pointed out, it's rather convenient to remake a film with a cast of any minority group and then simply cry bigotry in response to any criticism. I'll state it plainly: <i>Ghostbusters 2016</i> should be judged on its artistic merit, just as any film should, and nothing else. It doesn't get points simply for including women, nor does it get to duck valid criticism about what appears to be a shallow film with more style than substance. Not liking a film with women in it and not liking a film <i>because</i> it has women in it are different things. Stop with this.<br />
<br />
<b>And In Sum</b><br />
<b> </b><br />
Is it unfair to judge a film so harshly based solely on a 2 minute trailer? Yeah probably. It's my blog, fuck off. Regardless of how the actual movie is, though, the fact remains that the motivations behind its creation are questionable at best and shameful at worst. If feminists would like a legitimate gripe about this movie, it should be this: that this cast of presumably talented women is wasted on a cash-grab remake of a comedy Goliath it can't hope to replicate instead of creating something memorable, iconic, and new. There can never be another <i>Ghostbusters</i>, and that's not the fault of any man or woman.<br />
<br />
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</xml><![endif]-->James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-22303157761131813592016-02-18T07:00:00.000-05:002016-05-27T11:06:10.710-04:00Reflections on a Brief Nepali SojournTravel is my <i>raison d’être</i>. <i>Vagor, ergo sum</i>, to personalize the Cartesian <i>cogito</i>. I don’t like the word “wanderlust” – it drips with a sappy, romanticized sentimentality – but I can’t deny that most of my intervacationary time is spent searching for my next destination. The highly scientific process: open a web browser, load Google Maps, look around to see if anything catches my eye. That’s how my most recent journey began, one that took me to the bustling Nepali capital of Kathmandu for three frantic but memorable days.<br />
<br />
Why Kathmandu? To be completely honest, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s appropriate to echo the sentiments of those who climb Mt. Everest (which is, of course, in Nepal) who confess to undertaking the perilous ascent “because it’s there.” The facts were simply that I had five free days over Chinese New Year and had never been to Nepal. Flights and hotel booked, done. My due diligence consisted of reading the <a href="http://wikitravel.org/en/Kathmandu" target="_blank">wikitravel page</a> for Kathmandu to make sure that I wouldn’t be kidnapped or murdered during my stay; safety confirmed, I had all the requisite knowledge before departure.<br />
<br />
Kathmandu is one of those places that doesn’t seem real – a place most of us have heard of but certainly never seen, a place that exists on maps and occasionally on CNN news reports, as when earthquakes reduce to rubble what had been slightly better arranged before. Kathmandu, Khartoum, Karachi – surely these aren’t <i>actual</i> destinations; they’re impossibly distant, incomprehensibly foreign. The reality of the 21st century is that they’re not, though. To get to Kathmandu, you just get on an airplane. A big one, made by Airbus or Boeing, with giant turbines fixed to its wings. You take off from one country and land in another, as you would, and the other happens to be Nepal. If you learn but one thing from all that I’ll scribble here, let it be this: you can go to Nepal. You can go anywhere.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spinning prayer wheel beneath a colorful <i>kalachakra</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
So off I went, not knowing much about where I was going or what I might encounter when I got there. It’s funny how we romanticize places we’ve never been, and I’m sure you’ve got some conception of what Kathmandu looks like, as I did, even if based on absolutely nothing factual. Whatever I expected, that’s not what it was, and I struggled with that throughout the trip. I should say at the outset that the way I saw Nepal was surely <i>not</i> the way to see Nepal. I was gone for five days, two of which were dedicated almost entirely to travel, as I wasn’t able to get direct flights between KTM and HKG. (One does exist, a 4.5 hour direct flight by Nepal airlines, but they don’t run it every day.) I spent effectively two and a half days exclusively in Kathmandu, by myself, with no planned guides, no set itinerary, no local Sherpa to guide me. This is actually how I prefer to experience a new place – just dump myself into it and see what happens – but I have to admit that you could probably have a much better experience in a place like Kathmandu with slightly more structure, more planning.<br />
<br />
So, what happened? Well, let’s make one thing clear from the outset: Kathmandu is an abject shithole. I say this as a simple statement of fact, not intending it as pejorative. Nepal is a dreadfully impoverished country, and Kathmandu, though the capital of the nation, is not insulated from that grim fact. Certainly much of the disrepair is the aftermath of the earthquake, but it’s not as though Kathmandu was Shangri-la a year ago. The streets, with the exception of the largest thoroughfares, are dusty, undulating clearings of stones and mud, traversed by as many stray dogs, cows, goats, and chickens as cars or people. This is the developing world, where many people earn around $1 US per day, cannot read or write, and don’t have a toilet in their house. The city’s power demand is sometimes twice what can be reliably supplied, so there are frequent blackouts. My (4-star) hotel briefly lost power regularly, so often that there was even a sign in the elevator urging passengers not to be alarmed if the power shuts off while they’re inside, as the generator should switch on within 30 seconds. The <i>airport</i> even lost power for several minutes while I was waiting for my flight home, and nobody seemed to notice or care. And this is the capital city of a sovereign nation. Even as a denizen of Hong Kong and accustomed to the occasional day of less-than-mountain-fresh air quality, I found the turbulent mix of dust and exhaust in some parts of the city to be overpowering. Add in the incessant blaring of car horns (a necessary tactic in a city with no traffic lights) and various pungent odors from nearly every single thing everywhere, and Kathmandu is a complete and unyielding assault on both senses and sensibilities.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Emaciated cattle and burning garbage: a Kathmandu story</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The harsh economic reality intrudes even more personally in a place like this, and this more than anything soured my Nepali experience: the shameless and unending pursuit of my money. I understand that this is inevitable in a place as poor as Nepal, as dependent upon tourism for survival. And that is what most Nepalis are simply trying to do – feed themselves and their families. Places like Kathmandu are rife with scammers, although I hesitate to use such a strong word. I was well-aware of things like this before I arrived, having experienced similar situations in Thailand and Cambodia, and my general cynicism and distrust of other people keeps me safe in strange places.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-nboabfcKeGvQvQylQtK29rDeUXbLKmNq8fHLHX2yWZmo2DJxdPibTspqDyBSdtaHUyubsghn2bf-KbW9m-si-xolw_SkQC7dVm5uCgZ49BsY844orjbJ6cgTWeebnngzTrhFjGT7cg/s1600/P1010119.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf-nboabfcKeGvQvQylQtK29rDeUXbLKmNq8fHLHX2yWZmo2DJxdPibTspqDyBSdtaHUyubsghn2bf-KbW9m-si-xolw_SkQC7dVm5uCgZ49BsY844orjbJ6cgTWeebnngzTrhFjGT7cg/s400/P1010119.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a fairly main street.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I had no illusions about the intentions of the friendly Indian guy who purposefully caught up to me along the busy street and started making casual conversation. I was evaluating the situation as we talked, trying to figure out exactly where this was going. Raj, as he called himself, was an Indian from Delhi living in Kathmandu, going to art school and working as a shoe repairman to support his family. I can’t confirm that any of that is factually true, but the details don’t much matter here. He very kindly offered to show me around the area, which I was almost obliged to allow, since I didn’t really know where I was going at that very moment and had no real excuse to refuse his generosity. So he led me around, very genuinely interested in who I was and why I had come, all the while showing me various monasteries in the area, explaining the minutia of Hindu traditions. I knew he was going to want something in exchange for all of this, and in the end he had a reasonable enough request – that I help him buy some food for his family. Fine, I thought, because he did actually show me around for a while, and I learned and saw more with his direction than I would have without. So he leads me to a little corner store and makes a modest pile of basic necessities – rice, milk, oil – which I’d have no problem subsidizing for him. The shopkeeper punches some numbers on a calculator and shows it to us, and I nearly laugh out loud. 6,000 rupees, or nearly $60 US. I immediately understand what’s going on and start trying to figure out how I can get out of this gracefully. Fortunately I didn’t even have that much local currency on me, so I had an easy time not forking over that ridiculous amount. Raj points out a nearby money-changing location, but I politely declare that I’ve helped him enough (having handed over a fraction of the total, at this point basically just to be able to leave) and scampered off rather unceremoniously. If you haven’t discerned from the context how this scheme works, basically the local dupes a tourist into paying severely inflated prices for food products, which the local then returns to the shop later for a cut of the profits.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEbvRhstNxc8pKknv2WQgfRjZhCdDB9AXqSMtb9cSAN75sTkmkjsOE0YkZJAXbjNPNQm1CZ0WlaIZ_AZG28vjqHASNPvzgFgyfJutqrikL6kcdir-cxbS11A2HOxKd9vOte_E4WL6RBPA/s1600/P1010006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEbvRhstNxc8pKknv2WQgfRjZhCdDB9AXqSMtb9cSAN75sTkmkjsOE0YkZJAXbjNPNQm1CZ0WlaIZ_AZG28vjqHASNPvzgFgyfJutqrikL6kcdir-cxbS11A2HOxKd9vOte_E4WL6RBPA/s400/P1010006.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The White Gompa, one of the places Raj showed me</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I say I hesitate to call these things scams, although I have to admit that they fit the definition well enough. I do believe that Raj is in a position where this kind of behavior is necessary and not done with malice, although I could be being too kind. Two things really bother me about this. First, the inherent deception involved. I would have no problem entering into a legitimate (if informal) business transaction: you offer to show me around the city for a while, I give you a reasonable amount of money. That’s a mutually beneficial exchange, and in the end that’s how I treated it, although I’m sure Raj and the shopkeeper were hoping for a more favorable outcome. Second is the general assumption that I as a Westerner have so much money that I’ll gleefully hand it over. I encountered this sentiment throughout my time in Kathmandu: the locals all seem to assume that $20, 30, 40 US is an insignificant sum to me, and I’d part with it without a thought.<br />
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This turned out to be systemic: there’s a $25 visa fee to enter the country, high admission costs for tickets to the main tourist attractions (which are free for locals), surprisingly high taxi fares (a taxi shouldn’t cost me more in the developing world than it does in Hong Kong, surely), et cetera. My tour guide at Pashupatinath temple casually informed me after our journey around the site that the typical tip for his services is 2,000 rupees ($20 US), "although many people decide to give more." This was after only about an hour’s guidance and on top of the $10 cost of entry to the site, the main temple of which is closed to non-Hindus. Even taking a photograph of someone carries with it an assumption of a small cash donation, which offended me as a photographer even more than as a tourist. (And explains why I have no photos of the brightly-painted Hindu holy men at the temples – I couldn’t fucking afford it by the end of the day.)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGy5QckihM6MC9LsbZitQwY_qBXQH6Z41bvdBZ9kKI6MKY3BcNZVvUnMnfnhQDD6CczJ1Wwrjnn-D0_Bf4oipVOtFCtPJ3WXDoILNOcXAmXTBahAKzhYoy1ByDtU5kK9jx8HwcrIW_Uv0/s1600/Pashupatinath1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGy5QckihM6MC9LsbZitQwY_qBXQH6Z41bvdBZ9kKI6MKY3BcNZVvUnMnfnhQDD6CczJ1Wwrjnn-D0_Bf4oipVOtFCtPJ3WXDoILNOcXAmXTBahAKzhYoy1ByDtU5kK9jx8HwcrIW_Uv0/s400/Pashupatinath1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pashupatinath temple, a very holy Hindu site</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I should stress that the Nepali people are not all scammers. Most operate as legitimate and licensed tour guides and rickshaw drivers, but the sales pitches are constant, and they don’t abate at a polite decline. By the end of the second day I was so irritated that my preferred answer to the ubiquitous strangers beginning their pitches with “where are you from?” had deteriorated from “the US” to “what do you want” to finally “fuck off.” It pained me to be rude to people who are (most of them, I want to believe) just trying to make an honest living, but being constantly hounded absolutely did not endear the city to me; in fact it often prematurely chased me out of places where I might otherwise have preferred to tarry a bit.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMLIqESZef7ErasRFbD2MkNurkoqhNHGTbF4d6VhPaOW9vruqb5hy8LejOT0jFbt8gtg_8Q4x9gKyDEXOORgWI97Au5VLXNaqScmwwjKG28xn4U7l9_Usyum2q-4rxcrbUVneZQnIPeo/s1600/P1010492.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXMLIqESZef7ErasRFbD2MkNurkoqhNHGTbF4d6VhPaOW9vruqb5hy8LejOT0jFbt8gtg_8Q4x9gKyDEXOORgWI97Au5VLXNaqScmwwjKG28xn4U7l9_Usyum2q-4rxcrbUVneZQnIPeo/s400/P1010492.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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If I had to summarize my collective experience navigating Kathmandu by myself, largely on foot for the better part of three days, in one word, I’d call it <i>uncomfortable</i>. I’ve wandered countless cities by myself, even desperately poor cities like Manila and Siem Reap, but never with as much stress and irritation as I experienced in Kathmandu.<br />
<br />
Still, it certainly wasn’t all bad. The city was a rainy, muddy mess the first few hours of my first day, but the weather quickly improved and was beautiful for the majority of the trip. Kathmandu is surprisingly mild considering its location in a valley in the Himalayas; in fact it was even slightly warmer during the day than it was back in Hong Kong during my trip. The highlight was unquestionably Kopan Monastery, which I visited during the afternoon on my last day before flying home. It’s well outside the city and situated atop a hill, far away from the choking dust and overbearing cacophony of the crowded city streets. Neither photos nor a description will suffice to reproduce the experience there. I can declare without hyperbole that it’s the most peaceful place I’ve ever been, no doubt augmented by its juxtaposition with the plangent <i>un</i>tranquility further down the hill. There was nearly no one there (besides the indigenous Buddhist monks), and the view of the surrounding mountains was picturesque, but surreally so – it seemed otherworldly, as though the malignant afflictions of reality couldn’t scale the summit to spoil the natural insouciance flourishing there in their absence. (Am I being too poetic? Look, it was really pretty, ok?)<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW65Zm9JO-Pt2b7w4EnEgUmjZo-ZKjSvFcA7Eb1nM05c2ELIdksZ-NVuisJ_tlkmRshHpbxIojsvbWKXl3WkPzcV4a_j3uiPb2tu2QXzleZt8HnotwPOxaQZZGLJqblmOnpLp_C8O4N7I/s1600/Kopan1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW65Zm9JO-Pt2b7w4EnEgUmjZo-ZKjSvFcA7Eb1nM05c2ELIdksZ-NVuisJ_tlkmRshHpbxIojsvbWKXl3WkPzcV4a_j3uiPb2tu2QXzleZt8HnotwPOxaQZZGLJqblmOnpLp_C8O4N7I/s400/Kopan1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kopan Monastery. Tranquil af, you dig?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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I would also be remiss if I neglected to mention the state of the religious climate in the region, which is wholly pleasant. Nepal is 80% Hindu, although Siddhartha Gautama himself (known more familiarly as the Buddha) was born (according to legend, at least) in Nepal. Official statistics say that the country is only 9% Buddhist, although with heavy influence from nearby Tibet, Nepalese Buddhism and Hinduism are nearly indistinguishable. There are orthodox (theistic) variants of Buddhism that declare that the Hindu <i>Vedas</i> have no authority, but the multicultural nature of Nepal has mingled religious traditions to the point that it scarcely matters whether a Nepali identifies as a Hindu or Buddhist. Practitioners of each faith are welcome at holy sites of the other, so one generally finds Buddhists and Hindus worshiping together. Nepali Hindus in fact believe that the Buddha was an avatar of Vishnu, so in a sense to be a Buddhist is to be a Hindu as well. There’s a harmony between the two faiths that almost certainly could never exist in the monotheistic world, and it demonstrates the superiority (or at least the utility) of Eastern philosophy over the divisive holy books of the Abrahamic monotheisms. There’s a tremendous amount of sense and practicality in (atheistic) Buddhism, and the proof is in the nature of the people who subscribe to that philosophy. Nepal has problems, but religious division thankfully isn’t one of them.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBt9SZwXV2I7P6SuFVY21aHTm9KLeaVLrQVDVTnGhIGfLjRMoVyz92tvMO4uyBU_rvoTQO6cvmdKUN_EPuA_7rPuuOJnPkANtxkTZaY4PBHNJO8pNJCure1sooTEx9vfD-pwliGvIZhE8/s1600/P1010589.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBt9SZwXV2I7P6SuFVY21aHTm9KLeaVLrQVDVTnGhIGfLjRMoVyz92tvMO4uyBU_rvoTQO6cvmdKUN_EPuA_7rPuuOJnPkANtxkTZaY4PBHNJO8pNJCure1sooTEx9vfD-pwliGvIZhE8/s400/P1010589.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Playing monklets at Kopan Monastery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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This, then, was not what I would call a vacation, but a learning experience, as much of my travel tends to be. Strange as it might sound at this point, I would absolutely encourage people to go to Nepal, although I’d advise against going alone and only exploring Kathmandu or other cities. Nepal’s real charm is in its stunning topography, so a proper Nepalese vacation would include extensive trekking. Still, if you’d really like to sink yourself into the insanity of a place like Kathmandu, don’t hesitate. The political situation has stabilized, and Nepal is not a violent or dangerous place. Look after your money, but otherwise it’s ripe for exploration. Even if for no reason other than that <i>it’s there.</i>James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-75080440630740228352015-12-17T09:03:00.003-05:002016-03-27T12:24:24.956-04:00Star Wars: The Force Awakens - A ReviewIt’s been an excruciatingly long wait, but it’s finally
here. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i> is
showing in theaters, and I’ve seen it, and this is what I think of it, just a
few hours later.<br />
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[This will be REPLETE with spoilers, so if you haven’t seen
the film, take heed and go no further.]</div>
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If you’re just reading to find out if it was any good, if
you should go see it, I can answer those questions up-front: It was good, and
you should go see it.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Big Picture</b></div>
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It’s hard to know exactly where to start and how to talk
about everything going on in this film, from the appearances by the old
characters we know and love, to the new characters we need to like for the film
to work, to the story, to the comparisons with the prequels – there’s a lot
going on here that needs to be unpacked and examined. I’ll start with plot and
themes.</div>
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Thematically, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Force Awakens</i> is a Star Wars movie. It’s a very <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">safe</i> script, in that almost everything that happens in the film is
an echo or a reimagining of something that happened in the original trilogy.
Broadly speaking, TFA is the story of a poor girl from a desert planet who
unwittingly gets involved in the conflict between The New Order (the artists
formerly known as the Galactic Empire) and the Resistance, who are the current
iteration of the Rebel forces, now protecting the newly-reestablished Galactic
Senate. She realizes along the way that she’s particularly in-tune with the
Force, and she has a confrontation with a powerful dark Jedi at the end. There
are plenty of sub-plots and other details, but the main plot points feel very
familiar.</div>
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I hesitate to decide whether the similarities are just what
they need to be, or if perhaps JJ Abrams and company should have taken a few
more liberties or creative twists with the story. I mean, at the end of the
film, the Resistance forces literally attack and blow up The New Order’s latest
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Death Star</i>. In speculating about the
plot of this film before it was released, most of us dismissed the idea that
the bad guys would be dumb enough to build a giant moon laser <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for the third time</i>, but there it is.
What’s that famous quote about the definition of insanity?</div>
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At the heart of it though, this latest film is about the
conflict between good and evil, the light side of the force and the dark side,
and that’s really what Star Wars is about. So the story is easy to follow and
as inviting and familiar as a warm blanket, but what about the characters?</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Old Faces</b></div>
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Most of the hubbub about this new film has centered around
the fact that Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and Mark Hamill have returned to
reprise their roles as Leia, Han, and Luke. This was the most potentially
disastrous aspect of this new film for me, because a bad Star Wars movie with
these beloved characters would be an unforgivable cinematic transgression. (We
can largely write off the prequels because we basically didn’t care about any of
the characters, so nobody important was totally ruined.) The original cast is
used sparingly in TFA, and by necessity. It’s been so long (30 years in movie
time) since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Return of the Jedi</i> that
it wouldn’t make any sense to have Leia, Han, and Luke running around like they
did decades ago, so their roles are much more subdued.</div>
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Han features most prominently (and Chewbacca, of course) of
the returning cast, but even he’s really only there to help fill in the story
gaps and explain to the new characters (and to the audience) what’s been going
on for the last 30 years. We do get to see him and Chewie flying around in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Millennium Falcon </i>again, and they both
do a fair amount of blasting storm troopers. Harrison does a convincing job of
recreating Han’s snarky scoundrel character, but it’s not nearly as intense as
it was in the original trilogy. This is completely understandable (and
consistent with a character now about 70 years old) if slightly (and unfairly,
I admit) disappointing. </div>
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Leia is barely in the film at all. The only thing the plot
really needs her for is to explain that the new villain, Kylo Ren, is Han and
Leia’s son. Most of those two characters’ screen time together involves
them discussing their son, so they’re basically just there to deliver
exposition so the audience knows what’s going on. Leia is only in a few scenes
and even then really just standing around talking to other characters.</div>
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Luke is in the film even less, although most of us expected
that given the nature of what we knew of the story and the fact that he was
almost entirely absent from any of the teaser trailers. It turns out that Luke
was entrusted with training Han and Leia’s son in the Jedi arts, but Ren (Ben
to Han and Leia) turned to the dark side and apparently murdered all the other
Jedis-in-training. Luke feels personally responsible for this and goes into
exile; much of the driving force of the plot involves trying to piece together
information about his location.</div>
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The only scene in which Luke actually appears is,
incidentally, the most powerful scene in the entire film, the final scene. Rey
treks up a stony mountain island in the middle of the sea to find Luke, who
turns around and unhoods himself as Rey offers him his old lightsaber. I think
I nearly exploded at this point from the sheer gravitas of everything that was
happening in that scene. In fact I think I may have actually died and am not
even actually writing this right now.</div>
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Apart from those big three, there is a brief cameo by
Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, and R2-D2 gets some screen time (and vitally involved
with the plot) at the very end. On the whole I would say the original cast
members are used tastefully and believably. The film obviously can’t lean too
heavily on them, because this isn’t a stand-alone sequel to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jedi</i>, it’s the first in a new era of
Star Wars films. The focus of TFA is really on the new characters, and the
movie lives or dies based on how we respond to them.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The New Faces</b></div>
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This is another area where so much could have gone wrong:
who will be the new heroes and villains going forward, and who will play them?
The plot is driven along almost exclusively by two new characters: Finn, a
disillusioned New Order storm trooper who deserts the only life he’s ever
known, and Rey, a lowly scavenger on a planet called Jakku, which is indistinguishable
from Tatooine. Their paths serendipitously cross on Jakku after Finn and an
escaped Resistance pilot (Poe Dameron) crash on the planet on their way to recover
valuable information on the location of Luke Skywalker. The New Order is also
after this information, and everyone flees the planet when the bad guys come in
with guns blazing.</div>
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Finn’s character is believable enough, although the only back-story
he really has is what he tells to his new friends: he realized while fighting
with the other storm troopers that it simply wasn’t right, so he fled. He’s not
a Jedi, although the trailers (and movie posters) offer a bit of a red herring
in showing him wielding a blue lightsaber. Actor John Boyega, whom I’d never
seen nor heard before seeing this film, does a good job. (He’s a Brit but does
a very convincing American accent in the film. I was surprised to hear his UK
accent in interviews.) Finn is a likeable character, and it seems that he’ll
figure heavily in the plots of future films.</div>
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Rey is easily my favorite new character. I mentioned before
that she has obvious parallels with Luke, in that she’s basically a poor nobody
on a desert planet but becomes the eventual hero. Just as we see Luke grow
stronger with the force in the original trilogy, we witness Rey discovering
this ability in herself. There are important differences, though: whereas Luke
was a bit of a helpless farm boy who was destined to become a Jedi because of
who his father was, Rey is a total badass from the beginning. The SJWs will
love her (actually no they won’t; they’ll find something to criticize about her
character) – she’s a very strong female character who doesn’t need anybody’s
help. In fact, the script almost beats us over the head with this, as she’s
unimpressed with Finn’s constant checking up on her. [To comic excess: in one
scene, Finn has just been knocked to the ground by an explosion and asks Rey if
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">she’s</i> ok once he collects himself.]
For me, most of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">oh hell yes</i>
moments in the film were when Rey was discovering how powerful she can be. Case
in point: the scene in the Kylo Ren fight where she retrieves Luke’s lightsaber
from the snow with her mind as Ren is trying to do the same thing – she already
fights with a confidence that Luke never really shows until the very end of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jedi</i>. Daisy Ridley, another unknown
actor to me, does a great job with this role too (and gets to keep her accent,
unlike Boyega), and I’m absolutely on board with Rey as the new hero of the
franchise.</div>
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So the good guys are great, but what about the bad guys? For
TFA to work, it needs a strong villain character for all of us to hate. In the
original trilogy we had Darth Vader, who was basically evil incarnate, and
later the emperor, who was also an impressively unlikeable asshole. Kylo Ren
(played by Adam Driver, who has apparently been in some other things that I
haven’t seen) is the new menace, decked out in decidedly Vaderesque garb. He
has a scary mask that distorts his voice when he speaks through it, a menacing,
hilted red lightsaber, and an exclusively black wardrobe clashing against the
brilliant white of The New Order troops. This isn’t a coincidence, of course;
Ren is Han and Leia’s son, and Darth Vader is Leia’s father, so Ren is Vader’s
grandson, though Vader died before Ren was born. Ren keeps Vader’s charred and
melted mask on-hand for inspiration, and he clearly wants to be just like his
evil grand-pop when he grows up. However, whereas Vader’s character only became
nuanced and complex in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Empire</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jedi</i>, Ren has obvious conflicts from the
beginning, revealed to us through his interactions with Rey in particular. He’s
not the intimidating, sinister juggernaut that Vader was when he first stepped
terrifyingly onto the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tantive IV</i> at
the beginning of the original film. (How’s that for an obscure bit of original
film trivia?) He’s emotional and shows weakness, and his character arc will be
interesting to watch in future films.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I should also say something about BB-8, the adorable little
rolling droid that’s already become something of an icon even before the film’s
theatrical release. BB-8 is used almost identically to how R2-D2 was used in
the original films. They have similar playful personalities, feature
prominently in the plot by carrying important information, and are used
frequently as comic relief. Just as the droids were endearing characters in the
original trilogy, BB-8 is likeable without being overly pandering or
insultingly cartoonish (cough Jar-Jar cough cough).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fan Service</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t think I’ve adequately explained just how many scenes
and bits of dialogue echo the original trilogy. While I appreciate that JJ
Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan were doing this intentionally to give the fans
things to cheer about (and we did, over and over), the number of references to
the old films is rather striking. Here are the things I can explicitly remember
after just seeing it once; I’m sure I’ve left several out:</div>
<ul>
<li>Desert planet (Jakku and Tatooine are basically
the same)</li>
<li>Referring to the Millennium Falcon as junk (“garbage”)</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Cantina scene with weird aliens (although in TFA
it’s not on Jakku)</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Finn accidentally activates the holochess board
on the Falcon</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Making the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>An evil Jedi wearing black, a mask, and with a
red lightsaber</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol";">A</span>ssault on a planet-sized, planet-destroying
super weapon</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>A ground team disrupts shields while x-wings
attack</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Someone mind-grabbing a lightsaber stuck in snow</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>A father-son confrontation</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Rey uses the “Jedi mind trick” on a storm
trooper like Obi-Wan did</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>The New Order looking for a droid carrying
important information</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Han asks about a garbage chute and trash
compactor</li>
<li><span style="font-family: "symbol"; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>Finn mans the gun on the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Falcon</i> and shoots down TIE fighters</li>
</ul>
Besides these very specific echoes, most other locations are
similar to those in the originals. I’ve already mentioned the desert planet,
but there are also scenes in a snowy environment, and the Resistance base is on
a verdant planet like the moon of Yavin in the original film (or Endor, for
that matter.) There are also scenes in an interrogation room and the New Order
leaders speaking to the new equivalent of the emperor via hologram. The scene between
Han and Ren feels reminiscent of Luke and Vader after their duel in Empire:
both characters are in a precarious position high above a chasm and the good
character ends up falling (although Han is dead and Luke goes willingly).<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Death of Han Solo</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only potentially “shocking” moment in TFA is Han’s
death, although it didn’t come as a shock to me. Harrison Ford has been
suggesting that Han’s character be killed off since back in the original
trilogy days, so in that sense it’s not out of nowhere. I wasn’t sure that
Abrams would have the temerity to do it, since Han is such a beloved and
important character. The way it was done, though, is perfectly acceptable: Han
is killed by his own son, who is also supposed to be the main villain of the
new films. Everything about the scene suggests that Ren not only will kill Han,
but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">must</i> in order to establish his
character. The two enjoy a seemingly genuine moment before Ren ignites his
lightsaber while both of them are clutching it, impaling Han before he falls to
his unceremonious death. This probably <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">should</i>
be shocking, but at this point Han’s secondary role in the plot was well
established, and the story needed Ren to do something utterly execrable in
order for the audience to hate him sufficiently. Ren’s killing of Han takes
care of these various needs in a way that seems organic to the story, so it
works. We as an audience did at least get to enjoy some nostalgic moments of
Han flying the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Falcon</i> and laying
waste to storm troopers before his end, and I’m grateful for that. It
looks like Luke will have a larger role in the next film, so it was time for
Han to step aside, one way or another.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Pacing, Script, Tone,
Other Film Jargon</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Although it’s difficult for me to look at TFA as a film
(because it’s STAR WARS and may as well be real events affecting real people to
me), I can try to apply some critic-sounding language to it. In general I
thought it was well-paced; it never drags or becomes tedious or boring.
Exposition is minimal and only stated bluntly when the audience simply can’t
get much-needed missing information any other way, as for example when Han and
Leia talk about how their son became an evil jerk. Tonally it’s very similar to
the original films, in that it’s a mix of action and excitement and occasional
serious character moments with some comic relief sprinkled here and there. As I’ve
said before, TFA <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feels</i> like a Star
Wars movie, and I think that’s largely due to the similarity in tone.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The script is fine, if imperfect. There were a few scenes in
which the dialogue felt a little clunky, a little awkward and silly, but this
was almost exclusively whenever anyone was talking about the Force. In the
writer’s defense, the Force is an inherently silly concept, and it must be
difficult to write dialogue about a magical energy that some people can control
with their minds without sounding silly. It’s not as though every single line
in the original films is a gem either, so it’s not a huge problem. The plot is
believable enough, easy to follow, and rewarding for the audience.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As far as the direction goes, not much else needs to be
said: JJ Abrams knows how to make a movie. It looks fantastic, even the CGI
bits, which were used (thankfully) with restraint. The film was shot in various
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual </i>locations using <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">actual</i> sets and practical effects, much
like the original films, and it <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">feels</i>
real. It has plenty of action sequences without being a schlocky mess of
explosions and sword fights; in fact, there’s only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">one</i> lightsaber fight in TFA, keeping very much with the tradition
of the original trilogy, and it is entirely in service of the plot.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Criticisms</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
TFA is not a perfect movie. Although my impressions of it
are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">overwhelmingly</i> positive, there
were a few things that bugged me. First of all, it doesn’t appear that Kylo Ren
wears a scary mask for any reason other than that he wants to be like his idol,
Darth Vader. Ren takes it off several times during the film and seems to have
no practical need for it whatsoever, and it’s never explained why he has it. I’d
also like to know, while we’re on the subject, how exactly he came into
possession of Darth Vader’s charred and mangled helmet, since Ren wasn’t even
born when Vader died. Who kept that thing around?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ren’s first scene in fact is with a captured Poe Dameron,
who doesn’t seem particularly impressed or intimidated by him. Poe makes light
of their confrontation and completely dissolves any tension that had built up
around this dark figure. I’m not sure if that was handled properly, although it
does establish Dameron as a bit of a rogue and Ren as less imposing than Darth
Vader. Perhaps it works, but I did question the use of humor in that particular
scene.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The assault on the latest Death Star seemed a little hastily
developed, although if I think back to the original film, it’s largely the
same. There’s only something like two hours in movie-universe time between when
the Resistance discovers that the New Order has this terrifying weapon pointed
at them and when they destroy it, and all of that seemed to unfold rather
quickly. There are also the usual “it’s a movie” coincidences putting important
characters in the same place at the same time, and the eventual meeting of Rey,
Finn, and Han and Chewie is eye-rollingly coincidental.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I also thought the movie should have ended right after R2
and BB-8 put their map pieces together to reveal where Luke is hiding, since
that would set up the action for the next film – finding Luke. Instead, the
film goes on a few minutes longer to show Rey walking around a remote rocky island
only to find Luke and present him his old lightsaber. This actually turned out
to be the most emotion-stirring scene in the entire film, but it seemed like
something that might have worked as the driving force of the next film instead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Highlights, Final
Thoughts</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I didn’t even make it through the opening title crawl
without tearing up, and I was routinely dabbing my eyes under my 3D glasses
throughout the film. It’s a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">serious</i>
nostalgia trip, and of an intensity I’ve never experienced before. If Star Wars
has been a big part of your life as it has of mine, watching this film is an
emotional experience. The first memorable moment for me was when Rey and Finn
are running for their lives on Jakku, looking for anything for Rey to pilot to
get them away from the attacking New Order forces. Rey suggests a fast-looking
craft ahead, while Finn suggests a different ship off camera; Rey dismisses his
choice as “garbage” (my Spidey sense begins tingling). As Rey’s choice explodes
in front of them, she acquiesces to the “garbage” ship instead. The camera pans
over to reveal the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Millennium Falcon</i>,
and I basically die. Everyone in the theater cheers, and I want to pause the
movie so I can go cry for 15 minutes. Ditto any moment where an old character
is revealed, even though Han and Leia’s first scenes aren’t really all that
dramatic. I immensely enjoyed Rey discovering her power, and her duel with Ren
is fantastic. The scene at the end with Rey holding out Luke’s lightsaber for
him as he slowly turns and reveals his face is possibly the most powerful scene
in a Star Wars movie (although I’ll note that I'm too young to have experienced
Vader’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“I am your father” </i>bombshell
in theaters).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The highest praise I can give <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</i> is that it’s worthy of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Star Wars</i> name. It has an
uncontroversial script, a good balance of old and new characters and story
elements, and it looks and sounds absolutely amazing. I’m going to see it
again, and then again, and then again.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-62650551870894567442015-12-10T09:29:00.000-05:002016-11-01T13:32:52.616-04:00Christianity, The World's Most Falsifiable Religion?<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->I find myself not writing about religion very often anymore
mostly because I’ve got the gist of Christian apologetics at this point and am rather bored by it, so I’m much less often inspired to respond to
something I read. Still, something extraordinary does occasionally drift by,
like this article from Michael Patton, Th.M., (presumably <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PyST9Ps_DE" target="_blank">Mike Patton</a> from Faith No More) entitled “<a href="http://credohouse.org/blog/christianity-the-worlds-most-falsifiable-religion" target="_blank">Christianity, The World’s Most Falsifiable Religion.</a>” It struck me as odd that someone with a background in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">theology</i> would write so confidently
about the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">historicity</i> of the core
claims of the Christian faith. Then again, the major endeavor of Christian
apologetics is to attempt to muster up some kind of argument other than “you
just need to take it on faith,” even though most believers would not cite “the
overwhelming persuasiveness of Christian apologetics” as the reason for their
belief. Apologetics is not for convincing nonbelievers, it’s for reassuring
believers that they have legitimate, non-laughable reasons for the beliefs that
they already hold, beliefs that don’t actually have their origins in the
cosmological argument, or the teleological argument, or the moral argument, or
the [insert apologetic <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">du jour</i>]
argument.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here is Patton’s thesis:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“Christianity is the only viable worldview that is
historically defensible. The central claims of the Bible demand historic
inquiry, as they are based on public events that can be historically verified.
In contrast, the central claims of all other religions cannot be historically
tested and, therefore, are beyond falsifiability or inquiry. They just have to
be believed with blind faith.”</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The TL;DR version of my response: No, Christianity is not
historically defensible. Its claims, like those of all other religions, are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> falsifiable, and you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> just have to take it on faith. Here’s
the long-winded version:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What is History?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To explain why the claims of the Christian faith cannot be
investigated historically, the first thing that needs to be done is to define
what history is, and just as importantly what history is not. (I’m borrowing
heavily here from the work of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9O8xILJQAs9LxaM4HiMOQ" target="_blank">Dr. Bart Ehrman</a>,
New Testament scholar and historian.) History is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> the past. History is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">what
we can show</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">probably happened in the
past</i>. This is not a trivial distinction; there are things that certainly
happened in the past but cannot be shown to have happened with any high
probability. For example, there is a factual answer to the question “What did
Benjamin Franklin eat for dinner on October 23<sup>rd</sup>, 1778?” Unless
we’re fortunate enough to discover Franklin's journal
meticulously detailing his prandial selections on that day, we have no method
of seeking the answer to this question. So although the question asks about a
particular event in the past, it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i>
a historical question – it can’t be investigated historically. Let’s look at
the claims of the New Testament and determine if they are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">historical</i> claims, i.e. claims that can be investigated
historically.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">History as a Genre</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Not every piece of writing that talks about the past is
historical. “History” is a specific literary designation, and any writing
deemed to be “historical” must meet certain criteria, just as any writing
claiming to be satire or science fiction or biography must meet
certain criteria. So, what exactly is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">history</i>? The word itself comes from Herodotus, the 5<sup>th</sup> century BCE Greek
writer commonly referred to as “The Father of History” (an honor <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2007.01.0030%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D5" target="_blank">conferred upon him by Cicero</a>, no less.) Herodotus begins his famous work with the
immortal words “Ἡροδότου Ἁλικαρνησσέος <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">ἱστορίης</b>
ἀπόδεξις ἥδε,” “This is the display of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">inquiry</b>
of Herodotus of Halicarnassus.” The Greek word whence comes our word <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">history</i> means <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">an investigation</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inquiry</i>.
In this hugely influential work, Herodotus establishes many basic features of
the genre of historical writing. First of all, he clearly identifies himself by
name and place. Second, he often gives multiple conflicting accounts of a story
and identifies to which people each perspective belongs. In the case of events
he didn’t witness himself, he tells the reader where he got his information and
reports it neutrally, inviting the reader to decide which side is telling the
truth, if any.<br />
<br />
Thucydides, Herodotus’ 5<sup>th</sup> century Greek contemporary
wrote a detailed history of the war between Athens and Sparta as it was unfolding
before his very eyes. His methods are even more mindfully scrupulous than those of
Herodotus, and he tells us explicitly in <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0199%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D22" target="_blank">Book I, section 22</a> how he gets his information:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“And with reference to the narrative of events, far from
permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did
not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself,
partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried
by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me
some labour from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same
occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect
memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other.”</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thucydides’ work is also noteworthy for his inclusion of
long speeches, about which he gives the following disclaimer in the same
section:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>“With reference to the speeches in this history, some were
delivered before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard
myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to
carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the
speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions,
of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they
really said.”</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">history</i> as a
genre was established more than four hundred years before the New Testament: a
transparent <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">inquiry</i> into events by an
author who identifies himself, dutifully reports on sources, and declares any
biases. It should already be clear that the writers of the gospels make no
effort to be historical in their approach to narration. But wait,
there’s more!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Investigating the
Historical Past</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Having established what historical writing looks like from
its ancient roots, we should mention what modern scholars of history look for
when trying to determine what probably happened in the past. The most important
resources in investigating the historical past are <a href="http://libguides.jcu.edu.au/scholarlysources/primary" target="_blank">primary sources</a>
– first-hand accounts reported by people who witnessed the events. Historians
want not only primary sources, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">multiple</i>
primary sources that were created independently of one another, are consistent
in their description of the events, and have no obvious bias in reporting. How
do the gospels of the New Testament fare as desirable historical evidence?
Let’s find out:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Are the gospels <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">primary
sources</b>?</td><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" /></a></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The stories narrated in the gospels are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> eye-witness accounts and don’t even claim to be. Even worse,
the original autographs of all New Testament books are lost. The earliest texts
of the gospels we have are copies from a century later or more. Historians
don’t know what the authors of the gospels originally wrote because the
original texts don’t exist.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Are the gospels <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">multiple independent sources</b>?</td><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Well, kind of. Multiple? Yes, technically.
Independent? Definitely not. The first three gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke) are plagued
by a troublesome debate known as the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">synoptic
problem</i>, a <a href="http://www.hypotyposeis.org/synoptic-problem/2004/09/overview-of-proposed-solutions.html" target="_blank">veritable cluster-fuck</a> of scholarly confusion as to where the hell the writers of
these books got their information, because large parts are repeated <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">verbatim</i> across the three books, and the authors
never mention their sources.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Are the gospels <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">consistent in their descriptions of events</b>?</td><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
When was Jesus executed? Mark (14:12,
15:25) and John (19:14-16) can’t agree on the hour <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> the day. Did Jesus carry his own cross, as John says (19:17), or
did Simon of Cyrene carry it, as Mark (15:21), Matthew (27:32), and Luke
(23:26) say? Were the women watching the crucifixion from far away, as Matthew (27:55),
Mark (15:40), and Luke (23:49) say, or were Jesus’ mother Mary, her sister, and
Mary Magdalene close at hand as John (19:25) says? What were Jesus’ last
words before dying? Did he say “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” as
Mark (15:34) and Matthew (27:46) report, or “Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit,” as Luke (23:46) reports, or “It is finished,” as John (19:30)
reports? That’s just a small selection of the inconsistencies in the crucifixion
story alone. The gospel writers don’t tell the same story about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Are the gospels <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">unbiased in reporting events</b>?</td><td><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb__Ne-mFs5AO0Rj3Xz8NAvqGFJSzrn4kunsn02kMQVMbiQNCyEwUHtg02lIarS8lUzEuRrIZs047Qf40tWGgdImANGFe-XfIohvJMPVDFlm4EGfHchVpNKF2xccvDIbXvgvQEG7jxuqg/s1600/NoFace.jpg" /></a></div>
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The gospels are stories narrated as if factual
with no attempts whatsoever at impartiality. The authors of these books were 1<sup>st</sup>
century Christians who already believed these stories and disseminated them for
the purpose of converting people to their religion.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, the gospels display precisely none of the
characteristics shown by actual writers of history, and the texts have none of
the characteristics that modern historians look for when investigating
historical events. I could stop here, but wait, there’s more!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Nail in the
Coffin (Stone in front of the Tomb?): Miracles</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As if everything mentioned thus far wasn’t problematic
enough for the historicity of the claims in the New Testament, Dr. Ehrman
reminds us of an even bigger problem: miracles. What is a miracle? A miracle is
a suspension of the natural order of the world - an event that transcends the
very physical laws that govern our entire existence. A miracle is not just an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">improbable</i> event, but an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">impossible</i> one. It’s rolling a 7 on a
six-sided die, or being raised from the dead, or correctly folding a fitted bed
sheet. Historians, as we established earlier, have to try to demonstrate what <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">probably</i> happened in the past. Miracles
are by definition the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">least probable</i>
things that have ever happened. Of course they are – if they weren’t, they
wouldn’t be miraculous. The conflict should be obvious: the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">least probable</i> occurrence can never be
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">most probable</i> explanation for
anything. Thus, for a historian, no miraculous story can ever be a historical
one. This is why history text books do not mention gods, demons, angels,
fairies, and hobgoblins when explaining the D-Day invasion, or the Cuban
Missile Crisis, or the French Revolution. Highly improbable explanations have
no <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">historical</i> explanatory power.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What About Other
Sources?</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There aren’t any. Jesus of Nazareth, whoever he was, wrote
nothing. His disciples wrote nothing. His contemporary followers wrote nothing. (This
shouldn’t be surprising – lower class people in Judea in the 1<sup>st</sup>
century were illiterate.) The earliest author we have is the apostle Paul, who
never met Jesus. Everyone else, including the gospel writers, the Jewish
historian Josephus, and the Roman historian Tacitus, came later. There are no
<i>verifiable historical</i> witnesses to the crucifixion, to the empty tomb, to
the resurrection. As far as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">historians</i>
are concerned, these claims cannot be evaluated, let alone shown to have <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">probably</i> happened.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusions and Caveats</b><br />
<br />
If you're a Christian and reading this (or if you're Michael Patton,Th.M. - Hi Mike!) and frothing at the mouth right now, please note that at no point have I said that the crucifixion, the empty tomb, and the resurrection <i>did not happen</i>. To say that a claim is <i>not historical</i> is NOT to say <i>the event did not happen</i>. Michael's claim is that the Christian stories about Jesus are historical, and I've explained why that isn't true.<br />
<br />
I don't personally believe that Jesus was raised from the dead. I'm not even entirely convinced that <i>anything</i> reported about him in Christian texts is factually true, given how powerfully <i>unhistorical</i> they are. I cannot, however, state with absolute certainty that the claims are false, because they are<i> unfalsifiable</i>. The complete lack of evidence to substantiate <i>any</i> claims about Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection strongly suggests to me that the claims are false, but it does not <i>prove</i> that they are false. It could be that there was a 1<sup>st</sup> century Palestinian Jew who performed miracles and survived his own murder, just as it could be that Benjamin Franklin had steak and eggs for dinner on October 23<sup>rd</sup>, 1778. Both could be facts; neither is historical. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-69517402991091914952015-03-16T13:08:00.000-04:002015-04-01T08:32:47.832-04:00The Absurdity of Monogamy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Monogamy is ridiculous. There, I said it. This is something that I've been subconsciously aware of for my entire life but only recently had the clarity of mind and testicular fortitude to declare, and I do so confidently and without apology. I offer by way of introduction this short video by Dan Savage, noted sex columnist, in response to the question, "Does society need to rethink its views on love and commitment?" (NSFW language - it's <a href="http://www.savagelovecast.com/" target="_blank">Dan Savage</a>)<br />
<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/w8SOQEitsJI/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w8SOQEitsJI?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
<br />
He gets at the core of this issue, which is that we as a collective society have placed the utmost importance on the idea of sexual exclusivity in all serious, long-term relationships and marriages. Nearly everyone agrees that infidelity is wrong. I'm firmly in that camp as well - infidelity, after all, amounts to lying, and lying is generally wrong. There is a massive disconnect, however, between the number of people who condemn infidelity and who refrain from it, and this disparity is a major contributor to the failure of monogamous relationships.<br />
<br />
<b>Statistical Reality</b><br />
<br />
Finding rigorous, reliable, and recent statistics on infidelity is annoyingly difficult. First of all, much of the current research is to be found behind paywalls in academic journals, so direct access to anything but abstracts has been impossible for me. There's also the problem that these statistics all rely on self-reporting, and given the general stigma attached to infidelity, many people are reluctant to admit to it even in an anonymous survey. This is particularly evident when looking at the stats for people who reported being cheated on vs. those who admit to cheating - there's a rather large gap between those two figures in any survey of these questions. So, here are some of the figures I have been able to access regarding the prevalence of infidelity:<br />
<ul>
<li>a <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/enlightened-living/201003/questions-marriage-monogamy-and-multiple-relationship" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a> article cites a research paper from the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy (Atwood & Schwartz, 2002) which completed a meta-analysis of existing research on marital infidelity. That analysis found that <b>45-55% of women and 50-60% of men</b> engage in extramarital sex at some point during their marriages.</li>
<li>Peggy Vaughan in her book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Monogamy-Myth-Personal-Handbook-Recovering/dp/1557045429/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426417379&sr=1-1&keywords=the+monogamy+myth" target="_blank">The Monogamy Myth</a> reports similar figures - <b>around 40% of women and 60%</b> of men will have an affair during marriage, and perhaps more shockingly, 40% of these affairs go on for <i>more than 2 years</i>. These aren't drunken mistakes on business trips, they're fulfilling, long-term relationships with people other than one's spouse.</li>
<li>A <a href="https://www.institutedfa.com/Professionals.php?Articles-Leading-Causes-of-Divorce-74" target="_blank">recent survey</a> of divorce professionals revealed that 28% of divorcing couples cite infidelity as the primary reason for separation.</li>
<li>There are entire dating websites <i>catering </i>to married people looking to find extramarital partners. <a href="https://www.ashleymadison.com/" target="_blank">AshleyMadison.com</a> has <i>over 33 million</i> registered users, all of whom are either married and looking to cheat or single and willing to be the home-wrecker.</li>
</ul>
So, nearly everyone agrees that cheating is wrong, yet better than 50% of all married people will do it anyway, and a quarter of all divorces will be a direct result of it. In order to try to understand why these problematic figures exist, we should examine why people place such an importance on monogamy in the first place.<br />
<br />
<b>Animals are Naturally Monogamous</b><br />
<br />
This is one of those "science facts" that you've known for a really long time - that many animals "mate for life."(<a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/study-finds-swans-only-other-animals-who-mate-for,38198/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview:2:Default" target="_blank">The Onion</a> has even recently had some fun with this) The problem with "science facts" that you've known for a really long time is that most of them are actually wrong, <a href="http://www.salon.com/2001/01/23/monogamy_2/" target="_blank">including this one</a>. Many species of birds, for example, appear to be monogamous, as they tend to form persistent "pair bonds." These are <i>social</i> bonds rather than sexual, though - genetic analysis of offspring frequently reveals that a percentage of them weren't fathered by the social mates. There are perfectly reasonable evolutionary explanations for why it's advantageous for birds to do this, and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201210/the-three-reasons-polygamy" target="_blank">the same factors</a> may explain human tendencies toward polygamy as well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpZsTwVZz5dbi7H6cqhgBaxCdayBiubpgdqIXQLDKv0MpZUyZZIYTbD3fg-yVEio2cN0ZdfFlcM79sYF64zbb3ylxkFQqRmIevudM8xJzdRH0uAIuIHdE5l22ZFEecitaR62fGxDFfU4/s1600/Blue-Jays.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirpZsTwVZz5dbi7H6cqhgBaxCdayBiubpgdqIXQLDKv0MpZUyZZIYTbD3fg-yVEio2cN0ZdfFlcM79sYF64zbb3ylxkFQqRmIevudM8xJzdRH0uAIuIHdE5l22ZFEecitaR62fGxDFfU4/s1600/Blue-Jays.jpg" height="312" width="400" /></a></div>
We have <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201210/the-three-reasons-polygamy" target="_blank">anthropological</a> and <a href="http://blog.23andme.com/ancestry/polygamous-footprints-in-our-genes/" target="_blank">biological</a> evidence to suggest strongly that <i>homo sapiens</i> is not a naturally monogamous species, although <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/human_evolution/2012/10/are_humans_monogamous_or_polygamous_the_evolution_of_human_mating_strategies_.single.html" target="_blank">biologists have trouble</a> pinning us down on the monogamy/polygamy spectrum. Polygamy is generally abhorrent in the modern, civilized world, probably because the advantages it offers are no longer relevant to centralized, industrial societies. George Murdock's <a href="http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3772751?sid=21106121117013&uid=2129&uid=70&uid=3738176&uid=4&uid=2" target="_blank">Ethnographic Atlas</a> reports that, of the 800+ different cultures he cataloged throughout the world, only 137 of them, or 16.1%, were monogamous. Even without definitive answers to these questions of human sexuality from science, a glance back at those statistics above should dispel any notion that we are naturally monogamous.<br />
<br />
<b>Religion</b><br />
<br />
One reason many people will insist on monogamy is that it's some sort of moral imperative as decreed by Almighty God. Of course, if actually asked to substantiate this strongly-held belief with specific citations of passages in holy books, the people spouting this tired argument will generally fumble and equivocate. The Bible says quite a lot of things about marriage, most of them the sort of laughable, irrelevant, contradictory nonsense that one typically finds in its pages. Deuteronomy 21:15, for example, addresses men with two wives (and not for the purposes of telling them not to have two wives.) Abraham has "concubines" (Genesis 25:6), Esau takes two wives (Genesis 26:34) and then another one (28:9). 1 Kings 11:3 notes that King Solomon, the greatest player in human history, had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Those are suspiciously round numbers, but apparently God was cool with K-Sol slamming 1,000 bitches, give or take.<br />
<br />
"Yes, but," you retort, "those verses are all from Ye Olde Testamente, that forgotten opening act to the triumphant and glorious GOSPELS overflowing with the WISDOM OF JESUS OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!" Well, in Matthew 19, Jesus and his disciples discuss how, since divorce isn't allowed (19:9), it's probably best not to marry. Jesus suggests castration as another viable option (19:12). Jesus also advocates abandoning one's wife to follow him (19:29). In 1 Corinthians 7, Paul says it's best for men and women not to touch each other, and people who aren't already married shouldn't bother (7:27). I mean, the world is coming to an end really soon, you guys. There's no time to get married. So actually, the God of the Bible is perfectly fine with polygamy, and Jesus doesn't seem to give a shit either way, because he's more important than your marriage, and the world is ending soon anyway. The idea that monogamy is a Biblical imperative from God is simply false.<br />
<br />
<b>Exclusive Sex is More Special</b><br />
<br />
And yet, the idea of monogamy is pervasive even among scientifically literate, secular people. Sure, the misguided religious folk have a monopoly on <i>crazy</i> reasons for insisting on it, but even your super progressive, Green party-voting, Chomsky-reading, Trader Joe's-shopping, vegan girlfriend would probably dump your ass the second she came home early from her barista shift and saw a pair of someone else's TOMS on the floor.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-jnfue2NWFqeAnLcnL_J83iaKTt6oEJ1Yww2ajXGLqJ5PiuUK_YJp2p1SWkYeSwT9MIIq10g9virLyP_K4I2i3aKbgryJXSjI3CcxFJXDSdaeoTHeqhlJkSQDwfwpqzuBzhQ47wgOfc/s1600/couple-in-bed-feet-only.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI-jnfue2NWFqeAnLcnL_J83iaKTt6oEJ1Yww2ajXGLqJ5PiuUK_YJp2p1SWkYeSwT9MIIq10g9virLyP_K4I2i3aKbgryJXSjI3CcxFJXDSdaeoTHeqhlJkSQDwfwpqzuBzhQ47wgOfc/s1600/couple-in-bed-feet-only.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We're just doing yoga, I swear!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Certainly there are pragmatic reasons to prefer monogamy, like mitigated risk of STIs/need to go on the Maury Povich Show. [This of course only applies when both partners are <i>actually</i> monogamous, which, as we know, they often are not.] But this is not generally the justification given for monogamy, especially among unmarried couples who have no legal obligations to one another. In this case, so the argument goes, sex is a special thing because two partners decide <i>only</i> to do it with each other. <br />
<br />
This argument <i>could</i> be persuasive, in the same way that communism <i>could</i> be a viable economic model. If two people go to their graves having only had sex with each other, then yes, sex was a special thing. Mission accomplished, criticism retracted. This accurately describes something like 0% of the population. In reality, most people will have multiple sexual partners in their lifetimes; hell, many people will even <i>get married</i> multiple times. The argument that sex is somehow special because you're only doing it with one person <i>at a time</i> becomes difficult to take seriously when you remember that you and your partner both likely had other sexual partners before the current relationship and will likely have more still after it's over. This argument from "special...ness" becomes less persuasive with each new sexually exclusive relationship.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgolUojEKjQGUPod9I2vVprfDRgZp597X68jpdJ5eKPAATNcXXWRruMXcG71ZAWLD0T5ER7YGV3k862Qz17HDpynZUcELBOOfcAghuPVdRu4uLNGTANOhhOUo9oyv_nb_KzuiqNZ5owK1o/s1600/bigstockphoto_Couple_expecting_child_742066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgolUojEKjQGUPod9I2vVprfDRgZp597X68jpdJ5eKPAATNcXXWRruMXcG71ZAWLD0T5ER7YGV3k862Qz17HDpynZUcELBOOfcAghuPVdRu4uLNGTANOhhOUo9oyv_nb_KzuiqNZ5owK1o/s1600/bigstockphoto_Couple_expecting_child_742066.jpg" height="291" width="320" /></a></div>
Note also that it would be patently absurd to talk about other aspects of human relationships in this way. Parents don't decide against having a second child because they're afraid they won't have enough love for both of them. No parent looks forlornly at an ultrasound revealing twins and laments, "oh, now they're each only half as special." We don't put a limit on the number of friends we have because we're afraid that we're going to run out of love, or that our existing friendships won't be as valid anymore because we've made new ones. One can assert that having multiple concurrent sexual partners somehow renders the act <i>less special</i>, whatever that means, but the fact remains that there are no <i>practical</i> implications for this, and I'd defy anyone to demonstrate otherwise. The meaningfulness of sex is not inversely proportional to the number of partners, current or historical. (Einstein came up with that, I think. Look it up.) Just as we all have unlimited capacity to love our kids and love our friends, we also have unlimited capacity to have <i>maximally meaningful sex</i>.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQccsNZFW-Pzeirj6MIe5POT462QV3ul1RRXCTZ0ydc_BFF8abuA1YKkhmUtNnbYpl8jFARf__me65hm91dvpbvkrPCsaVwXwlEn4cd55junKcglXgFXGNR6ZUjTIbNVCMaB6Nw8976pc/s1600/1000509261001_2047894679001_Albert-Einstein-Scientific-Hero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQccsNZFW-Pzeirj6MIe5POT462QV3ul1RRXCTZ0ydc_BFF8abuA1YKkhmUtNnbYpl8jFARf__me65hm91dvpbvkrPCsaVwXwlEn4cd55junKcglXgFXGNR6ZUjTIbNVCMaB6Nw8976pc/s1600/1000509261001_2047894679001_Albert-Einstein-Scientific-Hero.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pretty sure it's that bit on the left there.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b>The Intimacy Fallacy</b><br />
<br />
Sex is almost inextricably mated to intimacy, despite the fact that most sexually active people know from experience that the two aren't necessarily synonymous. Sex is not an <i>inherently</i> intimate act. (If you don't agree, consider sex workers of all kinds - are porn stars enjoying intimate moments when they saw away at each other on camera as a vocation? What about non-consensual sex? Incest? Bestiality? Necrophilia? Wow that escalated quickly...) Sex is a biological imperative; this we know for certain. What the act <i>means</i>, though, is entirely up to the individuals engaging in it, and it could be entirely different for each person engaged in the act. Sex can be powerfully intimate, completely meaningless, and every single nuance of difference in between. Simply combining one's genitals with someone else's does not <i>in itself</i> mean anything at all - it means whatever the people to whom those genitals are attached feel it means. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVhwdlMUM0QRugJbSatrwPWU2TaW-Nu-UsJdG0YTjSs2pEN1r28jUQOiLJUeWnGRNd199f1RH1cDZAVNnhgDdVb7flPsxLSY6axE8OQp_NoT4JKfEK9dxM_TG-otO8dXBCSjq1coZtCU/s1600/f35pr_080313_hr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdVhwdlMUM0QRugJbSatrwPWU2TaW-Nu-UsJdG0YTjSs2pEN1r28jUQOiLJUeWnGRNd199f1RH1cDZAVNnhgDdVb7flPsxLSY6axE8OQp_NoT4JKfEK9dxM_TG-otO8dXBCSjq1coZtCU/s1600/f35pr_080313_hr.jpg" height="215" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two airplanes share a powerfully intimate moment.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"Sex" as a lexical item is woefully inadequate to express the innumerable manifestations of the act, which is why we consequently have <a href="http://thoughtcatalog.com/jim-goad/2014/12/400-euphemisms-for-sexual-intercourse/" target="_blank">innumerable colorful phrases</a> to fill the gaps. <i>Making love</i> is different from <i>fucking </i>is different from <i>shagging</i> is different from <i>going all the way</i>, et cetera ad infinitum. Intimacy does not come from an act, it comes from the feelings that people have for each other, which they bring to <i>any</i> act. Two lifelong lovers gazing poignantly into each other's eyes is infinitely more intimate than two practical strangers drunkenly porking in a dance club bathroom. The idea that an unfaithful partner has shared a profoundly intimate moment with someone else is not <i>necessarily</i> true simply by virtue of the act itself.<br />
<br />
<b>Infidelity as an Extinction-Level Event</b><br />
<br />
The lamentable consequence of these unrealistic expectations about sexual exclusivity is that countless otherwise healthy, loving relationships are destroyed simply because one partner, for whatever reason, has sex with someone else. Terminating a relationship based on the revelation that one partner was unfaithful sends the absurd message that a singular act can be more important than potentially decades of love and commitment. Marriages are destroyed and families are fractured because we have decided that unfaithfulness is the worst possible transgression in a monogamous relationship, and we see the unfortunate results of this in the divorce statistics.<br />
<br />
This persistent attitude combined with the fact that around half of all married people will at some moment be unfaithful paints a terribly grim picture for the future of monogamous relationships. The solution, of course, is plainly visible, although most seem dogmatically unwilling to embrace it: <i>we simply must be more realistic about sexual exclusivity.</i> No amount of preaching morality and the sanctity of marriage, of swearing oaths before God and man, of insisting intransigently on uninterrupted monogamy will change the fact that people desire other people. Making a sexually exclusive commitment to one person does not palliate one's innate sexual desire to fuck other people. A lot of other people. As many other people as will agree to it. And yet many partners act completely surprised when they discover that they haven't been the sole object of sexual desire of their spouses.<br />
<br />
Completely lost in the shame-and-blame hysterics about infidelity is the fact that cheating can actually <i>save</i> relationships rather than destroy them. It's not the solution for every struggling couple, but sometimes simply getting a need met elsewhere is preferable to ending an otherwise healthy relationship. Having an affair can also bring a trenchant and novel perspective to one's relationship by the inevitable comparison it engenders. This <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/enlightened-living/200901/the-extra-relational-affair-study-in-contrast" target="_blank">Psychology Today</a> article describes how this is possible:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Why is this? Well, if we go back to the original premise -- stepping out of our primary relationship because certain needs aren't getting met -- and we are then finding those needs met in a secondary relationship -- the secondary relationship, by its very nature, stands in contrast to the first. By way of comparison, this contrast can prompt a shift in perspective that brings us from a place of seeing what were missing in our primary relationship to a place of recognizing what we have in that relationship. This shift in perspective provides us with a crucible for determining what it is that we actually need in a social relationship to feel satisfied.</i></blockquote>
We tend to hear about the relationships that are destroyed by cheating but never about those saved by it. From a pragmatic perspective, declaring infidelity to be implicitly, unambiguously wrong seems at least slightly misguided.<br />
<br />
<b>Honest Attitudes about Sexual Exclusivity</b><br />
<br />
By no means am I contending that monogamy is impossible, or that it's even undesirable. There are happily monogamous couples who will remain happily monogamous for the duration of their relationships, and they wouldn't have it any other way, and that's perfectly fine. There are a great many people, however, who enter into monogamous relationships because they feel that they don't actually have a choice - a serious relationship generally entails, implicitly or explicitly, sexual exclusivity. Whether it's just a serious, committed relationship or a legal contract between two people who have promised in front of witnesses to be faithful, many people are making these vows knowing full-well that they're not likely to uphold them, at least not perfectly, not indefinitely. It behooves us to acknowledge that this obsession with monogamy is at odds with our nature, and this acknowledgment must color our perception of the importance of unbroken sexual exclusivity in relationships.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaaG9itoU7xM7Y2Ztgm38_gsCj0JIotj7lU0MgtOVmN9xQ8QON5_Bz3bW3KTUr6bRspEBk1S0Qi11pWqC8EWq1diZv9tZVNkEvjoaA65CKgBrUVdA40VB47Tpbo1IfqhvmBIYZoke3q4c/s1600/gnothi-seauton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaaG9itoU7xM7Y2Ztgm38_gsCj0JIotj7lU0MgtOVmN9xQ8QON5_Bz3bW3KTUr6bRspEBk1S0Qi11pWqC8EWq1diZv9tZVNkEvjoaA65CKgBrUVdA40VB47Tpbo1IfqhvmBIYZoke3q4c/s1600/gnothi-seauton.jpg" height="90" width="320" /></a></div>
γνῶϑι σεαυτόν reads the sign at the Oracle at Delphi - know thyself. If you make a commitment to another person to be monogamous, you're obligated to uphold that commitment - a promise to a loved one is a promise, and broken at one's peril. If strict monogamy doesn't sound particularly attractive, or fulfilling, or even possible to you, then don't make any such commitments. Understand that this is a part of who you are and what you need to be happy and fulfilled, and be honest about it. Speaking openly and honestly about our desires in matters as important as these is imperative in order to destigmatize relationships that aren't strictly monogamous. Many people have these relationships now - whether their partner knows it or not - and we'd all benefit from a less hostile space in which to talk about them.<br />
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(A special thank you to many of my married friends who provided valuable insight on this matter as I was writing.) <br />
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James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-29885306810929735372014-12-19T08:19:00.002-05:002014-12-20T12:33:36.158-05:00What Does Your Myers-Briggs Score Say About You?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidXkSCpH35Jo_3hIaXTZCopzWxJmG01JyKss2-leTtcpC4G6iRuZpL9tzgcsr5bgOP4IRyTqCrXoeFFLywdxn0Nh6WxB8Tgcs6CQvioQEifrAK2GEO7FwapdMmU1oXxtVW6zuqNboUesE/s1600/headergraphic.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidXkSCpH35Jo_3hIaXTZCopzWxJmG01JyKss2-leTtcpC4G6iRuZpL9tzgcsr5bgOP4IRyTqCrXoeFFLywdxn0Nh6WxB8Tgcs6CQvioQEifrAK2GEO7FwapdMmU1oXxtVW6zuqNboUesE/s1600/headergraphic.gif" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(from http://careerassessmentsite.com/mbti-personality-types-socioeconomic-infographic/)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
On today's episode of <i>Let's Ruin Something You Thought Was Fun and Interesting</i>, we examine the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI. Doubtless you've seen these four-letter acronyms flying around, and perhaps you've even taken a version of the test to find out all about yourself. Is it really, useful, though? For anything? Well, yes and no. Mostly no.<br />
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The MBTI was developed by a mother-daughter team, Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers, over several decades in the early twentieth century. It was originally the brainchild of Katherine Briggs, who was inspired to build on and refine the "psychological types" theory of famous psychologist Carl Jung. The pair's tireless efforts culminated in the introduction of a formal version of the MBTI test in 1962.<br />
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The method behind the four-letter type indicators is largely an extension of Jung's theory of introversion vs. extroversion and how that distinction manifests itself in personality preferences. It splits an individual's personality into four dichotomies: Introvert-Extrovert, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking-Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving. The theory supposes that everyone displays a dominant preference in each dichotomy, indicated by one's corresponding four-letter score: ENTJ, ISFP, ESTP, et cetera.<br />
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The MBTI has enjoyed uninterrupted success and popularity for decades, mostly because it's a fun test to take, and people love being able to label themselves as something. (Buzzfeed is subsisting almost entirely on this idea.) We humans insist on forcing discontinuity onto our categorically continuous reality, so the idea that every individual can be classified as one of 16 personality types is fantastically appealing. Modern versions of the test even have a heroic-sounding label for each type, like "The Showman" (ESFP) and "The Confidant" (INFJ). (<a href="http://careerassessmentsite.com/mbti-personality-types-socioeconomic-infographic/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to see which superhero you are!) One wonders how popular the test would be if it labeled people by their stereotypical <i>negative </i>character traits instead, like "The Insufferable Elitist" (INTJ) and "The Oblivious Materialist" (ESTP). Actually, has anybody done that? Let's do that.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSN6ot2g26cfGfhTTSqBExY-_82Sq07bZfJODQmQHT4xF-_u68RiGWAbp_olAOmsM6a-xFp9N8-L58LxzxVX_GUQN8cguQpRAewrvvah-Qg9DliPQERbRbpoEQNgJfrynTXFwP-aTa2Jw/s1600/MBTI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSN6ot2g26cfGfhTTSqBExY-_82Sq07bZfJODQmQHT4xF-_u68RiGWAbp_olAOmsM6a-xFp9N8-L58LxzxVX_GUQN8cguQpRAewrvvah-Qg9DliPQERbRbpoEQNgJfrynTXFwP-aTa2Jw/s1600/MBTI.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not so excited to add "ENTJ" to your dating profile anymore, are you?</td></tr>
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As fun as the MBTI is, there are serious and numerous problems with it. The two women who developed it, for all their enthusiasm and tireless effort, were not psychologists. Neither of them had any formal training in psychology or in any science whatsoever, so the development of the test was patently unscientific. Even though the test has been administered for decades, many psychologists continually question the validity of the MBTI, and for good reasons.<br />
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First of all, the test relies on the honest input of the test-taker. Anyone not answering the questions honestly for whatever reason will obtain an "inaccurate" result. Secondly, there's no way to argue with anyone's result, because the test is unfalsifiable. It's impossible to <i>demonstrate</i> that someone isn't an ENFP, for example. Anyone who takes the test is free to agree or disagree with the result, and nobody could possibly argue.<br />
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Another reason that experts openly question the validity of the test is its alarmingly high rate of test-retest unreliability. People who take the test and then take it again several weeks later have a significant chance of getting a different score. This is because the test relies heavily on arbitrarily-defined dichotomies, pushing people to one side of the spectrum or another, when most of us are somewhere in the middle. Someone who displays an even mix of introversion and extroversion in different situations is likely to receive different results on retests. For example, two individuals who have nearly identical personalities could receive polar opposite MBTI scores if each one skews just slightly to the ETSJ (totally extroverted) or INFP (totally introverted) side of the line, indicating falsely that these people couldn't be more different.<br />
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This is the problem with a test predicated on dichotomies in general: there is no such thing as an introvert or an extrovert. Statistical models of all four indicators consistently demonstrate that the general population fits a bell curve between the two extremes, not a bi-modal (the opposite of a bell curve) distribution. Only a small percentage of people are <i>mainly</i> extroverted or <i>mainly</i> introverted; the majority of people fall in between somewhere, and the MBTI is blind to this reality. Nobody is an INTJ, or an ENFP, or an ISTP. These people do not exist. Every individual is a different mix of EI, SN, TF, JP, and nearly nobody skews heavily to one side of each of those.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJr04f0bzbBt71ZFzLz1k-18ZwRnlYpJFcrxr6l9qK2V5CBfeXYonDqyZPV_BEHj4YBqO9myPsZ-LM2JxFmJXNEHz14-LI2oEmVw6WkNVXThWHFRzcnv17rSpkwp7hK4K28YzJtwVn9E/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJr04f0bzbBt71ZFzLz1k-18ZwRnlYpJFcrxr6l9qK2V5CBfeXYonDqyZPV_BEHj4YBqO9myPsZ-LM2JxFmJXNEHz14-LI2oEmVw6WkNVXThWHFRzcnv17rSpkwp7hK4K28YzJtwVn9E/s1600/Untitled-1.jpg" height="144" width="540" /></a></div>
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There is also no significant data showing that these MBTI scores correlate with vocational performance. The official exam even openly states that the test only measures <i>preferences</i>, not aptitude, so even though one personality type might <i>prefer</i> a certain vocation, there is no guarantee of success or competence in practice. (This is probably why the official test also explicitly states that the MBTI should <i>not</i> be used to screen job applicants.) There is also no significant correlation between MBTI and industry: every vocational field has a more-or-less random sampling of MBTI types. Most actors are not ESTPs, for example, nor are most CEOs ENTJs.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglPQc1ylfp96NC4mNXi0tOtrtTCckP-HHcw_wC_kvpUstcvLNDoAtfG3tW20AFG0uH7wWnd5SDZg77lzsZOTb05g0ev21ITBDbZBBvqiM4CGW2MOvuSTgL0LyjO1PfQ2B_YSqn2fKYIqE/s1600/percentwheel.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglPQc1ylfp96NC4mNXi0tOtrtTCckP-HHcw_wC_kvpUstcvLNDoAtfG3tW20AFG0uH7wWnd5SDZg77lzsZOTb05g0ev21ITBDbZBBvqiM4CGW2MOvuSTgL0LyjO1PfQ2B_YSqn2fKYIqE/s1600/percentwheel.gif" height="320" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(from http://careerassessmentsite.com/mbti-personality-types-socioeconomic-infographic/)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, what does your MBTI say about you? Well, certainly nothing that you didn't already know about yourself. The test really only needs to be four questions long:<br />
<ol>
<li>Are you more extroverted or introverted? (I/E)</li>
<li>Do you primarily gather information via your senses or your intuition? (S/N)</li>
<li>Do you make decisions more by thinking or feeling? (T/F)</li>
<li>Which is more important to you, #2 above or #3? (P/J)</li>
</ol>
If you find some or all of these questions difficult to answer definitively, congratulations! You're a normal person who can't be easily classified by the MBTI. If you have a clear preference in each, then you can easily identify your "type," and most likely so can anybody who's known you for longer than 10 minutes.<br />
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The only thing that the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator result shows definitively is... that you've taken the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test. Any conclusions drawn beyond that should be taken with a football stadium full of salt.James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-32657589125225124242014-12-15T08:45:00.000-05:002015-01-31T13:42:06.344-05:00Ignorance or Dishonesty? A Response to a Pastor at ChristmasChristmas is a time for a lot of things - decorating, gathering, singing, giving, eating, shopping, general merriment. It's also a time for slightly more Christian nonsense than usual to waft across my Facebook feed. As disheartening as it is to be reminded of just how many people close to me believe in magical nonsense, it does at least provide blog-fodder.<br />
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The most recent such example is a blog by a Virginia pastor, who happens to be the brother-in-law of a friend of mine. I've actually met him; he seems a nice enough fellow. His Christmas-inspired blog posts, however, are indicative of the problems inherent in being an apologist for the Christian faith (or any faith, for that matter) - one must be either ignorant of reality or dishonest about representing it. Have a look at <a href="http://mattmeisenhelter.wordpress.com/2014/12/14/we-are-a-for-prophet-organization/" target="_blank">this post of his</a> (it's a quick read); what follows is my perspective on what he presents as "truth."<br />
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He begins, <i>"One of the many ways we know the Bible is true is through it’s </i>[sic]<i> awe-some </i>[sic]<i> supernatural fulfillment of prophecy."</i><br />
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Ok, no. Stop. There's a major flaw in asserting that any Old Testament prophecy is fulfilled in the New Testament. The writers of the NT were all credulous Christians who had the OT readily at their disposal. They already knew about and believed in the prophecies mentioned in the OT. These prophecies <i>must</i> come true if their religion is to retain any credibility, so the writers of the NT simply confirm them. The writers of the NT had every reason to lie, and there are no independent, non-Christian sources to confirm any of these fulfilled prophecies. Add to this the generally vague wording of prophecies, and there's absolutely no reason to recognize "fulfilled prophecies" as evidence of anything but early Christians being aware of OT prophecies. Of course they came true - failure wasn't an option.<br />
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<i>"But the reality is that the Bible is comprised of 66 different “books”
composed by 40 different authors, all living in different times and
places, speaking different languages, contextualized in different
historical situations, many separated by thousands of miles and
thousands of years from one another. The probability of conspiracy and
collusion for them to make it all up is nil. Thus, the only explanation
for the Bible’s amazing consistency and coherency is it’s </i>[sic]<i> clear
supernatural, divine authorship over and above the abilities of it’s </i>[sic]<i> human scribes."</i><br />
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Now we get to the ignorance vs. dishonesty question. Pastor Matt displays his knowledge of the textual history of the Bible: different authors in different places in different times. This is all true. Then, we have an irrelevant conclusion: <i>The probability of conspiracy and collusion for them to make it all up is nil.</i> Yes, that's basically true, but that statement only matters if the Bible has been passed down to us from its very origins in its original form. It hasn't. Not even slightly. While it's true that the writers of the original texts couldn't have conspired, the early Christians who edited and compiled what we have today as the Bible absolutely <i>did</i> conspire and collude. This isn't up for debate - we know as a matter of historical fact that our current text of the Bible is based on manuscripts which are copies of copies of copies, sometimes <i>centuries</i> removed from the lost originals, changed in innumerable places either by error or by design, and compiled by early Christians with their own theological agendas. The probability of the text of the Bible being a product of conspiracy and collusion isn't zero, it's one. It's unlikely that Pastor Matt is unaware of this, yet it's completely ignored. This is either a failure to reason properly, or a failure to be honest about the reality of the textual history of the Bible.<br />
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Step back for a moment and just consider the burden of proof for a statement like this: <i>"thus, the only explanation for </i>[insert anything at all] <i>is supernatural, divine</i> [whatever]." Really? We know that the NT was written by credulous Christians who weren't witnesses to the stories they were reporting, and yet Pastor Matt asserts that the <i>only possible explanation</i> is that it's magic? Not only is that not the <i>only possible explanation</i>, it's easily the <i>least probable explanation</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>"So when Isaiah and the other prophets say something would happen 800
years before the New Testament Gospel writers record it’s </i>[sic]<i> actual
occurrence, we better take it seriously."</i><br />
<br />
The statement "New Testament Gospel writers record it's [sic] actual occurrence" is extremely misleading. [Side-note, get a handle on <i>its</i> vs. <i>it's</i>, dude.] The New Testament Gospel writers didn't know Jesus. They lived and wrote after he died. Decades after. They did not witness the events they're writing about. They're clearly copying from each other in places and just making shit up in others (looking at you, <i>John</i>). They're Christians reporting stories about Jesus that they've heard from other Christians. <b>The Gospels are not credible, historical accounts of factual events.</b> This is not a controversial statement - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not the names of the writers of those respective gospels, and they were not written during the time of Jesus' life and death. They are not a "record" of anything except what Christians <i>believed</i> at the time. Pastor Matt must know this. To say that "the Bible says that X happened" is not to say that X definitely happened, it's only to say that the Bible says that X happened. You may <i>believe</i> whatever you'd like about the historicity of the Bible, but do not assert as <i>fact</i> that which meets no reasonable burden of proof. A newer religious text confirming the predictions of an older religious text isn't fulfilled prophecy, it's an intertextual circle jerk.<br />
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The idea of fulfilled biblical prophecies is a perfect storm of failed reasoning. Believing that an NT passage confirming an OT prophecy equals divine, inerrant truth of scripture is the result of rampant confirmation-bias and the hopeless myopia that religious indoctrination breeds. No skeptically-minded non-believer would look at any "evidence" of fulfilled biblical prophecy and be even slightly impressed. This is the sort of thing that pastors like to parade in front of their flocks around the holidays while everyone vapidly nods along.<br />
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The worst part about this is that Pastor Matt should know better. It should be obvious to him, of all people, presumably more educated in these matters than the hapless congregation, that none of this is evidence of the truth of scripture. It's evidence of the existence of people who desperately need to believe in the truth of scripture. Ignorance or dishonesty - in the end it doesn't really matter which one is the culprit. It's shameful behavior, either way.James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-32762320827485281732014-10-28T12:20:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:21:39.275-05:00"With God All Things Are Possible"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeej6Z22ADvVvIoDywQ_b8bQVVmFrzoma4Huso9Gn2oLSL4xQTGZYh1sGJC_CQD8GMAXse6Y19BDlc8VgdlyFFIR_In6UJ6qCsOAcvI15mqMRjqtsSx6QBzh4NGHIVbdGJp7Ayst_QOT4/s1600/20141008_141259.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeej6Z22ADvVvIoDywQ_b8bQVVmFrzoma4Huso9Gn2oLSL4xQTGZYh1sGJC_CQD8GMAXse6Y19BDlc8VgdlyFFIR_In6UJ6qCsOAcvI15mqMRjqtsSx6QBzh4NGHIVbdGJp7Ayst_QOT4/s1600/20141008_141259.jpg" height="400" width="317" /></a></div>
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Across the street from the office where I work is a little restaurant called the Bonfire Cafe. I went there once for lunch with coworkers, unaware of the fact that it's an overtly Christian establishment which wears its beliefs proudly on its sleeve. Anyway, the experience didn't scar or revile me or anything - I think I had a reasonably priced, if unremarkable, sandwich and a coffee - but I do generally walk past this place every day (it's between my office and Starbucks) and see things like the above propped up outside the entrance. </div>
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Now, I have no problem with the fact that a nominally Christian (or Hindu, or Muslim, or Buddhist...) cafe exists, or with this sign proudly and prominently displayed from it. I'm actually rather glad to be reminded of Bible verses like this; for me, what is surely intended to be merely an inspirational exhortation to passers-by becomes the impetus for profound, meandering philosophical rumination about the core doctrines of Christianity, the nature of God, and the value of telling each other comforting lies.</div>
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The first thing I think about is the context of this verse, because I often hear it recited by well-meaning believers as a pithy platitude intended to offer comfort or encouragement to someone in a difficult situation. One rarely ever hears of the verses immediately preceding or following it, and one wonders how many Christians are even aware of the context in which this famous verse appears. Here is Matthew chapter 19, verses 16-29:</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
19:16 And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master,
what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?<br />
19:17 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but
one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.<br />
19:18 He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt
not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,<br />
19:19 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.<br />
19:20 The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth
up: what lack I yet?<br />
19:21 Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast,
and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and
follow me.<br />
19:22 But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he
had great possessions.<br />
19:23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich
man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.<br />
19:24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.<br />
19:25 When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who
then can be saved?<br />
19:26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible;
but <b>with God all things are possible.</b><br />
19:27 Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and
followed thee; what shall we have therefore?<br />
19:28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have
followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of
his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.<br />
19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall
receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.</div>
</blockquote>
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There's <i>so much</i> good stuff in here. In verse 17, Jesus objects to being called <i>good</i>, because only God is good. This is one of the many verses in which Jesus clearly demonstrates that he and God are separate. (This is probably copied from Mark 10:18 and also appears in Luke 18:19) Not only does he not call himself God, he refers to God as entirely different from himself. Then, when a child asks Jesus which commandments he should follow (verses 18-19), Jesus only mentions a few of them - incidentally the reasonable ones - and leaves out the nonsensical proscriptions like not worshiping other Gods, making graven images, keeping the sabbath holy, and coveting stuff. Excited that he's been doing all those things all along, the child asks what else he needs to do to have eternal life but is totally bummed when Jesus tells him to sell all his stuff and give to the poor (verse 21). Jesus then takes this opportunity to reiterate how screwed rich people are, including the rather famous verse 24. Then Peter's like "ok we've done all that stuff, and we sold all our shit and have been following you around for a while, so we're good yeah?" (verse 27) Jesus affirms that they are indeed good, as is everyone else... who keeps the commandments and sells his house and leaves his family behind to follow Jesus. All Christians do that, right?</div>
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Perhaps I should back up a bit and paint a fuller contextual picture. The phrase "with God all things are possible" comes from the New Testament, specifically the book of Matthew, chapter 19, verse 26, in the midst of a conversation between Jesus and some of his disciples who just want some clarification on how to get to heaven. Specifically Jesus is drawing the distinction between earthly and heavenly salvation: nobody on Earth can save you, but God can. Even this is contingent, though; God can't save you directly - you need to go through his intermediary Jesus, and abandon your family and home in the process. The standard caveats apply when dealing with the NT gospels: Matthew was written sometime in the late 1st century CE several decades after Jesus' death by nobody knows who, and whoever wrote it never met Jesus, so there's no good reason to believe that Jesus even said this. Even if we ignore all of that and just accept that he <i>did</i> say "with God all things are possible," he wasn't uttering it in the same all-encompassing way that Christians do when they say it to each other, and he said it in the same breath as "sell all your stuff and forsake your family for me."</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGuo-0yqIfwDDbhNGYPGIJe9KW92RTi0lGA2iTk3K7qPmkeSZDjIKUlqQISgOXWBJ62G6mK-GKciZw2XiprinLIHNe6KPWxNsZ0VURYZkZKf2gQXVbkFufB35LMULpsteNoZO2xKSa3g/s1600/1530771585_sisyphus_xlarge.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMGuo-0yqIfwDDbhNGYPGIJe9KW92RTi0lGA2iTk3K7qPmkeSZDjIKUlqQISgOXWBJ62G6mK-GKciZw2XiprinLIHNe6KPWxNsZ0VURYZkZKf2gQXVbkFufB35LMULpsteNoZO2xKSa3g/s1600/1530771585_sisyphus_xlarge.jpeg" height="255" width="320" /></a></div>
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But, since many people who know this verse aren't at all aware of its context, let's just pretend that we aren't aware of it either, and treat it as if it were a single profound utterance, devoid of context: "With God, All Things Are Possible." Just for fun, let's take the easy road first and declare this statement nonsense because it's inherently contradictory. Omnipotence is impossible. If you say "all things" and literally mean it, then you've ceased to make any sense. The standard sardonic retort to God's omnipotence is the subversive question "can God make a boulder so heavy that he can't lift it?" or, as I've also heard it, "can God microwave a burrito so hot that he can't eat it?" It's a silly question, but it serves a serious purpose, namely to illustrate that the idea of omnipotence is logically incoherent.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEO4qRY7TG1nkk4D0b7yTrXcuspiocNmoMS8cBggR4l1jbAIz-TRbVKRxxGaGEEAjQboQ92ZIIZ0yaAfI62-L0diRKsxaJP3J-9Makpjw5kTT2QCAsEYm4JmSkEkTh1ZYvrB8TMQdGRg/s1600/microwave_ways.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuEO4qRY7TG1nkk4D0b7yTrXcuspiocNmoMS8cBggR4l1jbAIz-TRbVKRxxGaGEEAjQboQ92ZIIZ0yaAfI62-L0diRKsxaJP3J-9Makpjw5kTT2QCAsEYm4JmSkEkTh1ZYvrB8TMQdGRg/s1600/microwave_ways.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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The same problem applies to the statement "with God, all things are possible." With God's help, could I microwave a burrito so hot that I couldn't eat it? Ok so I wouldn't actually need God's help for that part. But what if I both wanted to microwave a burrito so hot that I couldn't eat it <i>and</i> then I also wanted to eat it? If I accomplish the latter, then I've failed at the former; even God can't get me out of this one. This probably all seems like a silly rhetorical exercise, but that's the point - to demonstrate that a phrase like "all things are possible" in any context is a silly thing to say.</div>
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But let's ignore that too. Let's pretend that the idea that "with God, all things are possible" is literally true and not inherently contradictory. Let's proceed with the assumptions that God exists and is literally capable of doing all things. There is still a glaring difficulty staring us in the face: it is clear from our experience that a great many things are simply <i>not</i> possible. </div>
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There is a massive disconnect between the idea that God can do anything and the <i>actual</i> world we observe, in which there are serious and numerous limitations. It would not be difficult for anyone to come up with a long list of things which we can safely assume, based on our experience in the world, are simply impossible. They might range from the ridiculous to the mundane: it's impossible for people to fly without the aid of technology, impossible for a severed human limb to regenerate spontaneously.</div>
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If one would like to argue seriously that it <i>is</i> possible for a human being to fly without the aid of technology, or that it <i>is</i> possible for human beings to regenerate severed limbs without the aid of science or medicine, then one ought to consider and attempt to explain why these things <i>have never happened</i>. (Anyone who doubts the impossibility of unassisted human flight is welcome to jump out a window.) There are numerous species capable of regeneration of entire limbs, but for some reason <i>homo sapiens</i> isn't among them. Does God love lizards more than he loves us? Is it really more important that a lizard grow an arm back than a human? If a human being loses an arm or a leg, why does nobody ever <i>expect</i> it to grow back on its own? Even if you seriously believe in the power of prayer, would you be at all surprised if a billion people all prayed for one severed limb to grow back, and it didn't? Are there any Christians willing to volunteer to have a limb hacked off just to give God a great chance to prove me wrong? ...No? No takers on that?</div>
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It should be clear by now that the phrase "with God, all things are possible" is an incomplete statement at best. Even if it is factually true, the reality is that, even if God <i>can</i> do literally anything, the simple truth is that in reality he seems entirely <i>unwilling</i> to do a great many things, especially those things which we would consider impossible in the physical world. The second part of that statement renders the first part irrelevant. Perhaps there are those who somehow manage to take comfort in the idea of a God who is omnipotent in theory only. I am not among their number.</div>
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So, for the sake of intellectual honesty, I propose we edit Matthew 19:26 so that it conforms a little more closely to reality:</div>
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James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-55773158979816193002014-06-29T06:13:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:24:31.644-05:00On Following Jesus<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I recently rediscovered a popular YouTube video that first
made the rounds a few years ago but gets kicked up again every now and then
when someone shares it anew via the TwitFace. If you’re not one of the 27
million (!) and counting who have watched this video, here it is:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/1IAhDGYlpqY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s titled “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus” and is an
unremarkable spoken word piece about how Jesus and religion are entirely
separate entities, and, generally, Jesus is good, while religion is bad. If my
only intention were to respond to the video, this would be by far the shortest
blog entry I’ll ever write, because the whole thing is, bluntly stated, a
thoughtless, incoherent fit of theologically vacuous solipsism. The ideas
expressed in this video are so stupid that I think even Christians should find
it offensive. I don’t have the patience to point out everything that’s absurd
about this, so I’ll limit my reactions to the most egregiously ignorant parts,
starting with the very first line:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“What if I told you Jesus came to abolish religion?”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Well, I’d tell <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">you</i>
to support this outrageous claim with at least one compelling reason why I
should believe you, when Jesus himself said <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Think
not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfil.”</i> (Matthew 5:17) Jesus lived and died as a devout
Jew and preached that his followers should uphold the Torah of Moses. Not until
Paul’s epistles do we get this idea that Jesus came to abolish the laws of the
Old Testament: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“But before faith came, we
were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be
revealed. <span class="c">Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster</span> to bring
us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is
come, <span class="c">we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”</span></i><span class="c"> (Galatians 3:23-6) Paul, incidentally, never met Jesus.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b><span class="c">“If religion is so great, why has it started
so many wars?”</span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c">Not all religions start wars. That phenomenon
seems to be limited to monotheisms, and the answer to the question is simple –
because God says to do so.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b><span class="c">“</span>Tells single moms God doesn’t love
them if they’ve ever been divorced.”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c">Oh, how embarrassing for you… actually the Old
Testament gives guidelines for when divorce is acceptable (Deuteronomy 24:1-2);
it’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jesus</i> who says <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth
adultery.”</i> (Mark 10:11, Luke 16:18)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“In every other aspect of life you know that logic’s
unworthy;<br />
It’s like saying you play for the Lakers just because you bought a jersey.”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the “no true Scotsman” fallacy, which every group of
Christians commits when talking about any other group of Christians. “Oh,
they’re not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i> Christians. If they
were, they’d do X and believe Y, like we at our church do.” There are as many
ideas of what constitutes a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">real</i>
Christian as there are Christians.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>
</b></i></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b><span class="c">“…</span>Cuz it’s not a museum for good
people, it’s a hospital for the broken.”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The entire idea of the inherently sinful nature of human
beings and consequent need for salvation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">is
a dogmatic Christian belief</i>. This is the sort of thing that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">defines</i> a religion. You can’t tirade
against religion and yet somehow magically retain the doctrine of salvation
through Christ.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b><span class="c">“…</span>Which is so different from religious
people, and why Jesus called ‘em fools;<br />
Don’t you see he’s so much better than just following some rules?”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Citation needed for Jesus calling religious people fools.
Was he preaching in the temple when he did that? You know, to all those
religious people following him around? Secondly, Jesus very explicitly told his
followers to FOLLOW THE GODDAMN RULES. I’ve already mentioned the passage in
Matthew. See also ALL OF THE REST OF THE GOSPELS. CHRIST.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“Now let me clarify, I love the church, I love the Bible,
and I believe in sin.”</b></i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">…wat? You love the church, love the Bible, believe in sin,
but …you hate religion. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What in the
actual fuck are you on about?</i> Is this a joke? If you’re keeping the church,
and the Bible, and the major doctrinal teachings of the faith, what exactly do
you hate? What’s the stuff Jesus is apparently better than? What the hell is
“religion” if not the church, the Bible, and the major dogmatic beliefs?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums.”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">On opposite spectrums of what? Do you mean <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">different</i> spectrums? Which spectrum is
Jesus on, and which religion? What does this statement even mean?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>
</b></i></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“Religion is man searching for God, but Christianity is God
searching for man.”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So not only is Jesus different from (and better than)
religion, but now <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Christianity</i> is
too? Do you actually think you can get away with this sneaky implication that
Christianity is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> a religion? Like,
for seriously?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“So know I hate religion, I literally resent it;”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At no point have you even come close to establishing exactly
what you think “religion” is, so I have no idea what it is that you hate. You <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">literally</i> resent it? As opposed to…
figuratively? metaphorically?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><b>“Because when Jesus cried “it is finished,” I believe he
meant it.”</b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I assume the reference here is to John 19:30, Jesus’ final
words before his death. This profound utterance <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only</i> occurs in John’s gospel; in Mark and Matthew he says nothing
more than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“My God, why have you forsaken
me?”</i> (Mark 15:34, Matthew 27:46) I’ll also point out that John was written
much later than Matthew, which is copied from Mark, half of which is disputed
as inauthentic, sooooo… yeah Jesus probably didn’t say that. But by all means,
cherry-pick your way to the lazy-ass theology you want other people to take
seriously.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Bigger Picture</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">My intentions are not simply to tear apart this ignorant
rube for his disjointed ramblings and laughable attempt at promoting an
untenable worldview. The fact that this video has gained such massive
popularity attests to the reality that many, many people identify with this
idea. Unfortunately for those who would embrace this pro-Jesus, anti-religion version
of the Christian faith, espousing this view tellingly reveals at least one
thing: the creator of this video and the people sympathetic to its message are
profoundly ignorant about Christianity, the church, and Jesus. This is the more
salient issue I’d like to address.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now, before we go too much farther, let’s establish some
basic facts in which to ground our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">epistemology</i>
(basically, how we can know shit) about Jesus. Hopefully everyone will agree
with these rather uncontroversial claims:</span></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span>The life, deeds, and sayings of Jesus are
matters of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">fact</i>, not of opinion. He
either did and said certain shit, or he didn’t, and there’s an objective answer
– whatever you believe about Jesus is either true or false. He’s not whoever
you want him to be, not different for everyone.</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></span>The only way to know <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anything at all</i> about Jesus is to read the New Testament. Even
though it’s a historically useless hodgepodge of church-approved propaganda,
it’s literally <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the only source in
existence</i> which even purports to give any factual information about the
life, character, and deeds of Jesus. If you believe something about Jesus for
which there is no textual support in the Bible, you’ve simply made some shit up
and have no legitimate reason whatsoever to believe it.</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m not even a Christian, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">still</i> it irritates me to discover the completely fabricated faith
that so many Christians proudly endorse and loudly proclaim. This popular
notion that Jesus was a forward-thinking, benevolent, anti-establishment guru
is simply a fallacy, a caricature of the figure of Jesus as depicted in the
Bible. Of course everyone gravitates toward the sublimely moral teachings
and messages of good-will toward thy neighbor and turning the other cheek and
not being judgmental. What about some of those less flowery things that
Jesus also said? Where are the bumper stickers for these gems?</span></div>
<ul>
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eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on… Take
therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the
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<![endif]--><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“Think not that I am come to send peace on
earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at
variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother in law.” (Matthew 10:34-5; Luke 12:51)</span><br />
</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“If any man come to me, and hate not his father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and
come after me, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)</span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Jesus was an observant Jew and failed messianic prophet. His
followers all genuinely believed (including Paul, our most authentic source) that they
were moments away from the end of the world and would be enjoying
eternity with God in the immediate future. Since two millennia have passed now with no sign of Jesus’ return, Christians downplay the fact that much of
what Jesus said makes no sense unless the physical world is about to end. We
all understand that it’s generally a bad idea to live our lives as if the
Rapture will happen tomorrow, and yet this central theme of Jesus’ message is
entirely, and rightly, ignored.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, some prominent ideas in the teachings of Jesus are
admirable. But nearly every single religion and philosophy in the world
embraces basic moral precepts like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do
unto others</i>; Jesus was neither the first nor the only person to suggest
that we be nice to each other. To deny the complete character of Jesus as reported
in the very same source as the oft-repeated beatitudes and sermon on the mount reveals
either ignorance or dishonesty, neither of which is an acceptable basis for a
worldview, religious or secular.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Can Jesus and
Religion Be Separated?</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c">The short answer is no. The long answer is no,
of course not, why would you say something so stupid? I can perhaps understand
the desire to take the (idealized, edited) figure of Jesus and remove him from
his milieu of organized religion, and all the intolerance, bigotry, and
hypocrisy that comes along with it, because he should be above that sort of
thing. The problem is that there’s absolutely no theologically coherent way to
do that. Why? Why can’t you keep your homeboy Jesus <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and</i> tell the Pope to go fuck himself?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c">Well, because there’s no such thing as Jesus
outside of the church, outside of religion. The only reason we know anything
about him at all, as we agreed earlier, is because members of the early
Christian church wrote the New Testament, our only available source of
information about him. Jesus himself didn’t write anything, nor did any of his
apostles. Nor, in fact, did anyone who even <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">saw</i>
the historical Jesus write anything about him. (The book of James, reluctantly crammed into the back
of the NT, is a possible exception and a discussion for another time.) Paul,
whose version of Christianity won out over that of his rivals Peter and James,
is the single most influential writer about Jesus, and Paul didn’t become a
follower of the movement until 20 years after Jesus died. The writers of the
gospels all came later, in some cases <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">much</i>
later, and are just following Paul and/or copying each other. Yet, this is the
reality: this is all we have, and the only reason we have it is because the
early church collected, edited, reorganized, and passed these writings down
through the ages. If it weren’t for the organized religion that eventually grew
out the Jesus movement, there would be no Jesus. We would scarcely have any
idea that he even existed (and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">still</i>,
actually, it’s possible that he didn’t.) You can’t dump the religion without
dumping Jesus out along with it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Lazy
Theology</b></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="c">It might seem a bit ridiculous that someone
like me, an unapologetic non-believer, would actually bother distinguishing
between more and less respectable forms of Christianity. Generally my problem
is not with the particular beliefs that a person holds as much as the means by
which he has acquired them. There is an abyssal difference between a Christian
who has thoughtfully and diligently plunged repeatedly into the depths of
scripture, historicity, and textual criticism and a Christian who believes in
Jesus because his mother used to read him bedtime stories from a children’s
bible. Only one of those people holds a belief not worthy of immediate and unrestrained
derision.</span></span><span class="c"> </span><br />
<br />
<span class="c">The massive irony of people who want to follow
Jesus but don’t want to follow the rituals and strict rules of the church is
that they’re doing precisely the opposite of what they claim. If your idea of
Jesus doesn’t come from reading scripture; if your idea of Jesus is somehow
different from the Jesus of the Bible; if you have a radically different idea
of who Jesus was that just so happens to conform to everything you think is
good and important, you’re not following Jesus. You already have a set of
values you’ve acquired by some other means, and you’re simply looking for
divine justification for what you already think. You make Jesus into whatever
you need him to be in order to continue to live your life however you’d like
and still sleep soundly at night, knowing that your immortal soul is safe.
Think homosexuality is a sin? I'm sure Jesus agrees. Changed your mind about that? I'm sure Jesus is totally cool with that, too. You’re not following Jesus; Jesus is following you.</span>
James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-73093726537394602992014-05-03T14:16:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:22:29.599-05:00Star Wars Episode VII: Here We Go AgainIt’s been nine years since the final installment of George
Lucas’ tripartite ruination of one of the most storied franchises in cinematic
history, and now we, the faithful admirers of the original Star Wars trilogy, must
brace ourselves for Episode VII, currently under production and slated for a
December 18<sup>th</sup>, 2015 release. <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Quite a lot has changed in the minds of adoring fans since
the first time we all experienced the phenomenon of a new Star Wars film.
Before the release of <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_i_the_phantom_menace/" target="_blank">The Phantom Menace</a> in 1999, there was decidedly more
excitement than trepidation, and understandably so – George Lucas was at the
helm, with complete creative control of the project, nearly limitless
resources, and the latest and greatest digital technology. It’s difficult to
imagine a film which was ever more highly anticipated before its release, or
more bitterly disappointing after. The Phantom Menace was so categorically
awful that it almost seemed like a joke. <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars/" target="_blank">A New Hope</a>, the original film, is
basically a classic story of the hero’s journey set a long time ago in a galaxy
far, far away. The Phantom Menace, the first of the prequel trilogy, is a
boring, convoluted, uninspired hodgepodge of people we don’t care about
swinging lightsabers around for 2 hours.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEJ8PAB_m73L8saz06ABen7UGXsm-xxFYWPj19xbcw_WfTxrXeb9KkTka3UAGM-671tyh8T2bkVXXDdJQxnG_xQxAS7e_rJQ38wAJupNz2xM4RxsYWllyErq1CPaN3DA-Bl_h1o4r9EHQ/s1600/starwarsunifiedposters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEJ8PAB_m73L8saz06ABen7UGXsm-xxFYWPj19xbcw_WfTxrXeb9KkTka3UAGM-671tyh8T2bkVXXDdJQxnG_xQxAS7e_rJQ38wAJupNz2xM4RxsYWllyErq1CPaN3DA-Bl_h1o4r9EHQ/s1600/starwarsunifiedposters.jpg" height="197" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's a fairly nauseating sight for most Star Wars fans</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Phantom Menace was followed by <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_ii_attack_of_the_clones_3d/" target="_blank">Attack of the Clones</a> in
2002 and finally <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_iii_revenge_of_the_sith_3d/" target="_blank">Revenge of the Sith</a> in 2005, by which time most people realized that George Lucas had no idea what the hell he was doing and was
simply trying to make another bazillion dollars from the franchise. It’s clear
from the prequel trilogy that George Lucas has absolutely no understanding
whatsoever of what made the original films so magical and iconic – the
characters and the story. Instead, he devoted all of his time and energy to
producing cutting-edge CGI renderings devoid of all human emotion and realism
so that he could shoot entire films in an air-conditioned sound stage rather
than have to go somewhere interesting and build actual sets. The result is a
series of poorly-written films, the plots of which are nonsensical and the characters
of which are forgettable. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As a result of having suffered the acute disappointment of
three of most underwhelming films I’ve ever seen, I’m extremely hesitant to get excited
about Episode VII, even as more and more seemingly promising information is
released about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s what we know
so far:</div>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>J.J. Abrams is directing and contributing to the
screenplay.</li>
<li>Lots of original cast members are returning to
reprise their original roles, including Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Anthony
Daniels and Kenny Baker (C-3PO and R2-D2), Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and
Harrison Ford.</li>
<li>The film is a sequel to <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/return_of_the_jedi/" target="_blank">Return of the Jedi</a>,
taking place 30 years later.</li>
<li>The story is entirely new, not making use of any
of the “extended universe.”</li>
<li>George Lucas is a “creative consultant” and is
not directly involved in the production of the film.</li>
</ul>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think it’s safe to assume that this latest film simply
cannot compare favorably with the original trilogy – it’s been too long, it’ll
be too different – so the best it can hope for is to be less of a disaster than
the prequels. Here’s why it could well go in either direction:
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Episode VII will be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">better</i> than the prequels, because…</b></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>George Lucas won’t be able to ruin it from start
to finish.</li>
<li>Luke, Leia, and Han are back, and fans love
these characters way more than Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi, who appeared in
the prequels.</li>
<li>Lawrence Kasdan, the screenwriter for <a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/empire_strikes_back/" target="_blank">Empire</a> and
Jedi, is sharing screenwriting duties on the new film. He wasn’t involved in
screenwriting for the prequel trilogy.</li>
<li>J.J. Abrams is a competent director who won’t
simply sit in a green screen studio for 6 months and then finish the movie on a
computer.</li>
<li>The prequels were such a disaster that it’s
likely the new director will try to distance his work from them on purpose,
hopefully steering things in a better direction. </li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNRxvJ5Yc0-tA3Z-5YVUxr8w2y8_-MlscjllKWMSUYmB3ZbKZBTkkJgcCqLlJx4BBhGaFfoaV9YqRijLBdEUEc2eO_2KafBWhuP8KdyFM9zbxdIoGY7ys1LIdr015mMwtUXY4EF8k5vI/s1600/star-wars-episode-7-original-cast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuNRxvJ5Yc0-tA3Z-5YVUxr8w2y8_-MlscjllKWMSUYmB3ZbKZBTkkJgcCqLlJx4BBhGaFfoaV9YqRijLBdEUEc2eO_2KafBWhuP8KdyFM9zbxdIoGY7ys1LIdr015mMwtUXY4EF8k5vI/s1600/star-wars-episode-7-original-cast.jpg" height="210" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harrison Ford is 71, you guys. 71.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Episode VII will be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">even worse</i> than the prequels, because… </b></div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span></span>George Lucas still came up with the plot for
this film, as well as the next two which follow it, so it could still have an unsalvageable
concept at heart.</li>
<li>Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill
are all really old – Fisher is the youngest of them at 57 – and will probably
play quite different characters from the Han, Leia, and Luke we all love. The
stakes are much higher with these characters – ruining <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">them</i> in a bad Star Wars movie will be unforgivable.</li>
<li>The events are set so far after the end of Jedi
that there will be little connection to any established canon, which will make
it feel like less of a Star Wars movie, and thus a strange setting for the familiar characters. The ending of Jedi was rather final; Vader and the Emperor
died and the second Death Star was destroyed, effectively ending the reign of
the Empire, so an entirely new conflict will need to be created, along with a
new villain, and there’s a lot of room for that to go wrong.</li>
<li>J.J. Abrams’ work on the last Star Trek movie
received lukewarm reviews from fans, and I can’t help but feel that doing
Episode VII is just another project for him – he’s also producing Mission:
Impossible 5 and yet another new Star Trek movie in the near future. </li>
</ul>
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Ultimately I have to admit that I’m at least extremely
curious to see what happens with Episode VII. With the prequels, we all had the
vague sense that they were going to be about a young Anakin Skywalker and his
journey to becoming Darth Vader, so it all revolved around something we knew,
something connected to the original trilogy. With the newest Star Wars films,
we really have no idea whatsoever what the general plot will be, so VII is
going to be a complete surprise. Bringing back some of the original actors
after such a long time is a massive gamble as well; I suspect the success of
the entire film will hinge upon giving Han, Luke, and Leia a proper, believable
treatment. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Speaking more generally, I think sequel making for such an
iconic series of films like Star Wars is simply an exercise in futility.
Everything about the original trilogy is sacred; just look at the uproar when
Lucas released the Special Edition of the original films, filled with
cartoonish CGI nonsense which clashed jarringly with the familiar scenes we
already knew and loved. What fans really want in a sequel is simply more of
exactly the same thing that they already love. The time to make another Star
Wars movie was in the early 1980’s, when the main actors were younger and
technology hadn’t made massive forward strides in the digital realm. This is
why the prequels don’t feel like Star Wars movies. They’re markedly different
in every way that matters, which is apparently something that Lucas himself can’t
even understand. A CGI Yoda comically bouncing off of walls in a frantic sword
fight is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> Star Wars. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The original
trilogy was filmed in actual locations, using actual sets and actors and
models. That’s the only way to make a Star Wars movie. That is almost certainly
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not</i> how Episode VII is going to be
made, and for that reason alone I know it won’t be worthy of the name. At best,
Abrams can only hope to do a better job with the new film than Lucas did with the
prequel trilogy. He’ll accomplish that meager feat simply by not having Jar-Jar
fucking Binks in it.<br />
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James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-13495872379237731822014-04-06T06:28:00.000-04:002015-12-07T12:05:04.880-05:00Feminism's PR ProblemI'm a sympathizer with the Feminist movement - let me state that clearly for the record - but I wouldn't call myself a Feminist, if only because I think the term implies some level of activism. I support the goals of Feminism (as I understand them, anyway, i.e. equal opportunities for women in general) but don't actively campaign for change in any appreciable way, so I'll leave the term for those out there on the front lines. As a supporter of the ideals of the movement, I have to admit that it's becoming difficult to watch as it struggles to find a unified voice and a consistent and helpful tone. I'll point out two recent examples of what I think are unmitigated PR disasters on the part of the Feminist movement in order to illustrate exactly why a change in strategy might be advantageous. <br />
<br />
<b>Rape Culture</b><br />
<br />
This phrase has been thrown around on social and mainstream media and debated at length, and it seems to have real staying power - proponents of the movement like this phrase and aren't backing away from it. Sadly I think it's a miserable coinage with way more deficiencies than insights, and it's far too flawed for too many reasons to be a catalyst for sweeping positive societal change.<br />
<br />
Let me first articulate what I understand to be the general sense and usage of the term "rape culture", in case any of my criticisms of it stem from a basic misunderstanding. "Rape culture" broadly refers to the various ways in which society (particularly Western, and perhaps chiefly American) encourages, ignores, or tacitly endorses sexually aggressive behavior towards women. There are many examples of this, such as victim-blaming, slut-shaming, and probably some other hyphenated buzz-words. To be clear, I don't for a second dismiss the notion that these phenomena do actually occur, are harmful to women, and must be curtailed. My problem is with the phrase "rape culture," which sucks for a couple of reasons.<br />
<br />
First of all, it's absurdly hyperbolic. Simply two words that, without very specific context, paint an overly broad and inaccurately dour picture of society. As a culture, we abhor rape. We have laws establishing severe punishments against rapists. I would even contend that it is perhaps the only issue imaginable on which people agree without exception. What sane person would ever argue that rape is acceptable in some situations? The idea is laughable. There are cultures elsewhere in the world that have different views on the permissibility of rape, certainly. To American society on the whole, it's utter anathema. The term "rape culture" is blind to these truths.<br />
<br />
It's also unnecessarily provocative. There's no non-confrontational way to accuse someone of contributing to rape culture. While it's not the same as calling someone a rapist, it's still far too close to be an acceptable way to engage someone, particularly if you'd like that person to be sympathetic to your position. People who don't consider themselves to be rapists are not going to respond positively to any intimation that they are a party to the act in any respect.<br />
<br />
"Rape culture" shifts the focus from delinquent individuals to society as a whole. Rape is a violent, antisocial, aberrant behavior. People who rape are criminals and need to be held accountable for the decisions they've made. "Rape culture" seems to undermine the idea of individual culpability by providing some sort of larger context that contributed to a rapist eventually committing the act. I don't think asking <i>why does our society produce rapists?</i> is as relevant a question as <i>what's wrong with this person who feels that rape is acceptable?</i> <br />
<br />
The issues raised by proponents of the "rape culture" trope are real. There <i>are</i> aspects of society that do not adequately point out appropriate and inappropriate behavior regarding sexual relations between consenting adults. Work <i>does</i> need to be done in order to reduce the instances of inappropriate sexual conduct, especially among college-aged people. The term "rape culture" is not, however, a particularly well-crafted encapsulation of these societal imperfections. It's a hammer for a job requiring a set of surgical instruments.<br />
<br />
<b>#BanBossy</b><br />
<br />
I'm actually more bothered by this latest PR abortion than "rape culture", as I think it's even <i>more</i> misguided and even <i>less </i>effective. Perhaps you've seen the Twitter hashtag, or this commercial featuring some prominent women:<br />
<br />
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<br />
This video has more than 2 million views at the time of writing, and innumerable others have seen it on television. There is some serious star power behind this one, including Beyonce and Condoleezza Rice. The video recommends <i>banning</i> the use of the word "bossy" because it discourages young girls from taking leadership roles. This entire idea is so profoundly stupid that I'm having difficulties articulating my befuddlement in words. I can sum up my feelings succinctly with a popular internet meme:<br />
<br />
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<br />
Ok, let me try to peel away the layers of bullshit from this onion of ignorance. First, there is absolutely <i>no sense whatsoever</i> in trying to ban the use of a word, especially a word like <i>bossy</i>, which is not vulgar or offensive. It's a normal English word that normal people use every day in normal conversation. Even if every single person in America saw this video, there is no practical hope of people ever collectively deciding to stop using this word, or any word at all. You can't make a 1-minute video and expect 300 million people to alter their behavior or their lexicon.<br />
<br />
I must admit, though, that I am categorically opposed to banning <i>any</i> word for any reason. Words convey meaning, and by removing a word, we limit the ability to express ourselves in spoken or written language. While it's certainly true that there are extremely offensive words that should be used with extreme caution and at the risk of severe consequences, there is no rationale for completely forbidding the use of a word. I'm speaking here about extremely offensive discriminatory slurs, which does not describe <i>bossy</i> in the slightest.<br />
<br />
<i>Bossy</i> is a word with a specific meaning, and if we arbitrarily decide to remove it from our language, we become incapable of clearly expressing that idea. Here's what the word means, according to <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bossy?s=t" target="_blank">dictionary.com</a>: <br />
<br />
<div class="luna-Ent" style="text-align: center;">
<span id="hotword"><i><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">given</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">to</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">ordering</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">people</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">about;</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">overly</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">authoritative;</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">domineering.</span></i></span><br />
<span id="hotword"><i><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword"><br /></span></i></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
</div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">We have words for things so that we can describe those things accurately when necessary. There exist in this world people who are <i>overly authoritative</i> and <i>domineering</i>, and we can rightly call these people <i>bossy</i>. That's what they are, that's what the word means. </span></span><span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">There's also the apparently unappreciated irony of issuing such a strong prohibition in such a, you know, <i>bossy</i> way. I'd say forbidding people from using a word is <i>overly authoritative</i>, wouldn't you? Perhaps if you'd like to dissuade people from using the word <i>bossy</i> you might go about it in, say, a less <i>bossy</i> way? Did the writers of this ad really not even consider how hilariously hypocritical this is?</span></span><span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword"> </span></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<br />
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">Then there's the justification for the campaign: "By middle school, girls are less interested in leadership than boys, and that's because they worry about being called <i>bossy</i>." Ok. This sentence contains two statements, both reported as facts, with the latter explaining the former. If you're going to tell me that I can't use a word anymore, you'd better have some <i>god damn conclusive evidence</i> that directly correlates being called <i>bossy</i> as a child with not wanting to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Not evidence that discouraging young girls from being assertive leads to this consequence, but that <i>being called bossy</i> does. I've tried unsuccessfully to find the study that apparently gave rise to this whole ridiculous campaign. It was reportedly done by the Girl Scouts of America, but I don't see anything relevant on their <a href="http://www.girlscouts.org/research/publications/list.asp" target="_blank">publications list</a>. If anyone knows what perhaps legitimate work has been bastardized for this commercial, let me know.</span></span><span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">Does it really matter anyway, though? What sort of study could even substantiate a claim like this? Surely the number of girls who abandoned their ambitions specifically because someone called them <i>bossy</i> when they were children must be incalculably small. How many middle school girls would you even have to ask before someone gave that specific answer, that she willfully modified her behavior solely out of fear of being called <i>bossy</i>? And I'm to believe that this is so pervasive a problem that it warrants <i>banning the use of a word</i>? The simpletons who came up with this ad must imagine that I'm even denser than they are. </span></span><span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword"> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">Let's have another look at that definition, shall we? </span></span><span id="hotword"><i><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">Given</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">to</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">ordering</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">people</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">about;</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">overly</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">authoritative;</span> <span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">domineering. </span></i><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">Do those sound like strong leadership qualities? No, of course not. <i>Bossy</i> people are not leaders, they're bullies. They're insecure, antisocial brats who don't know how to interact with other human beings in a positive and productive way. <i>Bossy</i> children, if the word is being applied correctly, should not be fast-tracked to management positions. They should be educated about how to engage with others without being assholes. </span></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">Here's what this incomprehensibly poorly conceived campaign is actually trying to say: "Hey guys, let's all recognize positive leadership qualities in children and make sure we encourage rather than stifle them, especially in girls." Unfortunately that was too long to be an effective Twitter hashtag, so some marketing genius boiled it down to #BanBossy, ensuring not only that the message would be overshadowed by its own preposterousness, but also that Feminist initiatives would continue to come across as aggressive and confrontational.</span></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">So here are just two recent examples of why Feminism needs to fire its PR team and try again with a novel approach. I certainly don't profess to have all the answers, but I think these examples can provide some good advice on what <i>not</i> to do, namely implicate innocent people in an unspeakable crime and attempt to remove perfectly useful words from the English language for completely misguided reasons. The most frustrating thing about all of this is that at the core of both of these campaigns is not just an important message, but a message that most people would absolutely sympathize with, if only it could be offered in a way that didn't immediately cause aversion and reactionary opposition.</span></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="luna-Ent">
<span id="hotword"><span class="hwc" id="hotword" name="hotword">If I were pressed on exactly how to go about accomplishing the goals of Feminism in a more effective way, I would say that there is no magic bullet, no catch phrase or hashtag that is going to change the world. Instead, efforts need to target the roots of problems rather than simply treat the symptoms, the superficial manifestations of deep-rooted cultural tendencies. Education and raising awareness are indispensable parts of the solution; they must, however, be framed in a consistently positive, non-confrontational way in order to be taken seriously. </span></span></div>
<br />James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-25226878871610582612013-12-06T18:13:00.000-05:002016-06-30T10:04:26.711-04:00Yeezus - A ReviewAnd now for something completely different, a review of a hip-hop album.<br />
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Full disclosure: I really have no idea who Kanye West is. I don't live in the US, I don't have a television, I don't listen to the radio, I don't go to dance clubs. I'm being completely honest when I say I can't name a single Kanye West song, and I wouldn't know him if I saw him. The only things I know about him are that he apparently says crazy shit in interviews and Jimmy Kimmel made fun of him recently. I think he <i>may</i> have also been the jackass who gave birth to the short-lived but memorable "<i>imma let you finish...</i>" meme, but I'm not entirely sure of that.<br />
<br />
I haven't really paid attention to recent developments in hip-hop, and by "recent" I mean since about 1993. Much of the music I listen to these days is extremely aggressive metal that frightens most people, like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjKyzwqIT7s" target="_blank">this</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TE024YOfQNw" target="_blank">this</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spCmStMOiHE" target="_blank">this</a>. Still, there has been much ado about this <i>Yeezus</i> album, so I'm curious to see what all the fuss is about. Apologists for these big-time rap stars are always waxing philosophical about how they're doing such creative and innovative things with the genre, so I'd like to find out exactly what the hell that means. And to be fair, I'm going to give this album an even-minded, unprejudiced listen, and point out anything positive, commendable, or interesting I find in it. Lest you question my thoroughness and dedication to this endeavor, I'm going to go track-by-track, start to finish. Let's get to it, bitches!<br />
<br />
<b>The Name and Artwork</b><br />
<br />
I have absolutely no idea what the intention of the title <i>Yeezus</i> is. The obvious connection is with <i>Jesus</i>, the chief mythological figure associated with the Christian religion. I have no idea what this misspelling is supposed to imply, connote, or intimate, and I'm not even going to try to figure it out. As far as I know it's just a word that Kanye made up, as I've never seen or heard it anywhere else. If it's a reference to something, it's lost on me. (Note: I've since discovered that Kanye goes by <i>Yeezy</i>, so that offers some explanation. I did not know this when I began the post.)<br />
<br />
Then there's the album art: there isn't any. Apparently this album is shipping in a clear jewel case with a sticker on it. I'm not really sure what to make of that either, although I'm sure "professional" music critics will pontificate <i>ad nauseam</i> about what the intended message is. To me it's interesting, a novelty, a quirk from the mind of an artist who may or may not be insane.<br />
<br />
This album also has more producers than Miley Cyrus has excuses to disrobe. I'll admit that I'm not really sure what a producer actually does, but I can't imagine that 25 of them are necessary to make 40 minutes of recorded music. I also have no idea who these extraneous people are. (I thought I knew one of them, but after investigation it turns out that I don't know the difference between Lupe Fiasco and Bruno Mars.) And now, at long last, my much-anticipated review of <i>Yeezus</i>:<br />
<br />
<b>On Sight</b><br />
<br />
Oh dear. I think I've made a terrible mistake. Well, no matter, I will soldier on! I'm going to listen to the rest of this mess if it kills me. Ok so this first track... um... well, it's incredibly synth-heavy, kind of like the sort of sounds that come out of a plasticky Casio keyboard, and a full 34 seconds go by before Mr. West's vocal arrival. I'll confess that I generally hold the predictable, stereotypical white-folk view that rap/hip-hop lyrics are simply disgusting glorifications of profanity, violence, degradation of women, sexual conquest, and material culture, so I was looking forward to educating myself via this widely-celebrated release.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the fourth word on the album is <i>fuck</i>, the fifth line mentions famous luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz, the sixth contains a distasteful simile about Parkinson's disease, and the twelfth intimates that Kanye intends to penetrate your (the listener's?) wife. The second verse finishes with the subtle line <i>but I got her back in and put my dick in her mouth</i>. Definitely some serious innovation going on here.<br />
<br />
There is one slightly clever line - <i>she got more niggas off than Cochran</i> - although I can't be sure that Kanye wrote it, since there are 11 names with writing credits on this track. So I guess this suffices for an introduction to the new album: Kanye is <i>a monster about to come alive again</i> and a <i>real nigga back in the house again</i>. The title, though... "on sight," lacks any context whatsoever, and so I have absolutely no idea what it's supposed to mean. What's on sight? Whose sight? Does that phrase mean something when used in a vacuum like this? This hasn't gone well so far, but I have a good feeling about the next track, based solely on the title.<br />
<br />
<b>Black Skinhead</b><br />
<br />
Ok, so... the first thing I noticed about this track is that it's basically just Gary Glitter's Rock 'n Roll Part 2 with rap lyrics over it. Seriously, I want Kanye to be quiet so I can yell "rock 'n rooollllll HEY!"<br />
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<b> </b><br />
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<br />
This is apparently the first "single" to drop from <i>Yeezus</i>, and I've seen it described as having "a strong anti-racism message." The song does have lyrics like <i>They see a black man with a white woman / At the top floor they gone come to kill King Kong</i> and <i>Stop all that coon shit / Early morning cartoon shit</i>, but that's about it. He also says that he's being persecuted by <i>conservative Baptists</i> and Catholics, but I'm not sure why that should be... I mean given Kanye's need to dress in fancy clothes and jam his dick into people's mouths, I think he's ripe for the priesthood. Kanye for Pope!<br />
<br />
I must also draw attention to the lyrics in <i>the hook</i> (what white folk call <i>the chorus</i>, or what extremely old white folk call <i>the refrain</i>) - <i>I keep it 300, like the Romans / 300 bitches, where the Trojans?</i> First of all, I have no idea what "I keep it 300" could possibly mean, but more importantly, the <i>300</i> Kanye is probably referring to were Greeks, not Romans. The heights of their two respective civilizations are separated by several centuries, so it's not a trivial error. The second part of the lyric is just hack writing; everybody makes Trojan/condom jokes. <br />
<br />
This song also displays incredibly lazy and uncreative writing. Kanye (or whoever else of the 11 people also listed as writers) frequently rhymes lines with the same word, and in the second verse, those words are almost exclusively "shit" and "bitch." Rolling Stone magazine inexplicably dubbed this track the <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-best-songs-of-2013-20131204/kanye-west-black-skinhead-19691231" target="_blank">3rd best of 2013</a>. They assert, "Next time someone says America is post-race, play 'em this, and watch their head explode." First of all, anyone who suggests that America is post-race probably has a learning disability. Second, from what I've heard from the first two songs on this album, Kanye is incredibly preoccupied with the fact that he's black, and everything he's said so far has reinforced negative stereotypes, not ameliorated them. If this song really does have an anti-racism message, it's presented so opaquely that I can't seem to find it. I'm really excited about the next track though, which has an <i>even better</i> title than this one!<br />
<br />
<b>I Am a God</b><br />
<br />
I'm really confounded as to how "Weird Al" Yankovic's name isn't among the 15 with writing credits on this track, as it makes me literally laugh out loud. Maybe Al's using an alias because he doesn't want to ruin his white-boy street cred? Anyway... supposedly Kanye wrote this song after being told by a fashion designer that he could come to a posh runway show, but only on the condition that he not go to any others. To this he thoughtfully remarked, "Cause
it’s like, Yo! Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go. Man, I’m
the No. 1 living and breathing rock star. I am Axl Rose; I am Jim
Morrison; I am Jimi Hendrix." I'm sure if Jim Morrison were alive, he'd be happy to swap stories with Kanye about how his new fashion brand didn't take off right away either. Is this asshole serious? Does he hear himself talk?<br />
<br />
I guess I should at least talk about the track, since a gaggle of producers slaved over a hot MacBook to ensure its unquestionable quality. There's an incoherent bit of sampling at the beginning which doesn't seem to have anything to do with anything, and then most of the track is a fuzzy, monotonous, pulsating <i>womp</i> punctuated with little synth noises between Kanye's hilariously tactless lyrics. He <i>actually</i> says <i>I am a God / So hurry up with my damn massage / In a French-ass restaurant / Hurry up with my damn croissants</i>.<br />
<br />
How am I supposed to take this seriously? This whole song comes off as a desperate attempt by Kanye to convince <i>himself</i> that he's powerful and relevant. I can only assume that he's the least confident person on the planet, craving attention and validation from everyone, and if he doesn't get it, he apparently goes off on a megalomaniacal tirade. There's obviously a disconnect between how Kanye feels about himself and how others feel about him. Ironically these are not the words of a god; they're the words of a person who desperately wants to be a god, but simply isn't. I bet Axl Rose never had to tell anybody to <i>hurry up with his damn croissants</i>. Axl always had his croissants on time, ditto Jim and Jimi. When you <i>are </i>a god, you don't actually have to say so, Mr. West.<br />
<br />
<b>New Slaves</b><br />
<br />
This is anti-racism track number two, and certainly a clearer effort than the first. No time to waste when your songs are only a few minutes long and filled with samples of other artists' work, so Kanye gets right to it: <i>My momma was raised in the era when / Clean water was only served to the fairer skin / Doing clothes you would have thought I had help / But they wasn't satisfied unless I picked the cotton myself</i>... he goes on to decry this form of "new slavery" for blacks, which is material culture. <i>What you want, a Bentley</i>?<i> a fur coat? a diamond chain? / All you blacks want all the same things</i>. Ok, so, you know what might be a great inspiration to these newly-enslaved people? A guy who <i>didn't</i> have all of those things, who <i>didn't </i>rap about how awesome he is because he has all of those things, when he's not rapping about how terrible all those things are. Pardon me for not taking the message seriously when it comes from someone who can't be bothered to take his own advice.<br />
<br />
Kanye also bravely proclaims, <i>Fuck you and your corporation / Y'all niggas can't control me</i>, although his main goal in life seems to be to become a corporation and control other people. Then he says things like <i>You see there's leaders, and there's followers / But I'd rather be a dick than a swallower</i> and then simultaneously expects his message to be taken seriously. At a certain point, it doesn't matter how magnanimous and well-intentioned your message is; if you can't express it without the words <i>nigga, pussy, dick, fuck </i>and suggestions of rape and violence, nobody is going to listen. <br />
<br />
Musically, the track is rather sparse for the most part, lacking a strong back-beat during the verses. It certainly pushes the vocals to the front of the mix, and thus far this track has the largest collection of lyrics, so it makes sense. There's an inexplicable, jarring break at about 2:50 when the track completely splices into some other, completely different track with auto-tuned vocals. Not sure what is going on here, and then things get even more surreal when this gives way to an excerpt from an old Hungarian pop song called "Gyöngyhajú lány." Kudos, Kanye; I certainly didn't see that coming.<br />
<br />
<b>Hold My Liquor</b><br />
<br />
This is the closest thing to actual introspection and artistry that I've heard on this album so far. While generally it has been predictable, superficial, commercial diarrhea, this song seems to have a hint of personal truth to it. The track is rather simple, with minimal instrumentation and really just a muted pulse to keep time for the lyrics, which deal rather candidly with substance abuse. Of course if Kanye wants to be a rock star then he'd better have a drinking problem, and that's really the theme of this song.<br />
<b> </b><br />
I will say that I thought we were done with auto-tune, but it's all over everyone's vocals but Kanye's, and it's really a shame because I just find it distracting from the message of the words. Kanye's sole verse is a somber, brooding, apologetic, self-deprecating soliloquy about the all-too-common pitfalls of the rock star lifestyle, particularly the transient and ephemeral nature of alcohol-fueled frivolity. Bonus points for using the phrase "late night organ donor" to characterize a booty-call.<br />
<br />
I think the reason that this song is the only competent one thus far is that it's the only one that's been even slightly relatable. It deals with a universal theme and actual human experiences and emotions, and all of this is related in a relatively straightforward way. I don't think there's anything particularly artful about Kanye's verse as a composition - the cadence is incredibly monotonous and unvaried, and there's nothing earth-shattering about the rhymes or language, but this is the first thing he's said that I've actually heard. Let's listen on and see where things go from here...<br />
<br />
<b>I'm In It</b><br />
<br />
...oh. um. The next track is a brash, brazen, and bawdy account of non-committal copulation crafted with all the subtlety and nuance of a Black Friday Walmart brawl. Seriously, there's something to be said for being direct, but Kanye's dropping rhymes so tawdry they'd make <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oqqK0STStU" target="_blank">Dr. Ruth</a> turn a bashful shade of crimson. An erotic act is related with what I can only characterize as startlingly blunt detail<i>,</i> with such artful phrases as <i>eating ass</i>, <i>eye fucking, your titties - let 'em out</i>, and my personal favorite, <i>put my fist in her like a civil rights sign</i>.<br />
<br />
Kanye's jarringly tactless lyrics are accompanied by random bouts of incomprehensible Rastafarian-sounding raspy babble, and the "hook" includes a vocal performance by someone who can actually sing, making the section between 1:40 and 2:10 the only listenable part of the song. I can't let this one go without also mentioning the profoundly stupid lyrics and the beginning (<i>As I turn my Blackberry off / And I turn your bath water on / And you turn off your iPhone</i>) and the very end (<i>Uh, I be speaking Swaghili</i>). Swaghili? Really?<br />
<br />
<b>Blood on the Leaves</b> <br />
<br />
There's really no sugar-coating this one - it's a 6 minute auto-tuned nightmare. The song begins with a sample of a music recording of the poem "Strange Fruit," which was written as a response to racism in America in 1937, and bits of the recording are inserted quite annoyingly throughout the track. This song actually has four verses, which as far as I can tell chronicle an unpleasant experience that Kanye had with some gold-digger type. The last verse (mercifully the only one <i>not</i> auto-tuned) has the most salient presentation, addressed affectionately <i>to all my second-string bitches</i>.<br />
<br />
Generally it seems to be a commentary on the dangers of sleeping indiscriminately with every woman one encounters and then running into problems when one of them invariably gets pregnant. It is surely a lamentable situation when one must decide between paying the lawyers or the Mercedes dealer. Woe unto you, Kanye, and the contemptible wealth you have amassed! Mo' money mo' problems, amirite? This song is long, boring, and unlistenable thanks to a complete overuse of auto-tune. I also fail to see the connection between the content of the poem in the sample and the subject of this song. Somebody's gonna have to explain that one to me.<br />
<br />
<b>Guilt Trip</b><br />
<br />
This is part 2 of the Vulnerable Kanye saga, although this one doesn't work nearly as well as <i>Hold My Liquor</i> does. It <i>should</i> work in theory, as it's a song about unrequited love, the one who got away, possibly the oldest theme in the history of songwriting. I'm just not buying it from Kanye, perhaps because he's not selling it too well. This song is light on lyrics, and we only get a superficial analysis of this failed relationship. It doesn't help that the vocals are fucking auto-tuned again. If I can just pause for a second (<i>your album's pretty good, Kanye, and imma finish it...</i>) to elucidate why I find it so detrimental, it can be explained (like so many things) by the internet. Once the internet gets hold of something, it gets run into the ground at fiber-optic speeds. As far as I'm concerned, once the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=mEAKsaQOCpQ#t=125" target="_blank">Bed Intruder</a> dropped, that was the end of auto-tune as a legitimate practice in music. It's a joke now, and it instantly takes me out of the song.<br />
<b></b><br />
Ill-advised production decisions aside (I guess all 417 producers agreed that auto-tune was a great idea), this song just seems like filler. It only has one verse, in which Kanye vaguely describes a girl with whom things just didn't work out for some reason. Why? <i>Maybe it's cause she into Leos / And I was into trios, plus all the trips to Rio</i>. Those lines just seem forced to me, dictated by the rhyming words rather than any sort of effort at storytelling. The rest of the track is occupied by more incoherent guest vocals, and then a whiny outro that pitifully sobs <i>If you love me so much then why'd you let me go?</i> over and over.<br />
<br />
<b>Send It Up</b><br />
<br />
This track, the penultimate composition on Kanye's mighty opus, is nearly three minutes of my life that I can't have back. As far as I can tell it isn't about anything, and I have no idea what "send it up" means. That's problematic, because a considerable portion of the song is simply repetition of the phrase "we can send this bitch up, it can't go down." Whatever that means.<br />
<br />
According to Mr. West, <i>This is the greatest shit in the club since 'In Da Club.'</i> I do remember <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm8PH4xAss" target="_blank">that song</a> - when I heard it the first time I thought the guy doing the vocals was either half-asleep, not speaking English, or both. Kanye's awake for this one, but he couldn't be bothered to find his rhyming dictionary (nor could the 30 other people involved in the writing and production of this gem, apparently). "Club" is paired in the next four lines with ... "club." In fairness though, he pronounces it "cluhh," which probably makes finding a suitable rhyme more difficult.<br />
<br />
There's more Rasta-babble at the end, this time by a fellow named Beenie Man. I assume he was one of the housekeeping staff at the Parisian hotel where Kanye wrote and recorded much of this record, because there is no other explanation for why he should be a part of the music business. Toss this track on top of the last one in the "filler" pile.<br />
<br />
<b>Bound 2</b><br />
<br />
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bound_2" target="_blank">Wikipedia page</a> for this song says that critics generally found it to be the best track on the album, so I'm going to listen to it <i>extra hard</i> so I don't miss anything. As the page notes, "this song <b> </b>incorporates numerous samples into its production, including prominent elements of the song "Bound" (1971) by soul group Ponderosa Twins Plus One." That's a <i>pretty accurate</i> description, but I'd say something more like "this song is Kanye West pressing 'play' on the song "Bound" (1971) by soul group Ponderosa Twins Plus One and then talking over top of it." I guess he did add some original elements, like the part where someone called Charlie Wilson sings over top of distorted synth farting noises which would probably rattle any American-made car apart if played at even a moderate volume. It just doesn't work, talking over top of this sample, and Kanye's vocals constantly drag as if he's forever just slightly behind the beat. <br />
<br />
Lyrically, there are definitely some gems in here. The second verse really hits me where I live: <i>I wanna fuck you hard on the sink / After that give you somethin to drink / Step back, can't get spunk on the mink</i>. Preach, brother. The album probably reaches its glorious peak later in this same verse when Kanye becomes the first human being to rhyme <i>Thanksgiving</i> with <i>Christmas</i>.<br />
<br />
The end of the second verse is a fitting end to the album, I think, and a great summary of how I'm feeling right now: <i>But first, you gon' remember how to forget / After all these long-ass verses / I'm tired, you tired, Jesus wept.</i><br />
<br />
Amen.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusions</b><br />
<br />
I tried, really I did. I really want to get it, to understand why people rave about this guy, even if I don't actually <i>appreciate</i> it on some deep level. I can happily admit talent when I see or hear it, even if I don't particularly like it - maybe I don't dig it, but I get why other people could. <b>I do not understand why Kanye West is famous.</b><br />
<br />
Even in the context of the rap/hip-hop genre, there are people I genuinely respect as talented artists. The old school guys back in the late 80's actually had a purpose for their art; it was a response to the racism, police brutality, and general difficulty in life that they grew up with and experienced first-hand for so long, and their music was a fiery, passionate reaction to that situation. Songs like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1M8vei3L0L8" target="_blank">Fuck tha Police</a> actually had a real story to tell, a useful social commentary about the state of race relations in the impoverished inner cities of the US. Songs like that come from a powerful creative source, and I completely understand why people bought that stuff by the millions.<br />
<br />
Even to take other contemporary artists as a point of comparison, there are rappers who can sing relatively well (R. Kelly), who can perform some serious vocal acrobatics (Busta Rhymes) and who are obviously quite gifted at writing lyrics, whether they be funny, aggressive, or offensive (Eminem, Eminem, and Eminem). Kanye West isn't any good at any of these things. At all.<br />
<br />
Maybe there's something about the music? But if that's the case, how much credit does Kanye deserve for the final product, when every song has multiple writers <i>and</i> producers credited? Ironically, despite the apparent collaboration of dozens of people on this record, the backing tracks on <i>Yeezus</i> are rather spartan. It's a complete contradiction that the efforts of so many people resulted in such an anemic soundtrack. What were they all doing? I assume Kanye just pays people to stroke his fragile ego while he makes his albums and then gives them "producer" credits.<br />
<br />
<div class="me" data-syllable="voi·là">
I'm really trying to reconcile all the glowing critical reviews of this album with the reality of my perception of it, and I'm failing. As far as I can find, there's nothing even remotely interesting on this album, let alone praiseworthy. Kanye seems to be famous <i>despite</i> his music, not because of it, and I think critics are simply falling victim to their own psychological aversion to the inevitable cognitive dissonance arising from the stark difference between Kanye the artist and Kanye the brand. Kanye's popularity can't be denied, and so his talent must be affirmed in order to square the circle. Perhaps we <i>should</i> all encourage Mr. West to pursue other avenues; I certainly don't want him to make any more music.</div>
James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-39917982080238974832013-10-23T17:38:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:28:34.506-05:00Skepticism 101, or How Not To Suck At Having An OpinionFor all the virtues of social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, one unfortunate drawback is that we're all now painfully aware of how bafflingly ignorant and stupid the opinions of most of our friends are. We've all got that one friend who can't seem to shut up about how <i>GMOs are evil</i>, or <i>President Obama is a Muslim/Socialist/Kenyan</i>, or <i>global warming is a myth</i>, or <i>9/11 was organized and carried out by the Bush Administration</i>, or <i>vaccinations cause more harm than good</i>, or whatever the hot-button issues du jour happen to be.<br />
<br />
Now more than ever, everyone could use a healthy dose of <i>skepticism</i> in order to filter out the bullshit that bombards us incessantly. First, a few words about skepticism - what it is, why it's useful, and how it can improve critical thinking skills.<br />
<br />
As many words that end in <i>ism</i>, skepticism comes from Greek. The verb<b> <span class="greek">σκέπτομαι </span></b><span class="greek">means <i>to look at or consider carefully,</i> and inspired an ancient philosophical school of thinkers who called themselves "skeptics." In the modern sense, skepticism simply means questioning assertions and withholding judgment until evidence is considered.</span><br />
<span class="greek"><br /></span>
<span class="greek">When should you be skeptical? Well, certainly in some situations more than others. If your friend Bob calls you and says "apples are 50 cents off per pound at the grocery store this week," you probably needn't seek out confirmation of this from other sources. If, on the other hand, Bob calls and says "there's a magical tree giving away apples in front of the grocery store," some skepticism is reasonably warranted. The amount of skepticism shown towards a claim should be inversely proportional to how likely the claim is to be true, based on your knowledge and experience. The less believable a claim seems to be, the more you should be skeptical about it.</span><br />
<span class="greek"><br /></span>
<span class="greek">So, how can you form well-reasoned, well-informed opinions that don't suck? By following these rules:</span><br />
<span class="greek"><br /></span>
<span class="greek"><b>1.</b> <b>Be a sieve, not a bucket</b>. Or, as the saying goes, be open-minded, but not so open-minded that your brain falls out. Be open to new ideas, but not universally accepting of them. Keep your bullshit detector switched on at all times.</span><br />
<span class="greek"><br /></span>
<span class="greek"><b>2. Be willing to be wrong.</b> Good skeptics should be open to new information, even if it contradicts long-held beliefs. I cannot stress this enough: if you're unwilling to consider that you're wrong about something, you have no hope of discovering the truth. "When an honest man is mistaken, he either ceases to be mistaken, or he ceases to be honest."</span><br />
<span class="greek"><br /></span>
<span class="greek"><b>3. Be aware of common pitfalls</b> of reasoning, and know your <a href="http://utminers.utep.edu/omwilliamson/ENGL1311/fallacies.htm" target="_blank">logical fallacies</a> so you can spot them. Our brains aren't actually wired perfectly for critical thinking; we have an overactive tendency to find patterns, and we are frequent victims of our own confirmation bias.</span><br />
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<span class="greek"><b>4. Don't fight above your weight class.</b> Admit when you simply don't know enough about an issue to have a strong opinion about it. Not everyone can be an expert on everything, and if you don't know, just say so.</span><br />
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<span class="greek"><b>5. Question the sources. </b>Not all information is created equal. Not all scientific studies are equally valid. Just because something is published or reported doesn't mean that it's accurate. </span><span class="greek"><span class="greek">Some scientific journals have better reputations than others. </span>It can be extremely difficult to wade through scientific studies and decide what is credible and what is questionable, but it's an exercise well worth the effort. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="greek">With these things in mind, let's take a look at some typical areas of discussion in which people frequently have poorly-reasoned, irrational, or ignorant opinions.</span><br />
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<span class="greek"><b>Issues Involving Complicated Science </b></span><br />
<br />
<span class="greek">See point number 4 above. There are some things in this world which are simply best left to the experts to debate, so if you're not an expert, be aware of your limitations in understanding. A perfect example of this is <b>climate change</b>. Unless you're a climate scientist, I'm not interested in your opinion on the issue, because you have nothing of value to contribute to the discussion. If you disagree with the majority of climate scientists, and you're not a climate scientist, chances are good that you have a biased or uninformed opinion on the matter. Chances are <i>not</i> good that you have somehow understood something that thousands of experts have not.</span><br />
<span class="greek"> </span><b> </b><br />
<b>Highly Polarizing Issues</b><br />
<br />
Some issues tend to polarize opinions heavily, with few people remaining neutral. In situations like these, especially if the issue is a complicated one, polarized opinions are generally based on one-sided information and confirmation bias. A perfect example of such an issue is the <b>Affordable Care Act</b>, known colloquially as "Obamacare." Opinions on this piece of legislation tend to be polarized along political party lines, and several polls have shown that the general public (the same people who are eager to tell you how much they love or hate the law) has absolutely no idea what it says or does. (See <a href="http://www.theonion.com/articles/man-who-understands-8-of-obamacare-vigorously-defe,34022/" target="_blank">The Onion</a> for a sadly accurate portrayal) This is because the act is <a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ148/pdf/PLAW-111publ148.pdf" target="_blank">906 pages long</a>, and so the public is at the mercy of news outlets to paraphrase and interpret it. As with most complicated issues, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of the two extremes.<br />
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<b>Issues About Food And Medicine</b><br />
<br />
Issues that have a possible direct effect on our personal health are treacherous because they evoke an emotional response. Our hearts are for circulating blood, not for thinking, and an issue that stirs up emotions might also obfuscate our critical thinking faculties. A perfect example of this is <b>GMO food</b> and the lightning rod <b>Monsanto Corporation</b>. People are susceptible to one-sided or blatantly false information about <a href="http://www.skepdic.com/organic.html" target="_blank">GM technology</a> or about companies like Monsanto because the stakes are so high - our well-being could be negatively affected. In fact, this has become such an oft-cited bad argument that the fallacy has taken the name <i>argumentum ad Monsantum</i>. Basically the failure in logic here is associating an evil corporation with an evil product. It does not follow that GMO food is bad simply because you think Monsanto is bad. It may still turn out to be true that GMO food is bad, but bias-free evidence must be put forward to prove it. In cases like this, the only rational course of action is to follow the science and the findings of regulatory organizations. See point number 5 above.<br />
<br />
The <b>anti-vaccination</b> movement is similarly misled by emotion, especially because the issue frequently gravitates towards the health of children. On this issue, see point 5 above and the section below on opposing scientific consensus. <br />
<br />
<b>Conspiracy Theories</b><br />
<br />
There's a reason that you never hear of a conspiracy theory actually being validated and becoming the new mainstream explanation for an event. <b> </b>Conspiracy theories are the product of a comprehensive failure of reasoning, a worst-case-scenario of irresponsible cognition. The most salient example of this sort of nonsense at present is the <b>9/11 Truth</b> movement, proponents of which claim that the terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the government, and that basically every finding of the official investigation is wrong. To give an extremely abbreviated list of what's wrong with these sorts of arguments: people who think this way are obviously tainted by strong biases, are unwilling to evaluate evidence fairly, assume the conclusion of their argument and insert it as a premise, and live in a highly-protected echo chamber in which they only communicate with other people who agree with them. Conspiracy theories aren't actually theories at all; a <i>theory</i> is a set of testable propositions which can be used to explain certain phenomena. Conspiracy theories don't explain anything - they simply point out what they deem to be unanswered questions in the accepted theory and then wildly posit alternatives based on no evidence. This is a perfect example of what happens when your bullshit filter fails, and your brain falls out of your excessively-open mind.<br />
<br />
<b>Contrary to Consensus</b><br />
<br />
While it's fun to be a contrarian, there are risks when standing on the wrong side of the majority. It depends who that majority is, however; an appeal to majority opinion to support an argument is a logical fallacy (<a href="http://www.skepdic.com/adpopulum.html" target="_blank"><i>ad populum</i></a>), while an appeal to scientific consensus can be a strong justification for one's position.<b> </b>It's certainly true that scientific consensus can be wrong, but the comforting thing about science is that it is adaptable to new information and open to change.<br />
<br />
The wonderful thing about truth is that, by necessity, it <i>breeds consensus over time.</i> If something is demonstrably true, eventually there will be no choice but to accept it. Thus popular misconceptions about the natural world have been eradicated over time with the discovery of new information. We now realize that the Earth isn't flat, and it isn't the center of our solar system, let alone the universe. It would be <a href="http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/forum/index.php" target="_blank">ridiculous</a> to hold a contradictory position on these matters today, because the truth is undeniable.<br />
<br />
Still, there are other such issues of overwhelming scientific consensus today about which some people obstinately hold contradictory views. The term <i>manufactroversy</i> has been coined to describe these beliefs, as they pretend that a controversy exists when in fact there is none. Darwinian evolution by natural selection, for example, is overwhelmingly supported by evidence and accepted by scientists as fact (as made hilariously manifest by <a href="http://ncse.com/taking-action/project-steve" target="_blank">Project Steve</a>), as is <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/#.UmxRuxDlMlQ" target="_blank">man-made climate change</a>, and the efficacy, safety, and necessity of <a href="http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228#saf" target="_blank">vaccinations</a> to prevent communicable disease. There is <i>no controversy whatsoever</i> in the scientific community about any of these matters, and one disagrees with these assertions only at one's own peril. To refer again to point number 4 above - if you really feel like you can justify your opinion when you disagree with overwhelming scientific consensus, you should run to the nearest scientific journal and publish your innovative competing theory. If truth is on your side, and you can demonstrate it empirically, then science will have no choice but to agree with you. Science loves to be proven wrong, and that's why it can be trusted above any other method of finding the truth.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion</b><br />
<br />
It is incredibly difficult to approach all questions with an unbiased and open mind. It's even more difficult sometimes to separate the good information from the bad in order to discover the truth about anything. To adopt a skeptical approach to evaluating claims means not to make a judgment before careful analysis of the best available evidence. It's too easy to agree with our friends on complicated questions or look to our favorite news outlet to tell us how to feel about controversial issues. Thinking for yourself is hard work, but being a skeptic is the best way to be sure that your opinions don't suck.<br />
<br />
<b>Resources for Skeptics</b><br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.theskepticsguide.org/" target="_blank">The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe</a> - with a great weekly podcast</li>
<li><a href="http://www.skepdic.com/" target="_blank">The Skeptic's Dictionary</a> - great summaries of hoaxes, fallacies, and pseudoscience</li>
<li><a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/" target="_blank">The Skeptic's Annotated Bible</a> - indispensable for studying ancient holy books</li>
<li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/techNyouvids/videos" target="_blank">TechNyou's</a> YouTube channel - short but informative videos about science and critical thinking</li>
</ul>
James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-48553895045062526932013-09-12T19:21:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:27:03.528-05:0010 Things You Didn't Know About Jesus<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps I was a particularly uninvolved, incurious, or unquestioning Christian (which, I guess, probably made me a really good one), but it occurs to me now that I knew very little <i>about</i> the religion that I was allowing to dictate my beliefs and opinions about the world. If you had asked me, for example, basic questions like <i>who wrote the Bible? </i>or <i>when was it written</i>? or <i>how do we know what we know about Jesus? </i>I would not have had thoughtful or impressive answers. In fact, I'm not even certain what I would have said. I didn't have answers for those questions, because they had never occurred to me. I assumed that nobody talked about these things because the answers were so obvious and well-known that they needed no mention. God spoke some words, and the dudes whose names are on the title pages wrote them down, or something. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's not what happened, though, and even your church pastor wouldn't say so. I realize that there are many different churches led by different pastors with different agendas, but I've personally never heard a sermon (and I sat through <i>a lot</i> of them) in which the <i>historicity</i> of the Bible was addressed. This is really odd now that I think about it, because the only unique knowledge that a pastor possesses is this academic information about what Biblical and historical scholars, archaeologists, and textual critics say about the Bible. This is the sort of thing which pastors could share with the laypeople of the congregation, but they don't. Instead, they just read and talk about verses from the Bible, which anybody with a Bible could do by himself. (I don't mean to generalize; this has been <i>my</i> experience.)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Since nobody ever told me the answers to these questions, I had to find out on my own. I know everybody likes even-numbered lists of things, so without further ado, here are 10 things that you (probably) didn't know about Jesus and the New Testament:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>1. There are no sources contemporaneous with Jesus.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There is no historical evidence of any kind (epigraphical, archaeological, or literary, <i>including</i> the Bible) dating from the time when Jesus is supposed to have lived, i.e. from the late 1st century BCE to the early 1st century CE. Nothing that mentions Jesus comes from the time when he was said to have lived. Nothing.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>2. Nearly nothing about the life of Jesus is known with certainty.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As you might expect given the fact that we have no writing from his contemporaries, exact details about Jesus' life are, well, non-existent. We don't know what <i>year</i> he was born; the gospels of Luke and Matthew suggest dates that are 9 years apart. (We certainly don't know what <i>day</i> he was born - December 25th was made up by <a href="http://books.google.hu/books?id=goq0VWw9rGIC&lpg=PA142&pg=PA142&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22spring%20equinox%22&f=false" target="_blank">Hippolytus of Rome</a> by a completely arbitrary method and is not historical.) We are equally puzzled about when he died; it was somewhere between 30 and 36 CE. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This isn't simply because it was 2000 years ago and record keeping was spotty. There is general scholarly consensus about when King Herod of Judea died (4 BCE), for example, and the infamous Egyptian queen Cleopatra died August 12th, 30 BCE, as recorded by sources contemporaneous with the event. In the world of the fastidious record-keeping Romans, we have no trouble constructing extremely detailed timelines of the lives of many historical figures, like Cicero and his contemporaries. About Jesus of Nazareth, though, we know practically nothing at all.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>3. There are problems with the virgin birth.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">One of the things supposedly identifying Jesus as the son of God is the fact that he was born of a virgin. This is known to be a famous translation error, as the Old Testament prophecy in the book of Isaiah says that the savior would be born of an <i>almah</i>, which simply means "a young woman" and has no inherent connotation of "virgin." The Greek Septuagint writers chose the word "parthenos," which does mean "virgin," when they translated the text. All the writers of the New Testament only had this reading, as they were working from the Greek text and not the original Hebrew.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">This is evident in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, which each tell the story of Jesus' birth. Their stories differ on various details, but they both mention the virgin birth, as the writers of both books believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy, and so Jesus <i>needed </i>to be born of a "parthenos" in order to fulfill it - that's what their version of the text said. Had they been working from the original Hebrew texts, the writers of these gospels may have told the stories even more differently.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>4. There is a supportable, not-crazy case against a historical Jesus.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Although most scholars will agree that there probably was a human being called Jesus who was wandering around the desert around 2000 years ago, it's not the case that a historical Jesus has ever been (or could probably ever be) established as fact. There are several scholars who doubt that anyone called Jesus ever existed, and their position is tenable. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Scholars supporting this theory do not simply cite the so-called "argument from silence," i.e. Jesus didn't exist because we don't really know anything for certain about him. They point to many other things, such as the fact that mythologies of the time frequently portrayed the supernatural beings of their stories in an Earthly and even sometimes historical context, so the fact that the stories about Jesus are set on Earth and in a historical period does not mean that they must be historical. The process has newly been named "Euhemerization," referring to an ancient writer (<a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DE%3Aentry+group%3D8%3Aentry%3Deuhemerus-harpers" target="_blank">Euhemerus</a>) who actually did this with Greek myths. A well-known example of this is the story of Romulus being the ancient founder of Rome in 753 BCE - an existing God is placed into a historical context at an important time. It is also reasonable to fit Christianity into the historical context of Classical myth when considering it as a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism#Religious_syncretism" target="_blank">syncretism</a> of newer Hellenistic elements with established Jewish traditions.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There are reasonable arguments on both sides, generally supportable by some evidence. My point is simply that rejecting a historical Jesus is not as crazy as, say, denying the Holocaust, or the Moon landing, or the death of Elvis. Jesus is <i>not</i> an undeniable ancient historical figure. (If you're interested in this, the prominent scholars putting this theory of a Secular Non-Historical Jesus out there are Richard Carrier, Robert M. Price, and Earl Doherty, among others.) </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>5. There is nothing really unique about Jesus' story.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The more a broad contemporaneous mythological context is considered when looking at the figure of Jesus, the more it makes sense that the stories about him are simply stories. Nothing about the mythology of Jesus is particularly novel. The Egyptian god Osiris, for example, was said to have died and been resurrected, and he offered immortality to his followers if they led a moral life. In some versions of the myth, he was a mortal who was murdered by conspirators, and worshipers of Osiris convened annually to re-create this scene in remembrance of his suffering. Zalmoxis in ancient Thrace had a similar story as well. Plenty of parallels can also be drawn with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U1Grl4HSRU" target="_blank">Mithras worship</a>, which was in direct competition with Christianity in the early centuries CE. If we simply place Christianity and its myths into a historical context of ancient mythology in general, it is possible to see how these particular traditions developed. The stories about Jesus are products of the social, historical, and political contexts of the various authors who wrote them.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>6. There was no concept of a "New Testament" when it was written.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The writers of the NT did not all set out with a collective, predetermined goal of writing a new holy book about the life and deeds of Jesus to append to the existing Hebrew scriptures. The writers of the books of the NT probably didn't even know each other (although they did <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Relationship_between_synoptic_gospels.png" target="_blank">share sources</a>), and what we have today as the NT is the product of several committees of church officials at several different times in history deciding upon what <i>is</i> and what <i>is not</i> the officially approved text.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>7. We don't know who wrote the synoptic gospels.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The four "synoptic" (meaning <i>to be looked at together</i>) gospels, which we know as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. These gospels, in the oldest manuscripts we have, are all anonymous. The writers never identify themselves, and historical chronology basically eliminates Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John from being the actual writers. These names were added to the gospels in later centuries.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>8. The New Testament contains forgeries.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Even though the NT is a product of nearly two millennia of editing, there are still passages within it which scholars agree are likely forged and interpolated into the old manuscripts. Even apologists admit the existence of these forgeries, but they give them the fancy word "pseudepigraphical." You will at least recognize the root <i>pseudo-</i> meaning "false," as in "this wasn't actually written by the author listed on the pages." <a href="http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/13/half-of-new-testament-forged-bible-scholar-says/" target="_blank">A recent book</a> claims that 11 of the 27 books of the NT are forgeries by the early Christian church in an effort to settle debates about the faith. Perhaps that's a fringe view, but parts of the epistles of Paul have generally been agreed upon as inauthentic, such as <a href="http://richardcarrier.blogspot.hu/2011/06/pauline-interpolations.html" target="_blank">1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-35</a>. In the case of those Pauline examples, the interpolations occurred even <i>before</i> our oldest existing manuscripts, meaning that an uncorrupted version of those books does not exist.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>9. The New Testament wasn't established until 1546.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The text as we have it today, i.e. the 27 canonical books that make up the NT, was not formally declared as "official" until the <a href="http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15030c.htm" target="_blank">Council of Trent</a> in 1546. These particular 27 books existed and were generally considered to be authentic as early as the 5th century CE (which is, please notice, still <i>several hundred years</i> after Jesus' supposed death), but no formal declaration was made about which books were official (and, therefore, which books were not) until this famous ecumenical council.<b> </b>This leads me to the last point, namely...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>10. There are lots of apocryphal gospels about Jesus.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps the most interesting part about NT scholarship is looking at the <i>apocrypha</i>, books which have been officially rejected by the church for various reasons. There are only four canonical gospels, for example, <a href="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.iv.xii.html" target="_blank">because Irenaeus said so</a> in the 2nd century CE. His reasoning was sound, though: since there are four primary winds, and the Earth is held up by four pillars, there should likewise only be four gospels. Makes sense. <br /><br />But there are the so-called "infancy gospels," which describe the early parts of Jesus' life and which date from as early as the 2nd century CE, which have never been allowed into the canon. Even more interesting is the gospel of Marcion, which might even be older than Luke's gospel, but the early church condemned it as heretical, and so we only know about it via Christian authors writing scathing condemnations of it. (In fact so many of them did so that scholars generally feel like they've nearly got the original text.) The <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/story/pagels.html" target="_blank">Gnostic gospels</a>, </span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">written in the same Koine Greek as the NT,</span></span> also possibly date to the 2nd century CE and paint a very different picture of Jesus and the idea of salvation, but these have been entirely rejected as well. My personal favorite is the gospel of Judas, in which the story goes that Jesus actually <i>told</i> Judas to betray him, as it was part of Jesus' grand plan to be martyred.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">All of these writings and many more have been rejected from inclusion in the NT, even though many of them date to the same period as the canonical works. This is an inconvenient fact for apologists who cite the NT's consistent message despite its many different authors.The only reason the NT has a consistent message (an arguable statement in itself) is that it was made to by the church.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>The point of all of this:</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Like I said at the beginning, I didn't really know very much about our knowledge of Jesus and the historicity of the NT when I was a Christian. I believe that most of the people around me at the time didn't know these things either; I never heard anybody talking about it, at least. Maybe you already knew some of these things, maybe some of it is news to you. If you don't believe that something I've written here is true, I'd urge you to look into it for yourself and see what you find.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I think the most important thing to realize is that the evidence for believing <i>anything at all</i> about Jesus is extremely scant, to the point where nearly nothing about him can be said confidently. I'm sure some percentage of the faithful will either not care about any of this information or dismiss it as lies. What I have collected here is not my opinion, but the collective assessment of well-qualified people whose life work it is to look into these matters. I would have been happy to have this information when I was a believer, so I hope it will be enlightening to others as well. </span></span>James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-78861230915543031802013-08-23T09:35:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:28:02.450-05:00Cognitive Dissonance: Belief vs. ExperienceI was a faithful Christian for the first 20 or so years of my life. I mean a fully indoctrinated, Bible-thumping, Jesus-loving, nightly-praying, church-going believer of The Word. I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior, went to church regularly (even after I was old enough to stay home if I wanted), and even played bass in the praise band during my church's hip contemporary service. I know what it's like to be a believer, I know how most Christians acquire the beliefs that they hold, and, most importantly, I know what it's like to live in a world where those beliefs are constantly being called into question, or as Christians might say, <i>tested</i>.<br />
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I got the idea for this blog entry from watching a YouTube video made by a British fellow who goes by <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/TheraminTrees?feature=watch" target="_blank">TheraminTrees</a>. This video is actually the second in a series about his transition from faith-based beliefs to atheism, and his explanation in this second part is simply a perfect illustration of the effects of having beliefs that are inconsistent with our life experiences.<br />
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The phenomenon I'd like to talk about is one that is inherent in any faith-based belief system, and one that every Christian (and Muslim, and Jew) experiences and has to find creative ways to deal with. That phenomenon is something I'll call <i>cognitive dissonance</i>.<br />
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That sounds like a fancy phrase, but it simply comes down to this: we all have a set of beliefs, values, and assumptions about the world in which we live, many of which we acquire directly from our parents during our formative years as children. We all also live in a world which is constantly bombarding us with sensory data and experiences. We try to interpret all of these experiences through the lens of our beliefs. Sometimes the two are easily compatible, and there is <i>congruence</i> - our beliefs and our actual experiences coincide harmoniously. Sometimes our beliefs and experiences, however, seem to be at odds with each other, and this produces a problem, which I'm calling <i>cognitive dissonance</i>. Picture it this way:<br />
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As you can see, when our <i>beliefs</i> about the world and <i>experiences</i> of the world coincide, there is congruence. When they don't, there is dissonance. Congruence makes us feel comfortable and confident in our beliefs; dissonance makes us feel uncomfortable and uneasy about them.<br />
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I'll recount an example when I can clearly recall experiencing this sort of cognitive dissonance. When I was in high school, I took an elective course in Philosophy. One day we were talking about the origins of life on Earth. The various theories were laid out, most specifically creationism/intelligent design and evolution. (The theory of evolution does not actually seek to explain the <i>origin</i> of the first life form, a phenomenon known as <i>abiogenesis</i>, but let's just pretend like we're dealing with apples to apples here.) As a Christian, my belief was that God had something to do with the creation of life on Earth. In the theory of evolution, there is no mention of God whatsoever; the theory works without any such supposition. Looking at the evidence for evolution, however, produced a problem for me: the explanatory power of the theory was overwhelming and undeniable. I simply could not reject the theory outright, even though it did not align with my beliefs. This troubled me greatly, until I heard about a third option, namely <i>special creation</i>. This hybrid theory states that evolution occurred, but God intervened at several key points in order to ensure its success. I immediately latched onto this theory and, for a period of time, accepted this as my belief for the explanation of life on Earth.<br />
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In order to correct the dissonance between my belief and my experience, I needed to distort the theory. There was no compelling <i>evidential</i> reason for me to insert God. I was beginning with the assumption that God simply had to be in there somewhere, and so I distorted my beliefs until I could square them with my experiences. This is one way that believers can reconcile dissonance and try to make their beliefs and experiences congruent. The problem is that, just as in my example, this process invariably produces garbled nonsense. In the end, my conclusion was an incoherent bastardization of two different theories, but crucially, it alleviated my cognitive dissonance about the matter at the time.<br />
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A more salient example that many Christians are facing right now is the issue of homosexuality. Among younger people especially, this seems to be extremely important - I know people who have decided to attend different churches based solely on this one issue. In this case, the cognitive dissonance arises between the Christian belief that <a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gay/long.htm" target="_blank">homosexuality is a sin</a> and the increasing acceptance of homosexuality by our culture. Many people who have close friends or family members who are gay find it difficult to condemn these people to hell for eternity as vile sinners.<br />
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There is a serious lack of congruence here between belief and experience, and there are many ways in which believers try to force a reconciliation. All attempts to do this require either distortion of belief or denial of experience. The believer has to convince himself that the scriptures must be interpreted in a different way; the translations are wrong, the verses apocryphal, the cultures incomparable, et cetera. The believer desperately wants to find a way to harmonize his sensibilities with his preconceived beliefs, and it is particularly difficult on this issue.<br />
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Christianity has some very serious dissonance built into it from the onset, in the form of obvious contradictions. Two examples that come to mind easily are the Garden of Eden story and the entire concept of prayer. Any amount of serious critical thought about these two things will reveal some serious cognitive dissonance, as I will attempt to illustrate.<br />
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<br />
The Garden of Eden story in Genesis is ridiculous for many reasons, but even if we dismiss it as entirely metaphorical and not descriptive of any actual event, it still has bigger problems. (Mind you, there's no textual justification for dismissing it as a metaphor - the Bible never suggests that the story is anything but literal truth.) We all know the story: God creates Adam and Eve and two magical trees, the tree of knowledge and the tree of life. God tells Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge. A wily snake slithers up and tells Eve that God is lying, so she eats from the forbidden tree and gives some to Adam too, so they've both made a mess of it. Yadda yadda yadda, original sin.<br />
<br />
The contradiction comes in God's reaction to this incident. By his very nature, God is said to be <a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/knows.html" target="_blank">omniscient</a>. He knows all that ever was, is, and will be. If that is the case, then God should never be surprised or react with any emotion to anything that ever happens, because he already knows exactly what will happen. This makes it absurd that God would ever be angry for anything that anyone ever does or doesn't do. If God is omniscient, then he knew that Adam and Eve would eat from the forbidden tree and be cursed forever. This story is supposed to explain original sin, but it actually implicates God as the originator of sin. God knew what would happen; he set Adam up to fail. The God we read about in the Bible does not react as if he is omniscient. The believer must try to square this massive inconsistency of experience with his beliefs in order to produce congruence.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7PzOCj8UXjvBpseaFNVF7jNW4wnymhaS8WJri-qPxHA48ERzoV5NV62YoavykRy0th_09IaR2z7W7FDy3c2y1W2fQWZpTz4CZVp3dz_nPw6TipBClzknS9uqm922SPeU3Xoqt6dU7F_w/s1600/tumblr_m9sgjqWSOF1qfrrv2o1_500.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/n2kZ0lRW9Ls?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />
Prayer is another head-scratcher of a contradiction. This is perhaps the most resonant source of cognitive dissonance among believers, because everyone has experienced a so-called "unanswered prayer." The process by which believers reconcile this troubling experience with their belief is by invoking "God's will." If anything happens, it is because God willed it to happen, and if we cannot understand the reasons, this is simply because we cannot understand God. Invoking "God's will" is a tacit admission that <i>God does not listen to or answer prayers</i>. He's going to do whatever he wants to do anyway, whether you pray about it or not. And remember, since he's omniscient, he already knows what you want. There's nothing you can tell him that he doesn't already know, including the fact that you don't want your grandmother to die from cancer. Praying is one of the most futile, contradictory, arrogant, misguided acts imaginable, and believers all but admit this themselves. One can make giant leaps towards congruence of belief and experience by simply disavowing the idea of a God who answers prayers; by our very experiences we know this to be simply false. Prolonging this clash between reality and unfounded belief only invites unnecessary suffering on oneself.<br />
<br />
The problem with faith-based belief is that it demands that we reject our experiences. Instead, people are raised to believe completely arbitrary and unsupported claims like <i>God is perfectly good</i>. We have to dismiss our own experiences, which tell us that any God who offers <i>eternal</i> punishment for a transgression is unjust and cannot be good. No crime, however severe, could ever possibly justify an <i>eternal</i> punishment. One can only reconcile those conflicting statements by distrusting and rejecting one's own intuition. This is profoundly unhealthy behavior.<br />
<br />
In the video above, TheraminTrees talks about <i>atheism as a congruence</i>. When you <i>don't</i> begin with a set of beliefs which you did not arrive at through evaluation of your experiences, congruence occurs naturally and much more frequently. There is no struggle to contort your experiences into a rigid predetermined framework. Atheism is not a rejection of God, it is an admission that there is no evidence for God. This is the only logical framework that promotes harmony between belief and experience. Believing things on no evidence, and rejecting evidence which does not fit with beliefs, is a recipe for constant struggle to reconcile belief with the real world, and for the believer, it must be exhausting.<br />
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If you believe things on faith, ask yourself why you have these beliefs. You will discover that you don't actually have faith in Christ. You've never met Christ. You have faith in <i>other people</i> who have never met Christ but have told you about Christ. You have faith in <i>The Bible</i>, which was written by people, none of whom knew Christ. This is no way to form beliefs about the world, as it leads to dissonance. Base your beliefs on your experiences, and you'll be stunned how quickly everything falls into harmony and makes sense. I've found that it's much easier to sleep at night as an atheist than as a Christian.<br />
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<br />James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-85958572509067758302013-08-09T12:56:00.001-04:002014-12-19T08:29:08.158-05:00So, How's My Hungarian Coming?I've been living in Budapest, Hungary for almost five months now. I'm a bit of a language fanatic with a solid background in linguistics and an above-average understanding of syntax and morphology. So, many friends back home casually ask me how my Hungarian is coming. Well... it isn't.<br />
<br />
Why not? How can you live somewhere for months and not be able to speak the language, at least a little bit? Ok, depending on what you mean by <i>a little bit</i>, I can. Certainly more than you can, unless you're a Hungarian reading this, but not enough to matter. I still don't understand 98% of what I read or hear all around me. There are, however, good reasons for this, and they're not all entirely my fault.<br />
<br />
First of all, I work for a language school, and I teach English. This means I'm surrounded by people who either speak English quite well already or are trying to learn to speak English better. Consequently, much of my communication with other Hungarians is, by necessity, in English. Secondly, a fairly large number of people in Budapest speak English. While it's certainly not safe to assume that, for example, the clerks behind the counter at the T-Mobile store will speak English, the odds are better than 50-50 that they will, at least well enough to answer any questions. It's not uncommon for someone to say something to me in Hungarian, note my blank stare, and then repeat in perfect English.<br />
<br />
The single most important factor limiting my acquisition of Hungarian is, well... <i>Hungarian</i>. It's a bitch of a whore of a bugger of a language. It's not the sort of thing you pick up casually. I've actually met expats who have been living in Budapest for <i>several years</i> and still neither comprehend nor speak the language with any real proficiency. I'd like to try to point out to all of you exactly how ridiculous of a language it is, if I can, based solely on <i>what I've already learned so far</i>.<br />
<br />
First of all, as I've mentioned in <a href="http://jamesrodkey.blogspot.hu/2012/06/whats-hardest-language-to-learn.html" target="_blank">another blog post</a>, second language acquisition difficulty is relative, based largely on the similarities of the new language to one's native language. If you already speak a language which behaves like, or shares some common ancestry with Hungarian, then it won't be such an impossible task. Hungarian is a member of the <i>Finno-Ugric</i> branch of the Uralic language family. It's the <i>Ugric</i> part. The <i>Finno</i> part is, as perhaps you've guessed, Finnish. The only other language with any appreciable number of speakers in this family besides Hungarian and Finnish is Estonian. Taken all together, there are about 25 million native speakers of Finno-Ugric languages in the entire world. For comparison, there 38 million people living in the US state of Texas.<br />
<br />
Hungary is bordered by seven countries: Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Austria, and Croatia. None of these countries speaks a language related to Hungarian. In fact, every single one of them speaks a language from the Indo-European family, of which English is a part. This means I could move a few hundred miles in any direction and instantly make my life simpler.<br />
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So, how is Hungarian different from English? Well... maybe it would just be easier to list the ways in which it's similar to English:<br />
<br />
1. Hungarian uses the Roman alphabet (mercifully).<br />
2. In Hungarian, adjectives generally come before the nouns they modify, not after.<br />
3. Hungarian nouns don't have gender (mercifully). <br />
<br />
That's pretty much it. Hungarian has no common ancestry with English whatsoever, so the roots of basically every word imaginable are completely different. Take, for example, the words for the numbers 1-10 in Hungarian and some neighboring tongues:<br />
<br />
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>English</td>
<td>Hungarian</td>
<td>Serbian</td>
<td>Romanian</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>one</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">egy</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">jedan</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">una</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>two</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">kettő</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">dva</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">doi</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>three</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">három</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">tri</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">trei</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>four</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">négy</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">pet</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">patru</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>five</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">öt</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">četiri</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">cinci</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>six</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">hat</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">šest</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">şase</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>seven</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">hét</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">sedam</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">şapte</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>eight</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">nyolc</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">osam</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">opt</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>nine</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">kilenc</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">devet</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">nouă</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;"><b>ten</b></td>
<td style="text-align: center;">tíz</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">deset</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">zece </td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Even if you don't know anything about Romanian or Serbian, I think that if you were shown this list of words, you would surmise that you're looking at 1 to 10. If you were shown the Hungarian, you'd perhaps surmise that someone had pounded his head on a keyboard ten times.<br />
<br />
Then there's the inherent difficulty in pronunciation. Hungarian has several sounds which we in English simply do not, both vowels and consonants. Not only are there rounded vowels (the ones with the dots), but they also occur in long and short versions (<span style="font-size: large;">ö/ü</span>, <span style="font-size: large;">ő/ű</span>), AND there are minimal word pairs in which the only difference is the length: compare <i><span style="font-size: large;">öt</span> </i>"five" and <i><span style="font-size: large;">őt</span> </i>"him/her."<br />
<br />
The Hungarian alphabet has 44 (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUS8nv4jczw" target="_blank">not a typo</a>) letters, including many digraphs (two letters that count as one) and one trigraph (<i>dzs</i>). My least favorite Hungarian letter is <i>gy</i>. I dislike it for two reasons. First, it's not a sound I can make with my stubborn Anglican mouth. (To give you a vague approximation of how it sounds, imagine a British person saying <i>during</i>, where they kind of put a <i>y</i> in it - <i>dyuring</i> - and this <i>gy</i> sound is the <i>dy </i>part of that word.) Secondly, this stupid letter IS EVERYWHERE. As you have already seen, it's in the word for <i>one</i>, which also doubles as the indefinite article (<i>a/an</i>). It's also found extensively in forms of the verb <i>to be</i>, and in extremely common words like <i>big, or, </i>and <i>how</i> (nagy, vagy, hogy). It's difficult to say almost anything without needing to make this cursed sound come out of one's face.<br />
<br />
In English, we really like prepositions. We say things like "I'll see you <i>at</i> the game <i>after</i> lunch <i>with</i> Bob." Hungarians do not like prepositions. Instead, they just like to have one word with the preposition part stuck onto the end, for example: <i>iskola</i>, "school" <i>iskola<b>ban</b></i> "at school." This wouldn't be <i>so</i> terrible, except that it's not that simple. For you see, Hungarian displays a relatively rare linguistic feature known as <i>vowel harmony</i>. This basically means that they really only like their words to have one kind of vowel in them, either <i>back</i> vowels (a, u, o) or <i>front</i> vowels (e, i, ö, ü). Mixing them up in the same word is not ok. So, <i>iskola<b>ban</b></i>, "at school," but <i>étterem<b>ben</b></i>, "at (a) restaurant."<br />
<br />
Here's my favorite (by which I mean absolute least favorite) head-scratching bit of Hungarian grammar so far: the language distinguishes between sentences which are "definite" and "indefinite" with respect to the <i>direct object</i> of the sentence, if there is one. That is to say that Hungarian finds the statements "I see <i>a</i> house" and "I see <i>the</i> house" (in which the latter refers to <i>a specific house</i> and the former does not) to be different in a significant way, and this difference must be noted by a change in the grammar of the language. The unfortunate task of marking the distinction falls to the verb, and as such, all (transitive) Hungarian verbs have two conjugations: definite and indefinite. Quite annoyingly, Hungarians are generally not aware that they do this, nor are they able to explain it when confronted with the awkward reality that the verb "I see" in the aforementioned sentences is different: <b><i>L</i></b><i><b>átok</b> egy h</i><i>ázat</i>, "I see a house." <b><i>L</i></b><i><b>átom</b> a h</i><i>ázat, </i>"I see the house." This difference between definite and indefinite persists throughout the entire conjugation of the Hungarian verb.<br />
<br />
My real gripe with this odd distinction is that it is totally meaningless and serves no ostensible purpose other than to complicate the language needlessly. To speak incorrectly and say <i>L</i><i>átok a h</i><i>ázat</i> will certainly betray your non-native proficiency, but in reality there is no lost information, no difference in actual meaning. It's simply that the language wants <i>l</i><i>átom</i> there, not <i>látok</i>, for reasons which are beyond my comprehension. [If a scholar of Hungarian has an explanation for this otherwise baffling grammatical anomaly, please do comment below.]<br />
<br />
Although my understanding of the language is still quite rudimentary, I nevertheless could cite several more examples demonstrating the utter chaos which is the Hungarian language. Every time I open my Hungarian grammar book, I'm immediately greeted with a new reason to close it. Still, it is quite an extraordinary way of communicating, and to me nothing short of a miracle that Hungary has held on to this unique language for so long. It would certainly be a shame if we ever lost it.<br />
<br />
If you're curious as to what Hungarian sounds like, here's a random news broadcast. What do you think? To me it's sort of a mix of German and Slavic languages, although at the same time sounding distinctly like neither. It's definitely unique. So, how's my Hungarian coming? Not well, but I swear it's not my fault!<br />
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<br />James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-52850495406148034262013-07-14T16:00:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:29:59.687-05:00A Response to William Lane CraigDr. William Lane Craig is a well-known Christian Apologist philosopher and theologian. He operates a website called (and I assume he means this without irony) <a href="http://reasonablefaith.org/" target="_blank">reasonablefaith.org</a>. On his website you can listen to podcasts about how awful atheism is, why gay marriage is bad, and even buy books for children with clever titles like "What Is God Like? God Is All-Good!" (not making this up.)<br />
<br />
He also has several compositions available to read, one of which is entitled <a href="http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-absurdity-of-life-without-god" target="_blank">"The Absurdity of Life Without God." </a>Since I will probably never be invited to debate with Dr. Craig in person (although many people much smarter than I have been - just search for Dr. Craig on YouTube), I'll just publish my reactions to his assertions here in my own webspace.<br />
<br />
Now, this particular article of Dr. Craig's is rather lengthy, and it contains several extended quotes from other authors and philosophers, as well as some anecdotes, so for the sake of brevity I won't reproduce the entire thing here. Rather, I'll quote parts of Dr. Craig's writings directly and then respond thereafter, keeping the order of the original text. Please don't accuse me of cherry-picking; I could respond to every single sentence.<br />
<br />
Or, if you'd simply like the Reader's Digest version of what Dr. Craig thinks and why I think he has the brain of a six year old, I can sum it up like this:<br />
<ul>
<li>Dr. Craig thinks that life without God would be so utterly hopeless and terrible that it cannot in fact be true, so therefore Biblical Christianity is the only reasonable choice.</li>
<li>I accuse Dr. Craig of <i>repeatedly</i> employing two logical fallacies in putting forth his arguments: the so-called <i>argument from personal incredulity</i> and <i>false dichotomy</i>. </li>
</ul>
That's everything in a nutshell. The slightly longer-winded version goes like this, with Dr. Craig's text in italics and my reactions immediately following.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>The Absurdity of Life
without God</b></i><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">
</b>William Lane Craig</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br />Why on atheism life has no ultimate meaning, value, or
purpose, and why this view is unlivable.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br />The Necessity of God
and Immortality</b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br />Since the Enlightenment, when he threw off the shackles of
religion, man has tried to answer these questions without reference to God. But
the answers that came back were not exhilarating, but dark and terrible.</i></div>
</blockquote>
"Dark and terrible" is simply a matter of opinion. There is certainly no consensus that the answers to fundamental questions with God are flowery and cheerful, and without, dark and terrible.<i> </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Modern man thought that when he had gotten rid of God, he
had freed himself from all that repressed and stifled him. Instead, he
discovered that in killing God, he had also killed himself. For if there is no
God, then man's life becomes absurd.</i></blockquote>
Let me just stop you at the phrase "killing God," because that falsely implies that modern man has collectively ceased to believe in God. For many people, there was never a belief in God to begin with, so the killing metaphor is not apt.<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If
God does not exist, then both man and the universe are inevitably doomed to
death.</span></i></blockquote>
This implies that, if God <i>does</i> exist, then somehow both man and the universe are <i>not</i> inevitably doomed to death. Perhaps this follows logically in Dr. Craig's brain, but he offers no evidence for this assertion whatsoever, and so it can be as freely dismissed as false as he freely asserts it to be true. Since this is basically the thesis of his entire article, I should really just stop here. I won't, though; the rest of it is just too silly to ignore.<i> </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>For though I know now that I exist, that I am alive, I also
know that someday I will no longer exist, that I will no longer be, that I will
die. This thought is staggering and threatening: to think that the person I
call "myself" will cease to exist, that I will be no more!</i></blockquote>
Yeah, Epicurus solved this problem back in the 4th century BCE, but apparently Dr. Craig is still having some difficulty. The idea is pretty simple: once you're dead, you can't lament the fact that you're dead, <i>because you're dead</i>. You won't care that you're dead, because you can't. As long as you're alive, death is no concern, because you're not dead; when death comes, you're no longer alive. The fear of death is irrational, and any time spent freaking out about it, like Dr. Craig is doing, is wasted time.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
the universe, too, faces death. Scientists tell us that the universe is
expanding, and everything in it is growing farther and farther apart. As it
does so, it grows colder and colder, and its energy is used up. Eventually all
the stars will burn out and all matter will collapse into dead stars and black
holes. There will be no light at all; there will be no heat; there will be no
life; only the corpses of dead stars and galaxies, ever expanding into the
endless darkness and the cold recesses of space—a universe in ruins. So not
only is the life of each individual person doomed; the entire human race is
doomed. There is no escape. There is no hope.</span></i></blockquote>
...and? What if this is the truth? It seems to be true, from what we can observe about the natural world. This is the conclusion reached from the data we have. Sorry if this is somehow upsetting to Dr. Craig - that doesn't make it any less possible.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Absurdity of Life
without God and Immortality</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If there is no God, then man and the universe
are doomed. Like prisoners condemned to death, we await our unavoidable
execution. There is no God, and there is no immortality. And what is the
consequence of this? It means that life itself is absurd. It means that the
life we have is without ultimate significance, value, or purpose.</span></i></blockquote>
...and? What if this is the truth? This is also a fallacy of false dichotomy. Dr. Craig seems to think that there are two possibilities, and two alone: there's no God and life is absurd, or there's a God and life has meaning. This ignores the possibilities that there is no God and life has meaning from some other source, and there is a God but life still has no meaning. Dr. Craig must explain away these other two possibilities if we're to accept his dichotomy. He does address the first one later, but the second - that a God exists but life is still absurd - is never addressed. He also offers no positive evidence to support the link between God existing and life having "ultimate significance, value, [and] purpose." Apparently to him one entails the other, but this is simply assumed to be true and never proven.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">No Ultimate Meaning
without Immortality and God</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If each individual person passes out of
existence when he dies, then what ultimate meaning can be given to his life?
Does it really matter whether he ever existed at all? His life may be important
relative to certain other events, but what is the ultimate significance of any
of those events? If all the events are meaningless, then what can be the
ultimate meaning of influencing any of them? Ultimately it makes no difference.</span></i></blockquote>
...and? What if this is the truth? Dr. Craig seems to demand that each individual life have ultimate significance and meaning, as if the universe owes this to us. There is no rational motivation for making this claim; he simply finds the negation of it so utterly depressing that it can't possibly be true. This is the fallacy of <i>argument from personal incredulity</i>, which may as well be renamed the Dr. William Lane Craig fallacy, for as often as he succumbs to it.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
the same is true of each individual person. The contributions of the scientist
to the advance of human knowledge, the researches of the doctor to alleviate
pain and suffering, the efforts of the diplomat to secure peace in the world,
the sacrifices of good men everywhere to better the lot of the human race--all
these come to nothing. This is the horror of modern man: because he ends in
nothing, he is nothing.</span></i></blockquote>
The failure here is in separating ultimate meaning (defined as something which persists not just after the death of the individual, but after the death of the universe) and meaning while we're alive. This is the popular claim that atheism leads to nihilism, which is manifestly not true (as a great many atheists are not nihilists.) While it's apparently true that, ultimately, none of our actions means anything, it is not true that they are meaningless while we're alive. I do not agree that the fact that eventually we'll all be gone means that there's no point in any of us doing anything while we're here. I see great value in contributing to the general happiness and prosperity of mankind while we're all permitted existence during this brief period. Dr. Craig finds it impossible to do this without invoking God, and again I'll reiterate that he never makes explicit exactly how God's existence remedies this supposed problem.<i> </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>But it is important to see that it is not just immortality
that man needs if life is to be meaningful. Mere duration of existence does not
make that existence meaningful. If man and the universe could exist forever,
but if there were no God, their existence would still have no ultimate
significance. Now if God does not exist, our lives are just like that. They
could go on and on and still be utterly without meaning. We could still ask of
life, "So what?" So it is not just immortality man needs if life is
to be ultimately significant; he needs God and immortality. And if God does not
exist, then he has neither.</i></blockquote>
Dr. Craig believes that he has somehow established that immortality is necessary for meaning in life, even though he has only offered negative evidence for the opposite of his claim and no positive evidence for the affirmation of it. Nevertheless, he makes a second leap, namely that we also need God for meaning, not just immortality. Again, please note that nowhere in here does he even come close to attempting to explain just why God's existence equals meaning in our lives. This goes utterly unexplained, as if it's so obvious that it needn't be expressed.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">French
existentialists Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus understood this, too. Sartre
portrayed life in his play No Exit as hell—the final line of the play are the
words of resignation, "Well, let's get on with it." Hence, Sartre
writes elsewhere of the "nausea" of existence. Camus, too, saw life
as absurd. At the end of his brief novel The Stranger, Camus's hero discovers
in a flash of insight that the universe has no meaning and there is no God to
give it one.</span></i></blockquote>
Kudos for defaulting to the experts on the absurd life, as the existentialists really do it best. Still, this is not an argument that the existentialist position is false, but rather that it's quite unpleasant. This is an assertion that many existentialists would agree with anyway. The question of whether or not the existentialist position is <i>true</i> is affected in no way by whether or not it is <i>pleasant</i>. Dr. Craig still can't seem to divorce the two in his head. For him, it's impossible that we live in a word which sucks, so therefore we don't. At this point the most difficult thing to understand is why so many people take this man's opinions seriously.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">No Ultimate Value
Without Immortality and God</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If life ends at the grave, then it makes no
difference whether one has lived as a Stalin or as a saint. Since one's destiny
is ultimately unrelated to one's behavior, you may as well just live as you
please. Sacrifice for another person would be stupid.</span></i></blockquote>
See my above retort about life having no meaning because it is not eternal. I see nothing inherently problematic about a statement like "sacrifice for another person would be stupid" regardless of the immortality of man. There's another large problem with this argument, which actually makes Dr. Craig look like the far less moral person: which is the more morally-sound person of these two - the man who doesn't murder his neighbor because he feels that this is somehow inherently unjust and damaging to society, or the man who doesn't murder his neighbor because the Bible says not to, and he fears celestial retribution? If you really need to be told by God that murder is wrong, then it sounds to me like you're really just a frustrated would-be murderer, not a moral person. The idea that we get our morality from God or the Bible (two different arguments entirely, by the way) is a joke. This is yet another false dichotomy as well: Dr. Craig does not allow the possibility that an unjust God would exist, or a God who was completely indifferent about the issue of morality. There's no reason to dismiss these possibilities and only grant that, either there's no God and we live in a moral free-for-all, or there is a God and there is ultimate moral value.<br />
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But
the problem becomes even worse. For, regardless of immortality, if there is no
God, then there can be no objective standards of right and wrong. Moral values
are either just expressions of personal taste or the by-products of
socio-biological evolution and conditioning.</span></i></blockquote>
Again, this makes the assumption that if God exists, he will without question be a moral authority. There is no good reason to assume this and dismiss any other possibilities. What if God exists, but he is completely indifferent to what we do? What if he exists, but he is patently evil, and what he thinks is right is generally the opposite of what most people hold as moral? If Dr. Craig is offering the Bible as his version of objective standards of right and wrong (a reasonable assumption, since he's a Christian Apologist), then he must be an extremely warped person of whom I would be rather distrusting. Seriously, if you really want to make the argument that moral standards come from the Bible, read the Bible. There's no way you'll get through the Pentateuch with that view still firmly intact.<br />
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
a world without God, who is to say which values are right and which are wrong? </span></i></blockquote>
Lots of people. Parents, judicial systems, our own biological instincts, as Dr. Craig mentioned above...<br />
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
concept of morality loses all meaning in a universe without God. In a world
without God, there can be no objective right and wrong, only our culturally and
personally relative, subjective judgments.</span></i></blockquote>
This is an utter non-sequitur. The concept of morality will always exist, because people will always have an idea about what is right and what is wrong. They may not agree, but this is not the same as there being no meaning to anyone's opinion. Why denigrate our "culturally and personally relative, subjective judgments?" What happens when God and his moral authority say that, for example, homosexuality is a sin, but society starts to feel differently? Many, many people in the US firmly disagree with God on this issue, and an increasing number of state legislatures as well. It is not unreasonable to assume that, after some time, gay marriage will be legal everywhere in the US. What about when equality for everyone seems to be the morally correct course of action to society at large, but God and his moral authority say no? Evolutionary biology provides some insights as to why we might inherently find murder and stealing to be wrong. In this case it's even easier than usual to dismiss Dr. Craig's assertion as manifestly false.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This
means that it is impossible to condemn war, oppression, or crime as evil. Nor
can one praise brotherhood, equality, and love as good. </span></i></blockquote>
No, it isn't. The question of whence comes our ultimate knowledge of right and wrong is an extremely complicated one. There are over seven billion people in the world, and the vast majority of those people are not Christians. They obviously get their morality from somewhere other than the Bible. I've never heard of a society that doesn't have basic laws like "don't murder" and "don't steal," including those in ancient times which predated the Abrahamic religions.<br />
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For
in a universe without God, good and evil do not exist—there is only the bare
valueless fact of existence, and there is no one to say you are right and I am
wrong.</span></i></blockquote>
...and? What if this is the truth? Sorry to sound like a broken record, but just because you don't want to live in a world with no moral absolutes doesn't mean that you don't, or that you can't.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">No Ultimate Purpose
Without Immortality and God</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<i>If death stands with open arms at the end of life's trail,
then what is the goal of life? Is it all for nothing? Is there no reason for
life? And what of the universe? Is it utterly pointless? If its destiny is a
cold grave in the recesses of outer space the answer must be, yes—it is
pointless. </i></div>
</blockquote>
...and? What if this is the truth? Yet again, false dichotomy. Dr. Craig never spells out exactly how the existence of God somehow automatically provides meaning to life.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But
more than that: even if it did not end in death, without God life would still
be without purpose. For man and the universe would then be simple accidents of
chance, thrust into existence for no reason. Without God the universe is the
result of a cosmic accident, a chance explosion. There is no reason for which
it exists. </span></i></blockquote>
Yes, this is a much better explanation: God created the entire expanse of the universe so that a small collection of people on one planet could worship him for a short amount of time before they are destroyed by the universe he created. Very meaningful.<br />
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As
for man, he is a freak of nature— a blind product of matter plus time plus chance.
Man is just a lump of slime that evolved rationality. </span></i></blockquote>
This is merely one way of looking at it, and a quite morose one at that. Evidence does suggest that we are indeed a "lump of slime that evolved rationally," although I'd rather spend my time marveling at the incredible events which had to take place for life to exist rather than reducing it all to nothing simply because God had nothing to do with it.<i> </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Do you understand the gravity of the alternatives before us?
For if God exists, then there is hope for man. But if God does not exist, then
all we are left with is despair. Do you understand why the question of God's
existence is so vital to man? </i></blockquote>
Do you understand that you haven't even proven the premises of your argument, so that it does not produce a valid conclusion? Why is there hope for man simply because God exists? Do you understand that it's entirely possible that "all we are left with is despair?" Do you understand why the question of God's existence must be answered by facts and evidence, not emotions and wishful thinking?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Unfortunately,
the mass of mankind do not realize this fact.</span></i></blockquote>
Unfortunately, Dr. Craig does not know the meaning of the word "fact."<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">They
continue on as though nothing has changed.</span></i></blockquote>
That's because <i>nothing has changed.</i> Some people believe in God, some people don't. This has been the case for every culture in the history of mankind.<br />
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</xml><![endif]--><i>But Nietzsche predicted that someday people would realize the implications of their atheism; and this realization would usher in an age of nihilism—the destruction of all meaning and value in life.</i></blockquote>
People who are atheists are perfectly happy with the implications of atheism, because we're living in a world which is reconciled with observable reality. The only people who see utter despair in a world without God are sheep like Dr. Craig, who is simply incapable of being an adult and accepting reality. I assume as an 8 year old he wrote books about how absurd life would be if there were no Santa Claus. Dr. Craig here invokes Nietzsche as if to suggest that we're now living in an age of nihilism, where there is no meaning and value in life. He provides no evidence of any sort to suggest that this is true.<br />
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Most
people still do not reflect on the consequences of atheism and so, like the
crowd in the marketplace, go unknowingly on their way. But when we realize, as
did Nietzsche, what atheism implies, then his question presses hard upon us:
how shall we, the murderers of all murderers, comfort ourselves?</span></i></blockquote>
Have you spoken with "most people," Dr. Craig? Atheists don't go "unknowingly" in any way. Atheism is the result of a systematic evaluation of the nature of reality and the conclusion that the God hypothesis is unnecessary to account for anything in it. How shall we comfort ourselves? However we'd like. I have friends and family, hobbies, things that make me happy. I have the comfort of knowing that I've given serious thought to the nature of the universe and my place in it, and I've come to a conclusion that not only makes sense to me but doesn't rely on faith, bad evidence, and self-delusion.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Practical Impossibility
of Atheism</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The fundamental problem with this solution,
however, is that it is impossible to live consistently and happily within such
a world view. If one lives consistently, he will not be happy; if one lives
happily, it is only because he is not consistent. Francis Schaeffer has
explained this point well. Modern man, says Schaeffer, resides in a two-story
universe. In the lower story is the finite world without God; here life is
absurd, as we have seen. In the upper story are meaning, value, and purpose.
Now modern man lives in the lower story because he believes there is no God.
But he cannot live happily in such an absurd world; therefore, he continually
makes leaps of faith into the upper story to affirm meaning, value, and
purpose, even though he has no right to, since he does not believe in God.</span></i></blockquote>
Falsest of false dichotomies. This entire argument hinges on the unestablished premise that all meaning, value, and purpose come from God. Dr. Craig has done no work whatsoever to establish this as true, and so no argument can be built upon it. Sorry, but there's nothing preventing an atheist from finding meaning, value, and purpose in his life. It is not a contradiction, not an inconsistency.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Meaning of Life</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">First, the area of meaning. We saw that without
God, life has no meaning. </span></i></blockquote>
We did? I don't recall seeing that, because you didn't do anything to explain it. You also didn't even consider the possibility that God could exist and <i>still</i> there could be no meaning in life. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yet philosophers continue to live as though life does
have meaning. For example, Sartre argued that one may create meaning for his
life by freely choosing to follow a certain course of action.</span></i></blockquote>
The audacity! How dare someone live life as though it has meaning when he doesn't believe in God? You atheists go over there in the corner and be miserable; happiness and meaning are only for us, the deluded!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now
this is utterly inconsistent. It is inconsistent to say life is objectively
absurd and then to say one may create meaning for his life. </span></i></blockquote>
Why? Dr. Craig seems to think that atheists must be punished for their denial of God by not being allowed to have any meaning in their lives. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If life is really
absurd, then man is trapped in the lower story. To try to create meaning in
life represents a leap to the upper story. But Sartre has no basis for this
leap. Without God, there can be no objective meaning in life. </span></i></blockquote>
Again, this bit about the lower story and the upper story. Why does God have a monopoly on the upper story, the part where we get meaning and value? It is never established how or why God and God alone leads to these things. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sartre's program
is actually an exercise in self-delusion. Sartre is really saying, "Let's
pretend the universe has meaning." And this is just fooling ourselves.</span></i></blockquote>
At this point I considered that Dr. Craig is actually an atheist, and all of this is just a giant joke. A Christian of all people should have absolutely no problem with self-delusion, since it's the only way he can even get out of bed in the morning.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Value of Life</b></i></blockquote>
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<i>Turn now to the problem of value. Here is where the most
blatant inconsistencies occur. First of all, atheistic humanists are totally
inconsistent in affirming the traditional values of love and brotherhood. Camus
has been rightly criticized for inconsistently holding both to the absurdity of
life and the ethics of human love and brotherhood. The two are logically
incompatible.</i></div>
</blockquote>
I feel like in Dr. Craig's mind, atheists are like Darth Vader, and Christians are like Luke Skywalker. The dark side (atheism) has to be about death and anger and fear and hate, but the Christian side is all about love and generosity and self-sacrifice. God does not have a monopoly on virtue. People value things like love and brotherhood because it makes us feel good; these things are intrinsically and self-evidently positive. I see no contradiction in being nice to each other in a world that ultimately has no meaning. Dr. Craig seems to think that denial of God <i>must by necessity</i> lead to a chaotic world of anarchy in which people just go around murdering each other at will. Since the world is not this way, all he can do is accuse atheists and humanists of a contradiction. Well gee, sorry we're not conforming to your ridiculous notions of what a Godless world must look like.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i>A second problem is that if God does not exist and there is
no immortality, then all the evil acts of men go unpunished and all the
sacrifices of good men go unrewarded. But who can live with such a view? </i>
</blockquote>
This is why we have a judicial system. We don't rely on God's judgment, because actions need to have consequences <i>in this lifetime</i>, and so they do. We don't simply wag our fingers at a murderer and say "God's gonna get you, fella!" Nor do we pass over the good deeds of the generous and say, "We don't really care about what you did, but God will grant you many blessings in the afterlife!" The evil acts of men don't go unpunished, nor the sacrifices of good men unrewarded.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Purpose of Life</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We often find the same inconsistency among those
who say that man and the universe came to exist for no reason or purpose, but
just by chance. Unable to live in an impersonal universe in which everything is
the product of blind chance, these persons begin to ascribe personality and
motives to the physical processes themselves. It is a bizarre way of speaking
and represents a leap from the lower to the upper story. For example, Francis
Crick halfway through his book The Origin of the Genetic Code begins to spell
nature with a capital "N" and elsewhere speaks of natural selection
as being "clever" and as "thinking" of what it will do.
Fred Hoyle, the English astronomer, attributes to the universe itself the
qualities of God. For Carl Sagan the "Cosmos," which he always spells
with a capital letter, obviously fills the role of a God-substitute. Though all
these men profess not to believe in God, they smuggle in a God-substitute
through the back door because they cannot bear to live in a universe in which
everything is the chance result of impersonal forces.</span></i></blockquote>
This is a new and exciting logical fallacy introduced by Dr. Craig, namely the <i>tu quoque</i> fallacy. Basically Dr. Craig tacitly admits that the idea of God the Creator is stupid by calling attention to the fact that some atheists have done it with Nature and the Cosmos. Nevermind the fact that Carl Sagan spelling Cosmos with a capital letter because he "cannot bear to live in a universe in which everything is the chance result of impersonal forces" is an extremely spurious notion. Dr. Craig is being incredibly irresponsible in attributing thoughts to Carl Sagan which he certainly never expressed. Suddenly Dr. Craig has some particular insight into the true inner-workings of Carl Sagan's mind that the rest of us missed somehow.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And
it's interesting to see many thinkers betray their views when they're pushed to
their logical conclusions. For example, certain feminists have raised a storm
of protest over Freudian sexual psychology because it is chauvinistic and
degrading to women. And some psychologists have knuckled under and revised
their theories. Now this is totally inconsistent. If Freudian psychology is really
true, then it doesn't matter if it's degrading to women. <b>You can't change the
truth because you don't like what it leads to.</b> But people cannot live
consistently and happily in a world where other persons are devalued. Yet if
God does not exist, then nobody has any value. <b>Only if God exists can a person
consistently support women's rights.</b></span></i></blockquote>
At this point I just want to run to the nearest thing and kill it. You need only pay attention to the sections I've bolded here. <b>You can't change the truth because you don't like what it leads to.</b> That's right, Dr. Craig. You can't change the truth at all, in fact, because it's the truth, and it's immutable. The irony of a Christian invoking such an argument <i>against someone else</i> is so staggering that I think Dr. Craig must have a learning disability of some sort. The last statement is so utterly inconsistent with reality that it's laugh-out-loud ridiculous: <b>Only if God exists can a person consistently support women's rights.</b> This statement is patently false. The Abrahamic religions are <a href="http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/women/long.html" target="_blank">unapologetically oppressive to women</a>. The only worldview which advocates equality is one in which we needn't listen to a bigoted, narcissistic, asshole God who doesn't believe that everyone is created equal.<i> </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The dilemma of modern man is thus truly terrible. The
atheistic world view is insufficient to maintain a happy and consistent life.
Man cannot live consistently and happily as though life were ultimately without
meaning, value, or purpose. If we try to live consistently within the atheistic
world view, we shall find ourselves profoundly unhappy. If instead we manage to
live happily, it is only by giving the lie to our world view.</i></blockquote>
Dr. Craig seems really upset at the notion that an atheist could live happily. This idea is obviously profoundly disturbing to him, that someone could actually be happy without God, and so he accuses happy atheists of being inconsistent, deluded liars. If you don't find meaning and value in your life in the extremely small-minded and arbitrary way that Dr. Craig allows it, then you're a liar.<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Success of
Biblical Christianity</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>But if atheism fails in this regard, what about biblical
Christianity? According to the Christian world view, God does exist, and man's
life does not end at the grave. In the resurrection body <b>man may enjoy eternal
life and fellowship with God</b>. Biblical Christianity therefore provides the two
conditions necessary for a meaningful, valuable, and purposeful life for man:
God and immortality. </i></div>
</blockquote>
Ah, finally! There it is. This is the exciting alternative to despair offered by Biblical Christianity: fellowship with God forever. What does that even mean? We all just sit around talking or whatever? This idea of eternal life in heaven is such an obvious man-made by-product of our irrational fear of death that I can't believe people still actually believe it to be true. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Because of this, we can live consistently and happily.
Thus, biblical Christianity succeeds precisely where atheism breaks down.</i></blockquote>
I can think of no more inconsistent and contradictory life than that of the Christian. Every single Christian cherry-picks verses from the Bible to follow dutifully while ignoring the vast amount of their sacred, holy, infallible text. Christians preach tolerance and yet on the whole are the least tolerant people in America. In fact, to be a Christian in America is from its very onset a contradiction: the First Commandment says "Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me." The First Amendment to the Constitution: Freedom of Speech, Assembly, Religion, and Press. Atheism doesn't break down. It simply leads to conclusions which Dr. Craig is unable to accept, and so he basically throws a tantrum and says "no!"<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Conclusion</b></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Now I want to make it clear that I have not yet shown
biblical Christianity to be true. </i></div>
</blockquote>
Oh don't feel bad about that; nobody else has yet done that either. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>But what I have done is clearly spell out the
alternatives. </i></div>
</blockquote>
You've spelled out one alternative, to the unjustified exclusion of others. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>If God does not exist, then life is futile. </i></div>
</blockquote>
Nothing about this statement has any bearing on the <i>truth</i> of it. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>If the God of the
Bible does exist, then life is meaningful. </i></div>
</blockquote>
This is not in any way an affirmation that the God of the Bible does exist, and so we can literally replace the <i>if </i>clause in this statement with anything at all. <i>If the flying spaghetti monster exists</i>, then life is meaningful.<i> If Arrested Development is renewed for another season, </i>then life is meaningful.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Only the second of these two
alternatives enables us to live happily and consistently. Therefore, it seems
to me that <b>even if the evidence for these two options were absolutely equal</b>, a rational
person ought to choose biblical Christianity.</i></blockquote>
The evidence for these two options is not absolutely equal. There's no evidence whatsoever for Biblical Christianity. This is a pointless hypothetical because it will never be realized. Yes, perhaps it would make more sense if the evidence were equal, but the whole point of the matter is that the evidence is not equal! <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>It seems to me positively
irrational to prefer death, futility, and destruction to life, meaningfulness,
and happiness. As Pascal said, we have nothing to lose and infinity to gain.</i></div>
</blockquote>
No rational person would say "I prefer death, futility, and destruction to life, meaningfulness, and happiness." The use of the verb <i>prefer</i> here is ridiculous. Atheists are simply concerned with <i>what is true</i>, and then we accept whatever consequences follow from <i>the truth of reality</i>. If it happens that life really is the result of random chance, then we need to deal with that reality and accept the conclusions which come from it. Unlike Dr. Craig and his Christian brethren, the atheist doesn't start with the conclusion and work backwards, desperately trying to reassure himself that it's true.<br />
<br />
Dr. Craig seems completely unable to imagine a world in which there is meaning without God, and so he spends a great deal of time trying to prove that somehow it really is impossible. This is utter nonsense. I picture him walking around trying to make sure that people who don't believe in God aren't happy. "Hey, hey you over there! You weren't in church this morning! Be all despondent and melancholy! Otherwise you're living a lie!"<br />
<br />
What an asshole. Fuck you, Dr. Craig. <br />
<br />James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-34614489463918026802013-07-06T20:03:00.000-04:002014-12-19T08:36:25.125-05:00"Atheism is a Religion" and Other Fallacious Criticisms by Believers<span style="font-family: inherit;">As someone who is fairly open about being a strongly not-religious person, it often happens that I get into discussions (they start out that way, at least) with people who disagree with my worldview (or lack thereof). As any non-believer can tell you, there aren't very many criticisms of disbelief; there are actually only a few, and they inevitably come up in any discussion about belief and non-belief, and I'd like to point out why they're silly. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The first is that atheism is a religion. The second, that "militant" or "extreme" atheism is just as bad as religious fundamentalism. The third, that blind faith in science is the same as blind faith in God. Lastly, that believing things based on evidence rather than faith is "arrogant." I've chosen these particular sentiments because they've all been lobbed at me by people I know, many of them more than once, and because they're all nonsense.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>1. Atheism is a Religion</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is a very common retort, and perhaps the most easily dismissed. One need only look at a dictionary definition of the word <i>religion</i> to end the argument, I should think. <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion?s=t" target="_blank">Dictionary.com</a> says:</span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;"> a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.</span></li>
</ol>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Atheism in no way fits either of these definitions. That's because there is no dogma in atheism; there's nothing you <i>must</i> believe in order to be an atheist. It's not even <i>a set of beliefs</i> - it's simply the rejection of other belief systems. It's saying to the Christian, the Jew, the Muslim, the Hindu, the Buddhist, et cetera that you simply don't think their beliefs are true. [If you can't understand the difference between the statements "I don't believe that x is true" and "I believe that x is not true," please stop reading and come back when you can.] If you ask an atheist what they think about these things, namely the "cause, nature, and purpose of the universe," you'll get many different answers, with a common one likely being "I don't know." <br /><br />As somebody once cleverly noted, if atheism is a religion, then "off" is a TV channel. Actually, atheists can't even agree on what word best describes themselves. Various suggestions come into and go out of fashion: atheist, non-theist, non-religious, free-thinker, humanist, bright, agnostic - the point is that it's really just "none of the above" on the religion list. The only thing that atheists are united by is simply what the word means: <i>a</i> (not) + <i>theism</i> (belief in god.) The reasons for not believing, and the explanations or answers to the questions to which religion generally provides answers, will be different for everyone. Atheism is not a religion, it's the absence of religion. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>2. Militant and Extreme Atheism</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I like this one a lot, because it is self-evidently nonsensical after about 30 seconds of contemplation. Hijacking these adjectives which are generally reserved for religious fundamentalists and applying them to atheism is an exercise in utter futility. When someone is labeled a religious "extremist," for example, it's generally because this person has either killed other people because of his beliefs, or he at least judges it perfectly acceptable to do so. Religious extremists tend to be quite dangerous and frightening, as these are the most devout and hard-core followers of the literal word of their holy text. <br /><br />What is a militant atheist? An extreme atheist? How often do you read a news report about someone who has violently murdered someone else in the name of atheism? There are degrees of the seriousness of one's religious convictions; there are no degrees of atheism. A casual atheist says "I don't believe in god." An extreme atheist says "I don't believe in god." Does the extreme one say it louder? Does he write it on a sign maybe? Write blog posts about it? <br /><br />Generally I've found that anyone who is vocal about his atheism or openly critical of other peoples' beliefs gets labeled as "militant" or "fundamentalist," simply because people really don't like to be told that their entire worldview is based on lies. These are complete misuses of those negatively-charged words, and the comparison is laughable at best and offensive at worst. Nobody in the world is rioting in the streets and slaughtering innocent people because of atheism. While thousands of people in the Muslim world chant "death to the atheist bloggers," people at free-thinking rallies hold up signs like "What do we want? Evidence-based change! When do we want it? After peer-review!" People who are vocal about their atheism and critical of others' absurd beliefs are not dangerous, so stop throwing around these awful words as if they're apt.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>3. Faith in Science and Faith in God</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Religious people try as hard as they can to assert (and they all think they're clever, as if they're the first to do it) that atheists simply replace God with Science and worship it in the same way, so at the end of the day it's really the same thing. This is a woefully irresponsible comparison. First of all, "science" is (if I may use my good friend the <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/science?s=t" target="_blank">dictionary</a> again)<i> systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.</i> Most important in that definition is what's missing, not what's included. There are certain fundamental questions, such as the meaning of life, or what happens after you die, or what sort of moral code we should all adopt, which science does not try to answer. Science is fine with not having an answer to some questions; it's perfectly fine to say "I don't know," or "I don't care" about these sorts of questions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The scientific method, for example, is an empirically testable and productive process of finding the truth about the world in which we live. It allows for independent verification, actively tries to eliminate bias, and is perfectly happy with getting results that prove hypotheses wrong. There is no need to use the word "faith" when talking about scientific observation. We needn't simply have faith that gravity exists, or that the world is a sphere, or that the sun will come up tomorrow. We can go find out all of that for ourselves and prove it to be true, and understand why it's true. It's easy to trust the scientific method <i>because it produces verifiable results</i>. Using it cures disease and develops new technologies and explains phenomena in the world around us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Faith is a particularly nasty attribute of religion, and it amounts to nothing more than claiming to believe something to be true when you have absolutely no evidence that it is. Christians, for example, have faith that they will go to heaven when they die. They have absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever, but assert it as if it's fact, even though they couldn't possibly prove it. This is a nice way to transition to the last complaint about atheism, namely...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>4. Atheism (or Science) is Arrogant</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This sentiment is the most irritating to me personally, because it's so inherently contradictory that it's baffling that religious people can possibly think this way. Again, I think the <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/arrogant?s=t" target="_blank">dictionary</a> will help us sort this out quite succinctly: <i>making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; a sense of superiority, self-importance, or entitlement.</i> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Let's just take some commonly-held beliefs among Christians, since this is the belief system with which I'm the most familiar. Christians <i>believe</i> that God created the universe for the sole purpose of the existence of human beings, and that he loves us and watches/cares about what we do. We now <i>know</i> that our planet is only one of several in our solar system, that our solar system is one of many in our galaxy, and our galaxy is one of many in the universe. With each increasingly powerful telescope we create, we reveal just how completely insignificant and unremarkable our existence is, and yet this completely self-centered belief that it's all for us persists among believers. This sort of thinking is both bafflingly ignorant and tenaciously arrogant. Many people of faith also deny the truth of evolution simply on the grounds that humans are somehow above having evolved from primates, so it's just not possible. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The scientific worldview, on the other hand, is one of extreme humility: human existence in the grand scheme of the universe is staggeringly insignificant, and our time on the Earth is but a blink in the massive extent of geological time. Science admits when it's wrong, even after it thought it was right for a long time. I've collected a few catchy little epigrams about religion to make the point:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Science has questions which may never be answered. Religion has answers which may never be questioned."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"Morality is doing what's right regardless of what you're told. Religion is doing what you're told regardless of what's right."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Point</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The only reason <i>atheists</i> even have to call themselves something is because irrational people invented gods; there wouldn't be any need for such a word otherwise. If you're a believer in some sort of god and have faith that a bunch of extremely unlikely things are true, fine. But don't try to bring us non-believers down by insinuating that we're just like religious people in any way. We define ourselves by not being like you at all.</span>James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-54283526116108182742013-05-19T16:57:00.003-04:002014-12-19T08:30:26.210-05:00Do You Believe In Fate? No, I Mean Really?<span style="font-family: inherit;">Do you believe in fate? Do you believe that everything happens for a reason? Do you believe in karma? No, I mean do you <i>actually</i> believe in these things, or do you just make casual statements to this effect? Have you spent any time thinking about the consequences of these sorts of statements? I have a sneaking suspicion that the vast majority of people who say things like "I guess it's just not meant to be," or "karma's a bitch" haven't actually given a moment's thought to the implications of these statements, if they're actually made seriously.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">These statements do seem fairly innocuous, and perhaps for most people they're just little stock phrases, little learned locutions we spit out in certain circumstances. I'm not concerned with this casual use, in the same way that I'm not trying to stop myself from saying "oh my god" or other things which are practically reflexes. I'm focusing here on people who <i>actually</i> believe in fate, or in some kind of force of karma, or that everything happens for a reason. These tend to be the same sorts of people who claim to be "spiritual, but not religious." This means that they like having ridiculous beliefs based on no evidence, but they also want to have the freedom to pick which ridiculous beliefs rather than conform to a preexisting dogma.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's the problem with beliefs of this sort: if you say (with complete intellectual honesty) that you believe that certain events are "fated" to happen (or not to happen), then the following things <i>must</i> be true, and by necessity:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">the universe, or someone/something within the universe, is consciously aware of the existence of every single person within it.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">the universe, or someone/something within the universe, cares about what happens to each individual and has planned out certain events (which are intertwined with the lives of other individuals).</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">the universe, or someone/something within the universe, has some objective sense of morality (which coincidentally aligns with our own) and is concerned about keeping a balance.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">the universe, or someone/something within the universe, is sufficiently knowledgeable and capable of simultaneously taking care of every moment of every person's life in the world.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If you do not believe that all of these things are true, then you don't <i>actually</i> believe in fate, or karma, or that everything happens for a reason. There is no way for these things to be true unless there is some sort of sentience somewhere in the universe who is carefully orchestrating these earthly machinations. You'll see quickly that this is akin to believing in God in everything but name.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The most telling way to look at these beliefs is to ask why people hold them, and then it becomes clear why they exist. Ask someone who <i>actually</i> believes in fate or karma <i>why</i> he believes in it, and the answer will either be a blank stare (indicating that this person had never really bothered to think about that question before and has no real answer) or something along the lines of <i>there just has to be something greater out there, something bigger than all of us, you know?</i> Does there? Why? How can you possibly assert that that statement <i>must</i> be true? When you probe further, you will eventually get the person to admit that they believe it to be true simply because <i>they desperately want it to be true</i>, and so therefore it must be. Of course we would all choose to live in a universe that wants justice for everyone, but reality does not conform to our desires. The fact that you wouldn't want to live a life which is simply a string of random, meaningless events doesn't make it any less likely to be true.<br /><br />Some people may also point to certain events in their lives which are seemingly so coincidental that there could be no possible explanation other than that the universe has guided everything to work out this one particular way. There are (at least) two problems with this line of "proof." First, coincidences are extremely common. Human beings live (on average) for nearly a century, and our lives are constantly intertwined with others' and full of all kinds of happenings and events every waking second of every day. This allows some extremely large number of opportunities for coincidences, and given such a large number of chances, the unexpected will inevitably happen, and happen a lot. We're much more likely to dwell on the one time something coincidental happens than we are the million times when it doesn't. To focus on the interesting to the exclusion of the mundane and assign meaning to the former rather than the latter is an arbitrary act inherent in human consciousness. <br /><br />The second problem is closely related to the first: humans have an overactive tendency to pattern-match. That is, we see connections between unrelated events simply because they occurred at the same time, or sequentially. This predilection for explaining the world around us through cause-and-effect relationships gives an artificially-inflated sense of causality, which some people interpret as evidence for fate, karma, divine intervention, or whatever. We shouldn't feel bad though, as we're not the only species which is prone to superstition. Pigeons have been <a href="http://www.psychologistworld.com/superstition.php" target="_blank">famously shown to behave this way</a> as well.<br /><br />If you <i>actually</i> believe that the universe or someone/something in it is sufficiently interested and capable of guiding events, you are obligated to explain why you believe this to be true. If you are unable to articulate the most basic information about this entity, such as where it is, what it's made of, how it works, where it came from, and why it's bothering to do all of these things, then how could anyone possibly believe you? How could you even believe it yourself?<br /><br />There's nothing wrong with living in a universe that doesn't care about you. Really, it's ok. When something good happens, just be happy that something good happened. You don't need to thank anyone or call yourself blessed. Enjoy it and move on. When something bad happens, don't take it personally. Don't look up for help; do what you can to make it better. <br /><br />Above all, as always, own your beliefs. Think about these things (I mean <i>really </i>think about them) and work it all out for yourself. Then stand up and be confident in what you've come up with, and be happy to talk about it with others. If you have questions you can't answer, go back and think again. Rinse and repeat.</span>James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068911036221804547.post-75930629165318167892013-05-03T09:13:00.003-04:002014-12-19T08:35:38.536-05:00Free Will and the Concept of Sin<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Fair warning from the onset: this one is a bit of a mind-bender. I've recently heard and read some of my hero <a href="http://www.samharris.org/" target="_blank">Sam Harris</a>' work on free will, and I'd like to explore further one consequence of his work which he surprisingly touches on very little, namely the relationship between freewill and the concept of Biblical sin. Sin is of course a central part of the Abrahamic religions. The word appears <a href="http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/sin/" target="_blank">441 times</a> in the King James Bible, for example, but all of these can be summarized simply with Romans 6:23, which states that "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." This clearly lays out a central tenet of the Christian faith, which is that all people are guilty of sin, and unless you ask for salvation through Jesus, your punishment is eternal damnation. The entire idea of sin is predicated on the assumption that human beings have free will and have the power to make choices. Since we can choose to be good or evil, God brings due rewards or punishment to each person upon death, based on the choices he has made. If it could somehow be demonstrated that human beings do <i>not</i> actually have free will, the entire idea of sin would be fundamentally undermined.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />This is precisely what Sam Harris demonstrates in his latest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Free-Will-Sam-Harris/dp/1451683405/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367582971&sr=8-1&keywords=sam+harris+freewill" target="_blank">Free Will</a>. I would encourage you to read the book or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FanhvXO9Pk" target="_blank">watch one of his lectures</a> on the topic. I'll try to summarize a few of his observations and reasons for asserting that free will is an illusion. Some of these thought experiments get a little crazy, but if nothing else they should provide some very interesting food for thought.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />First, try a simple experiment, an obvious act of total free will, of total volition: think of a movie. Any movie at all, even if it's a movie that you haven't even seen but are aware of. What movie did you choose? Now, the important question, why did you choose that movie? If you thought of a few different movies and then ultimately selected one and not the others, can you explain why you didn't pick them? In actual clinical experiments of this sort, people generally give explanations about their choices which turn out to be wrong in reality; a movie pops into their mind, and they try to rationalize why that particular movie occurred to them, and even construct explanations for their choices. Did you pick "The Wizard of Oz?" If you didn't, why not? It's probably because that particular movie didn't even occur to you (if it did, that's a pretty creepy coincidence, and you are probably a sorcerer of some sort.) Are you free to choose a movie which doesn't occur to you? If you can't even really explain why you chose the movie you did, and just as importantly why you decided against other choices which occurred to you, in what sense was your choice actually one of your conscious volition?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />Harris is ultimately talking about a kind of <a href="http://www.informationphilosopher.com/freedom/determinism.html" target="_blank">determinism</a>, which is not a new idea by any means. The ancient Greeks were all over this, especially the thought that all actions have causes; nothing happens at random, or without cause. This is completely different, however, from the popular Christian sentiment that "everything happens for a reason," which implies that the reason is some sort of divine master-plan. Rather, the idea behind determinism is that every action is the <i>necessary</i> consequence of every action which preceded it; you thought of whatever movie you thought of because of a long string of prior events, such that you actually had no choice but to think of whatever movie you thought of.<br /><br />Ideas of this sort are actually observable in a lab setting. It is possible to monitor the neural activity of a person and notice the exact moment in the brain when a decision is made. There is inevitably a time lag between the decision at the neural level and the manifestation of the decision as an action by the individual. That is to say, there is a time period in which the brain has made a choice, but the individual isn't actually aware of what that choice is on the conscious level. Sometimes this delay can even be a few seconds, which makes it possible to tell people what they've chosen before they're consciously aware of it themselves.<br /><br />If you need another example, just consider your thoughts. I mean the random thoughts that just pop into your head throughout the day, for no apparent reason. We all space out sometimes and just start thinking about completely unrelated things, and it is pretty obvious that we aren't in control of this. While we seem to be able to choose to think about whatever we'd like whenever we'd like, we apparently are <i>not</i> the authors of the thoughts which occur to us without our conscious intention.<br /><br />Another aspect to consider is the role that our genes and upbringing play in shaping who we are, which has a profound effect on our actions. Biologists have discovered various genetic markers which predispose people to certain behaviors as well as certain diseases, and these things are obviously beyond our control. There is a gene linked to psychopathy, for example; people who have this gene are much more likely to engage in violent behavior than those who do not. It is not true, however, that everyone who has this gene becomes a psychopath; environmental factors play an important role as well. So, someone who is genetically predisposed to psychopathic behavior and is brought up in an environment which allows those behaviors to manifest themselves <i>has no choice</i> but to become a violent psychopath. This is simply a result of many prior causes, none of which is the fault of the individual.<br /><br />This idea is extremely troubling to most people, as our entire justice system is founded on the basic idea that people are responsible for their actions, and it is just to punish people who choose to behave in unacceptable ways. The same statement is true for Christianity and the Biblical notion of sin; if it is not the case that we are the conscious author of our actions, then it is unreasonable that we ultimately be held responsible for them. Thus, the entire idea of "sin" is undermined by the reality that we are not actually in control of our actions. Note equally that this is true of positive actions as well, not simply negative - those who do good deeds are no more the authors of their actions than those who do evil. In light of this observation, it becomes completely unreasonable for God to reward the saved with paradise and punish the sinners with hell, as the individual in either case did nothing except that which had to be done as a consequence of every cause which had preceded, many of which were beyond the individual's control. <br /><br />Obviously this notion is so completely at odds with our culture that it becomes difficult to believe that it could be true. One is tempted to get carried away with the consequences of it as well, and start wondering if we should release all criminals from prison and stop giving awards to extraordinary people. <br /><br />This would be utter insanity, of course. Rather, there is a more productive way to use this information as you interact with other people. As you realize that someone who seemingly does intentional harm to you had no choice but to do it, it becomes easier to understand the action and not feel the need for immediate and swift revenge. This does not mean that bad deeds should go unpunished and good deeds uncelebrated. We <i>should not</i>, however, attribute the clearest of conscious intentions to the people who do these things. We <i>should</i>, on the other hand, definitely recognize the completely faulty basis for the concept of sin as a justification for eternal damnation. If God does exist and the Bible is His Word, He has a fundamental misunderstanding of causality and is extremely unjust.<br /><br />Hopefully this sort of thought process raises a lot of questions; I'd encourage you to watch or read Sam's thoughts on this subject in detail, as he does a better job of explaining and addressing problems with it than I ever could.</span></span>James Rodkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03901527791261260303noreply@blogger.com0