Understanding Spirituality and Culture through Christ
The movie starts with Paul as an angry man, drowning his pain in alcohol and vitriol. The movie resists finding romance as an easy salve to his pain. Instead it attempts to help people find resolution through honesty, acceptance and facing the truth of their past. The last scene of the movie is Paul taking a swing of liquor and spitting it out, setting Paul on a new journey.
Read MoreWhat is peculiar to Elon is he has civilizational vision for using science and technology - to save humanity. This is why the goal of SpaceX is to make human beings a spacefaring civilization. In the Foundation series the psycho-history genius Hari Sheldon helps civilization navigate through a major crisis by creating a remnant far out in space.
Read MoreOne of the most powerful scenes in this Season is one the father and son have a heart to heart conversation. In order to not spoil the scene I do not want to say too much, but only this. In that scene Dodi tells his dad that the reason why he is so controlling is that he is seeking the affirmation of the West, suggesting that his own controlling nature comes from deep in securities.
Read MoreSo what helps luna Lovegood to be that person that brings comfort to people when they are there, when they are in distress? And how has she developed that ability? A part of this goes back to luna love good's own life history. When she was about nine her mom died accidentally. And she witnessed that death. Anytime somebody witnesses death, in the Harry Potter world, they become people that can see the thestral until then they cannot see the thestral.
Read MoreSo who is Prometheus? He is a figure from the Greek mythology. He stole fire from the gods to bring it to human beings. So that's what they're referring to when they say "raided Mount Olympus again", to bring this technology to human beings so that human life would prosper. The scientists that worked along with Oppenheimer brought the technology that fuels the sun nuclear energy to earth, so to speak. Which is why they are called the modern Prometheans.
Read MoreThere are some that consider Stockton rush as a hero. There are some that say that captain Stockton is a pioneer because he was trying to figure out a way to take multiple people on a tour together to the deeper depths of the ocean. Because the current models do not allow more than two people to go together at the same time. So in that sense, is he an Explorer that is that is trying to push the boundaries and figure out innovative ways of doing things. In that sense, is he a hero?
Read MoreLogan is always playing the game to win. He says, "I always win." And this mindset of playing the game to win is something Simon Sinek, calls the finite game. He wrote a book called the infinite game in which he says people often play two types of games.
Read MoreSo what is terminal decadence? If you think about different cultures and civilization? They rise up, they go to a peak, and then they start coming down. And terminal decadence is the stage where they start crumbling and they reach a point where there is no return.
Read MoreThis thing that sat on Kendal's heart since he was nine is the desire to be crowned as the King. Is that because he really wanted to do the job. Or is that because that is the only way he could get his father's approval. Is Logan exploiting Kendall's need for his approval. Logan would repeat similar tactics with his other children too, Shiv and Roman, manipulating their ambition and loyalties sowing the seeds for grand betrayals and escalating rivalry.
Read MoreLizzy reminded me of the book Fate of Empires. In the book Fate of Empires, Sir John Glubb analyzes how different civilizations follow a common pattern of rise to power, then decline and fall. Civilizations rise to power when people value courage, duty and honor dealings with others. One of the stages in the decline and fall is what he calls the Age of Affluence. In this stage the ethic of honor and duty is replaced by the ethic of wanting to make money and get ahead in life, often at the cost of civic virtue.
Read MoreEvery human being is broken in some ways. We all seek to healing. And love can be a powerful healing force at multiple levels - psychological, neurological and sociological. The problem is that when two broken people try to use each other's love to heal their wounds, it can create more brokenness - because two different people may need two different ways of feeling loved by the other, to feel healed. But the other may not be able to provide that particular way of being loved. This can create a lot of resentment in relationships.
Read MoreThis is the meaning of Christmas! It means we do not have to resign our unyielding despair like Bertrand Russell suggests or try to escape into a world of comic relief as Woody Allen does, rather we can face the despair in life with the hope that our pain points to a bigger purpose and our desires point to a transcendent beauty and our life will find meaning which will echo through eternity. All because the Logos took on Humanity and transformed what it means to be human.
Read MoreWhat Virgil was for Dante in Divine Comedy, Tolkien was for my in my reading journey. He opened up a new intellectual avenue for me to my heart, I travelled this highway back to literature.
Read MoreTo the extend that we don't value our need for deep bonds with the community around us we will become less human, the way the elite managerial class seem in Terminal List. In exchanging the brotherhood for money, the elite managerial class lose their humanity. Their humanity dies before they indeed are terminated.
Read MoreThe Moore Bond existed to entertain, the Craig Bond lived to point us to the deeper way of love, the Christlike way of self-giving love which is the proper function of a man who lives a life worth living.
Read MoreA strong sense of why is deeply motivating, giving us the energy to face what we have to do each day with a deep sense of purpose and meaning. Simon Sinek is right in helping us to see why focusing on the why is more important than focusing on the 'what.' But the 'why' in and of itself is amoral, so it can easily be used in narcissistic self-seeking ways. When we make our 'why' to align with the glorifying God, by valuing intimacy with God and obeying God's command to love our neighbors we will be energized to truly create a world of love and peace.
Read MoreMichale Malice is not wrong to say people should have the motivation to make the world a better place. But the problem is without a comprehensive model for how to make the world a better place, misplaced motivation can easily destroy the world in the name of making the world a better place as we see with Stalin and Walter Duranty. Christian theology points to Jesus being the best model to making the world a better place through self-giving love, in as much as Christians follow the way of Jesus, we will truly be making the world a better place.
Read MoreThe idea of using micro electrodes in the brain to program away faulty thinking reminds me of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World which uses drugs instead of electromagnetism to manage brains creating a crime-less society with unmitigated happiness. The problem of course is that a society which does not have a sense of freewill ends up into becoming a rather boring society. One of the characters, John Savage, finds such a world so meaningless that he tries to find meaning in suffering, lashing himself with a whip, and eventually taking his own life away. Why would a society filled with easy ways for chemically induced happiness be rather boring and meaningless?
Yes, people can change history of they have a singular passion for an idea and are willing to die for it. But for this change to create any kind of last peace in a Christlike way, the means and the ends have to align. Using coercive power may give short term results. But one cannot use coercive powers of destruction to create lasting peace, case in point Nechayev’s Revolution. One can only use self-sacrificial love of the way of Jesus to create lasting peace.
Read MoreWhat we see in Mandalorian is an alignment to a creed, and then a commitment to the community. As Christians we too are called to be people who are aligned to the creed the Jesus is Lord, and committed to the community of children of God who live around us.
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