Osmosis Jones A white blood cell cop and a cold pill agent team up to fight a foreign threat that found its way inside an irresponsible zookeeper. Inside Out meets Innerspace. The animation style reminded me of Don Bluth, but he had nothing to do with it; a script shot through with toilet humor doesn’t … Sci-fi and Fantasy Movies and Series Reviews, Part 50
From That Hideous Strength: “Why you fool, it’s the educated reader who can be gulled. All our difficulty comes with the others. When did you meet a workman who believes the papers? He takes it for granted that they’re all propaganda and skips the leading articles. He buys his paper for the football results and … C.S. Lewis on Educated Readers
This is who Disney hired to write the new “all female” Star Wars series. Here’s how to make a great Star Wars story: interesting characters with flaws and strengths, who change and learn things over the course of the film/series, crazy alien species and space creatures, flashy, acrobatic lightsaber duels, devious villains and undercover agents, … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 34
Some book reviews I’ve left on Goodreads. Kim I’m sure this is an excellent book, if I could understand it. Kipling stuffs it to the gills with so much colloquialisms and British-Indian cultural in-jokes that I may as well be reading Greek upside down and from the back. Much of the humor and significance is … Hella Book Reviews, Part 1
Ed talks about where here is in relation to the supernatural domain: With rare exception, all of the Christians I’ve ever met ascribe to some version “Heaven” as somewhere different from here and now. But it seems most of the time a mere idea. It’s not part of their calculus of life. They act as … Natural and Supernatural Co-Location
Buon Natale! You Barely Make a Difference and It’s a Good Thing – Stop trying to fix the world Also, you are not advancing the kingdom – “There is no social agenda that has any relationship with the Kingdom of God.” The Metalhead Kids Are All Right How Progressives Stole Christian History – Progressivism is … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 10
It’s been a while since I did one of these! The Medieval Mind and the Modernist Error – You might be dumber than a 12th century French peasant who makes $2 a year. Academia’s Rejection of Diversity – AKA: A moral imperative for us, not for them. The Latest Evidence That Helmet Laws Don’t Help … Links of Possible Relevance, Part 8
See here and here for reference. 1. Inference (2): “If (i) morally good acts are willed by God because they are morally good, then they are morally good independent of God’s will.” – Possibly true, but irrelevant, since there’s other things besides God’s will that morality could rest upon: i.e., God’s power or omniscience. 2. … The Euthyphro Dumb-lemma
Once in a while, Relevant Magazine will post something not so completely drenched in Millenial Christian cheese sauce that it’s worth noting. Via Wintery Knight, “What If Having an Extraordinary Life Isn’t the Point?“: Some have grown tired of the constant calls to radical change. They are less sure they want to jump on the … Living In Taupeville
Again from The World’s Last Night, Lewis, in a roundabout way, addresses the “all the jobs, everywhere, all the time, for everyone, forever” angle heard during election season nationwide. Such would seem to be the inevitable result of a society which depends predominantly on buying and selling. In a rational world, things would be made … C.S. Lewis On Full Employment Fetishism
Years ago, during the Myspace era, there was a study done on the empirical effects of prayer on sick people. The results showed that prayer made no difference in the health of the patient*. I thought the experiment silly since, as God is a person who decides things (not quite like humans do, but I … C.S. Lewis On Scientific Experiments On Prayer
I don’t know much about Cody but I found him engaging, though I didn’t listen to any of the other parts of his presentation yet. Take note of the social contract as the “big other” theory he brings up. It’s a tool of what C.S. Lewis called “moral busybodies“—bureaucrats, activists, and other state-as-religion believers use … Invasion of the Moral Busybodies
Wise words from C.S. Lewis, for those of us who use “amazing” or “absolutely” x to describe something as impactful as a new casserole recipe. From The Collected Letters of…: Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to … Stop Using “Amazing” To Describe Your New Haircut
A pastor I follow online posted a quick rebuttal of a boilerplate criticism of theistic belief. In his blog is mainly concerned with theistic belief qua theistic belief, not as interpreted via Western modes of reasoning, though this post shows his strong grip on formal logic. To wit: Smart-aleck atheist wannabe asks, “Do you believe … What God Can Do and Can’t Do
Came across this one-two gem between Lewis and Tolkein, on Christianity Today: “Why C.S. Lewis Was Wrong on Marriage (and J.R.R. Tolkien Was Right).” And while it’s technically about divorce (their generation’s “gay marriage,” if you will), it still has similar applications. That CT sided with Tolkein is no shocker—just look at the post title. … C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkienn on Gay Marriage
I looked at this page for the number of miracles performed in the Bible. It lists the number at 120. Some of them I wouldn’t necessarily count them as Biblical miracles (like number 120), but 120 is probably a good number to start with. But I would double that, just to be sure, for a … Average Number of Miracles in Biblical Times
In turn of the century letter-writing—I can’t exactly point to where—I have read on “dying a good death”. In a general sense this means dying under favorable circumstances, and most of us would take the phrase to mean favorable material circumstances: living to a prosperous old age, free of disease or dysfunction, in the company … How to Die Properly
From near the end of The Abolition of Man (read it free online here). Emphasis mine. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls. It … C.S. Lewis on the Soft Dictatorship of Objective Values
While trying to escape that weird part of Youtube, I landed on the first video posted below, of C.S. Lewis on the problem of evil. He explains, with much better clarity and elegance, what I mentioned before about God having preferences (he even used the same word), and that He prefers free moral agents over … Nothing Racks Up Adsense Money Like Another Post on Theodicy