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June, 2007:

“Blood Diamond” – An Inside Scoop

blood-diamond.jpgI recently watched Blood Diamond, twice in two weeks. That’s rare for me. The first time I watched it I watched with my aunt who mentioned that missionary friends of hers had to leave Sierra Leone because of the conflict portrayed in the movie. So here, in the words of Kenneth Wiebe, is a personal story and some observations about the movie:

Yvonne and I are from Chilliwack, BC. We’ve been missionaries of Christians in Action to Sierra Leone since 1977. We left the country in the middle of the war — in 1995 — on the last scheduled flight to leave the country. Since 1997 we’ve been living in London, England, and I make regular trips to Sierra Leone — two or more a year — to provide encouragement, oversight, training, and logistical support for our African team.

The Christians in Action work in Sierra Leone consists of a dozen established churches, five more developing churches, several village outreaches, and five primary schools.

We have watched Blood Diamond. It was pretty good… surprisingly so.

DiCaprio’s Krio, though used only sparingly, was far better than any of the other African actors’. And, fittingly, as he was portraying a South African, he spoke it with a South African accent. The presence of South Africans, though, seemed incongruous to me. There may be South Africans involved in Sierra Leone’s diamond trade, but I’ve never seen any. I would have expected to see Lebanese diamond dealers instead — there are thousands of them in the country.

There was some pretty grand looking country in the film, too, though Sierra Leone has much less of that. And, interestingly, despite much red soil all over the country, the diamond-rich soils are primarily a light ashy colour. I may be drawing attention primarily to periferal things, but those were the things that caught my attention.
The grander aspects of the story — corruption, brutality, and how those have been exacerbated by Sierra Leone’s diamond wealth — were done without glaring inconsistencies or factual error that I noticed. I have only marginally experienced some aspects of the terror, so I cannot comment adequately there, but my knowledge of the things that happened lead me to believe that the film in no way overplayed that aspect of the story.

The God Delusion – Part 4 – Pick a Side, Einstein

180px-einstein_tongue.jpgTheist – believes in a supernatural intelligence who can be personally known and is interested in human affairs

Deist – believes in a supernatural intelligence with no specific interest in human affairs

Pantheist – does not believe in a supernatural God at all, but uses the word ‘god’ as a non-supernatural synonym for Nature, or for the Universe, or for the lawfulness that governs its workings

Dawkins:

“An atheist in this sense of philosophical naturalist is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe, no souls that outlast the body and no miracles – except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don’t yet understand. If there is something that appears to lie beyond the natural world as it is now imperfectly understood, we hope eventually to understand it and embrace it within the natural. As ever when we unweave a rainbow, it will not become less wonderful.”

Here Dawkins is simply stating the essence of his beliefs and that is helpful. I’ve been critical of Dawkins’ style so far and there will be many more eye-rolling statements to come, but here he is really communicating in the way I wish he would continue.

This is probably as close to an atheist creed I’ve come across, and I know atheism is a system built on free-thinking but are there many of you – atheists that is – who would not affirm the following:

I believe there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world

I believe there is no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe

I believe there is no soul that outlasts the body

I believe there are no miracles – except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don’t yet understand

Is that a fairly representative creed?

I do admire Dawkins’ lust for learning, a desire that many Christians have given up on, or worse believe to be sinful. There is no doubt that we will someday understand things that seem mysterious now. And the church erred greatly in centuries past in claiming unknowable that which was about to be discovered and known. In the words of one of my favorite Indigo Girls songs, “Galileo’s head was on the block, his crime was looking up the truth…” What are today’s examples of people whose heads are on the block for looking up the truth?

Some Christians may find this heretical, but my religion, in the words of Madeleine L’engle is “subject to change at a moment’s notice” should science prove conclusively, beyond a doubt that, for example, Jesus did in fact have a biological father. Obviously I do not believe such a statement heretical but this was the main reason I wrote a previous series about a popular young American pastor who seemed to call into question the usefulness of this belief. My biggest argument with commenters of that series was about whether or not a discovery of this kind would cause me to reevaluate my faith. It would – I would not dance around it. I would have to reevaluate a great number of things.

Dawkins spends quite a bit of time on Einstein and whether or not he was a religious man. It is a matter of some debate, with both sides able to formulate a reasonable case for Einstein being “on their side”. But I think Dawkins’ case is the most compelling I’ve heard and that doesn’t bother me in the least.

Suggested rule of engagement: let’s stop arguing about whose team people were/are on. If they were ambiguous about it it was probably intentional. If they claim to be on one side but act in a way that does not reflect the generally recognized creed of that side, let’s not force them onto that team. Fair enough?

 

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To read more posts in this series visit my Richard Dawkins page.

Pedro the Lion – Achilles Heel

Pedro the Lion frontman David Bazan has kind of made a name for himself by cussing. In particular it’s the juxtaposition of his Christian faith with his willingness to openly cuss that has brought an excessive amount of attention his way.

In the song “Foregone Conclusions” from the album Achilles Heel he sings:

“You were too busy steering the conversation toward the Lord
To hear the voice of the spirit begging you to shut the f— up
You thought it must be the devil trying to make you go astray
Besides, it could not have been the Lord
Because you don’t believe He talks that way”

Apparently David Bazan believes that the Lord does talk that way. I’ll be honest, I’m a little uncomfortable seeing those particular colors together on the same canvas. And it would be easier to forget the song if it wasn’t one of the catchiest pieces of music I’ve ever heard.

Although I’ve listened to other Pedro albums (mostly 2002’s “Control”), I’m relatively new to Bazan’s work. I couldn’t listen through “Control” more than once due to the overly depressed vocal delivery and the intentionally low production value. Production value is no impediment on “Achilles Heel” as Bazan’s syrupy vocals flow and drawl over a base of warm guitars and well placed percussion.

The aforementioned “Foregone Conclusions” has to be the sweetest piece of music and melody Bazan has ever produced even though the lyrics are as bitter and cynical as ever. Ignore the content of the lyrics and you almost have a feel-good summer hit.

I guess that’s one of the things that makes the man compelling. Paradox is his bread and butter – cussing with Christianity; sweet melodies with bitter words. His popularity doesn’t ride on paradox alone, there is genuine talent in both vocal and instrumental delivery as well. He’s blessed with a voice that is unique, recognizable, and versatile enough, and musical skill both natural and worked-for.

I’m giving this album more than a few spins. It could be the one that unlocks my understanding of his previous work – and that’s usually a good thing.

Click here to listen to samples of the album at Amazon.

Bad Christians and Bad Atheists

I Sold My Soul on eBay author Hemant Mehta has a blog called “Friendly Atheist”.  Some of his posts are indeed of a friendly nature while others, especially recently it seems, are a bit less so.

Two recent entries are worth looking at:

Christians hurting Christianity 

Hemant asks: “Have any of you (Christian or atheist or otherwise) had encounters with Christians who were well-meaning about sharing their faith, but actually ended up pushing you further away from Christianity?”

Atheists hurting Atheism 

Hemant asks: “Have you ever met an atheist who pushed you away from atheism (whether you’re a religious or non-religious person)?”

Have a look and add a comment if you have one.

Two New Books about Google and Mennonites

Amidst the thousands of trashy romance novels and old magazines, thrift stores occasionally offer up books that are actually worthy of purchase. I found two such books tonight.

The Google Story by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed
The title pretty much describes the book, yes? “Inside the hottest business, media, and technology success of our time”. There is a website for the book here.This one has been on my “to buy” list since it was published in 2005. $37.00 new or $3.99 at a thrift store – take your pick. Of course a lot has changed since 2005 but this will do for the history up to then.
Sweeter Than All the World by Rudy Wiebe
Although I don’t read a lot of fiction, especially historical fiction, this book by acclaimed Canadian author Rudy Wiebe is appealing to me because the history involved is very close to my own. My background is Mennonite and my mother’s maiden name is the same as the author’s.I’ve read the first few pages and they are amazing.

Seen and Heard (July 6, 2007)

Scott “Dilbert” Adams just put a post up that goes well with the discussions we’re having here regarding religious and Atheist violence and the body counts of each. I imagine there will be many comments there so go join the fray.

***update – Scott Adams says he accidentally deleted his own post. The post and the comments up to that point that were deleted can be viewed here. I don’t think you can add more comments at this point. ***

The CBC program Ideas recently did a piece called

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that is worth a listen.

And on the podcast Nuclearity the topic was

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and featured Donald Miller talking about his book To Own a Dragon. I’ll be doing a series on Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz shortly so go ahead and get familiar with him.

Childhood Indoctrination

Over at the blog Piece of Mind, in a post called Doubt is a Higher Calling, Mark Tokarski has challenged me to define my thinking about childhood indoctrination a little more clearly. It’s a valid challenge. It’s worth reading his post before you read the following response:

Mark,

I’m glad we’re having this conversation… and this is good – you’re getting me started on my post about indoctrination. You don’t mind if I steal my own comments off your blog right? ;-)

The reason I have “dealt with this somewhat, but not thoroughly” is that my kids (all girls) are 4, 3, and 1 and when it comes to parenting I try to live by the rule that I don’t comment – not with apparent authority anyway – on things I have not yet experienced.

So, with my oldest being only 4 she is starting to ask questions, starting to pick up things here and there that she hears about “God”. This is where you and I differ – you have older children and you’ve already been through this. So I do appreciate your insights, and for that matter the honesty of your post.

I am in the process of determining proper responses to my daughters. Am I going to bombard them with theology that they have no hope of understanding? No, of course not. Am I going to answer their childlike questions in equally childlike terms that they can understand? Yes I am.

Where I have determined that I have found Truth I will tell my children. Where I have doubts I won’t pretend to be certain. That’s the way I work.

As for your childhood experience… yes, things tend to be overspiritualized in many ways. It’s an error I try to avoid. You have that in common with another one of my other commenters who I went out for a Guinness with last night (I still don’t like it BTW – I try to like it every 2 years or so). His point was similar to yours: things were so overspiritualized for him in a negative way that he couldn’t be in a dark room alone without being afraid.

Now this is all very unfortunate when it is the result of religious fearmongering. Do I believe demons and angels exist? Well, as a Christian, of course I do. But the manner of their influence is considerably more subtle, as a rule, than what is portrayed in a Frank Peretti book or for that matter a Stephen King book/movie.

The extremity of your treatment is common to some Catholic communities; I am far more familiar with extreme fundamentalism though, which is very common here in Southwestern Ontario (Canada). You have these groups nailed and I agree with you that they are involved in malicious indoctrination. I know many such people personally and they don’t even consider me a Christian. Seriously… especially if they read this and find out I had a beer.

If you don’t mind me asking, what was the “bolt of lighting that knocked you off your horse”? I’m assuming this is not the same flash of light that knocked St. Paul off of his.

You’re right on this too: children should know all of it, the good and the bad together. And here’s another point we won’t agree on but from personal experience many of the friends I grew up in church with ditched their Christianity when the other half of the truth was known. My belief is that they, along with a couple of generations in North America would still be Christians today if they had known all of it and been able to work out their faith with the knowledge of both sides.

I’ll make an assumption here so correct me if I’m wrong, but would your thinking be that given all the evidence anyone who honestly wrestled with it would choose Atheism?

You have my vote on doubt. I even wrote a song about it called

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The song is about the benefits and challenges of embracing doubt.

Cheers Mark, here’s to many more of these conversations.

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For more posts in the series on Richard Dawkins and The God Delusion return to the Richard Dawkins page.

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(if you liked that song, there are more at http://www.michaelkrahn.com . Shameless self-promotion, I know, but this is MY blog after all.)