Just wanted to do a quick post about a youtube video I saw linked somewhere else. This is the video. On the surface it would seem to be a comment about how formulaic some church services can become. One thing the makers of this video do not tell you is that this can happen with any kind of church service, liturgical or whatever. The underlining goal of this video is to show how wrong so called "contemporary" services are by making fun of it.
In my studies of psychology I did learn that people are creatures of habit. We like routine and get through things that follow a pattern. It is comforting to us. You have heard it said that people do not like change and this is why. This is also why major life changes or illnesses or whatever can have a devastating effect on someone since it breaks the routine and the familiar. Now change is good but it should not be done without understanding and compensating for the consequences of that change.
Back to the video. What angers me about this video is: one the mocking and two the critiquing of the "formulaic contemporary" services why celebration in their own formula for a service. And I can say that by asking to be shown a church that does not have some sort routine in their service.
As Christians we need to get past this demonizing other people's way of worshiping. It is okay to question and point out errors but to out right mock and disregard someone worship and devastating to what we say we believe in. Christ did not want this. He wanted unity.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Science Fiction: What Is It and What Do I Like About It Part Two
In this post I'll list a few of my favorite science fiction movies and why I like them. In future posts I'll list more.
Star Wars was once my favorite movie as a kid. I loved that it took place in space and on spaceships and space stations. It even had those cool lightsabers. I didn't care about the Force but I loved the droids, ships and lightsabers. There was always something about the first scene in the Lars homestead when we see Aunt Beru in the kitchen that I loved. The Star Wars universe was one place I would love to visit. I even liked idea of the Millennium Falcon. A spaceship that was also a home. The final battle at the end was exciting but over the years I tend to skip that part of the movie. I don't really like small fighter battles and this one goes for a loooong time.
I saw Star Trek The Motion Picture about a year or two after Star Wars and loved it. For a few years after I kept watching the Star Wars movies and was a big fan of it but I always remember back to a movie that took place in space on a huge ship that was doing some exploring. It lingered on shots of both the interior and exterior of the ship and this "thing" that was being investigated. But I couldn't remember the name. This movie also had an interesting feel about it. Eerie is not quite the feeling but it was different and I loved it. Years later after seeing it many times and being told that it was one of the worst Star Trek movies I still kept enjoying watching it. As I began to understand more and more about the movie I saw some interesting things that it was saying. There was a major character change in Spock to where he learned to appreciate and utilize his emotional human half when approaching problems and intereacting with people. I also picked up that the whole V'Ger journey and search for its creator is similar to a person searching for God and being shocked to find that God is not what that person expected or made Him out to be but accepting the truth.
The main draw I have towards the Fifth Element is the character Leeloo. There are similar characters to Leeloo in other movies and TV shows that I like. She is very similar to Lady Amalthea from The Last Unicorn, Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager. The Ilia probe From Star Trek the Motion Picture had some of the similar qualities They all have the quality of being childlike and discovering what it means to be human. Also with this discovery they both astonished and dismayed at what it seen. All of them were intelligent and did have specific goals or missions to accomplish while living for that discover about humanity both good and bad and it was usually something very good that they discover that encourages them to complete what they originally set out to do despite the evil they found.
More movies to come later.......
Star Wars was once my favorite movie as a kid. I loved that it took place in space and on spaceships and space stations. It even had those cool lightsabers. I didn't care about the Force but I loved the droids, ships and lightsabers. There was always something about the first scene in the Lars homestead when we see Aunt Beru in the kitchen that I loved. The Star Wars universe was one place I would love to visit. I even liked idea of the Millennium Falcon. A spaceship that was also a home. The final battle at the end was exciting but over the years I tend to skip that part of the movie. I don't really like small fighter battles and this one goes for a loooong time.
I saw Star Trek The Motion Picture about a year or two after Star Wars and loved it. For a few years after I kept watching the Star Wars movies and was a big fan of it but I always remember back to a movie that took place in space on a huge ship that was doing some exploring. It lingered on shots of both the interior and exterior of the ship and this "thing" that was being investigated. But I couldn't remember the name. This movie also had an interesting feel about it. Eerie is not quite the feeling but it was different and I loved it. Years later after seeing it many times and being told that it was one of the worst Star Trek movies I still kept enjoying watching it. As I began to understand more and more about the movie I saw some interesting things that it was saying. There was a major character change in Spock to where he learned to appreciate and utilize his emotional human half when approaching problems and intereacting with people. I also picked up that the whole V'Ger journey and search for its creator is similar to a person searching for God and being shocked to find that God is not what that person expected or made Him out to be but accepting the truth.
The main draw I have towards the Fifth Element is the character Leeloo. There are similar characters to Leeloo in other movies and TV shows that I like. She is very similar to Lady Amalthea from The Last Unicorn, Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager. The Ilia probe From Star Trek the Motion Picture had some of the similar qualities They all have the quality of being childlike and discovering what it means to be human. Also with this discovery they both astonished and dismayed at what it seen. All of them were intelligent and did have specific goals or missions to accomplish while living for that discover about humanity both good and bad and it was usually something very good that they discover that encourages them to complete what they originally set out to do despite the evil they found.
More movies to come later.......
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Science Fiction: What Is It and What Do I Like About It.
For a while now I've been wanting to write out what it is about science fiction that I like and some examples of why. Part of this is help explain to my friends who get confused when they think they have me figured out and expect me to like something or dislike another. I have many thoughts on that but they are not yet organized properly. I thought I would try to lay out the ideas here and see how it flows or comes together. Since there is a lot to say I'll just start with the first couple thoughts in this post and will work more and post more of it later.
What is science fiction? There are many answers to that question. I've seen many different definitions for it depending on who you ask. Because of people not always agreeing that a specific story or series is science fiction the term speculative fiction is being considered. I tend to lean toward a similar thought as listed here: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Science_fiction
The science fiction I tend to like more is when it is about how technology and advanced or unknown science impacts man on a personal level and on the societal level. Part of the reason I like this approach is probably because my life has been impacted by science and technology, specifically medical science and technology. The reason I say this is based on a conversation I had with my mother. When I was very young, the first movie I remember seeing in the theater was Star Wars and became a big fan. I was about 7 when I saw it. I was born with a very serious heart defect and have watched cardiology and pediatric cardiology advance over the years. My favorite character in Star Wars was Darth Vader. Vader is probably one of the top cinematic villains ever. He permanently wore a suit that kept him alive and his limbs were cybernetic. I used to always play as Vader as a kid with a towel safety pinned to what ever shirt I had on. I asked my mother why I liked the bad guy and tried to emulated him. She told me that she asked me that back then I responded that "there was something wrong with him and they fixed him." In the past years I had an ICD implanted and my mother said that they are turning me into the 6 million dollar man. My wife said no, they are turning him into his childhood hero, Vader.
One of the other popular uses of science fiction is to disguise a sensitive subject to make a statement about it. Star Trek did that a lot and was one of the main reasons the show was created. Sometimes science fiction is used to tell an existing story in a new or interesting way. Examples of this type are the Star Wars movies that are about the hero's journey and Battle Beyond the Stars which is a retelling of a western called the Magnificent Seven that was the retelling of a samurai story called the Seven Samurai. In each version of the same story technology and location affected the way the story was told and helped make it fresh and interesting.
What is science fiction? There are many answers to that question. I've seen many different definitions for it depending on who you ask. Because of people not always agreeing that a specific story or series is science fiction the term speculative fiction is being considered. I tend to lean toward a similar thought as listed here: http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Science_fiction
The science fiction I tend to like more is when it is about how technology and advanced or unknown science impacts man on a personal level and on the societal level. Part of the reason I like this approach is probably because my life has been impacted by science and technology, specifically medical science and technology. The reason I say this is based on a conversation I had with my mother. When I was very young, the first movie I remember seeing in the theater was Star Wars and became a big fan. I was about 7 when I saw it. I was born with a very serious heart defect and have watched cardiology and pediatric cardiology advance over the years. My favorite character in Star Wars was Darth Vader. Vader is probably one of the top cinematic villains ever. He permanently wore a suit that kept him alive and his limbs were cybernetic. I used to always play as Vader as a kid with a towel safety pinned to what ever shirt I had on. I asked my mother why I liked the bad guy and tried to emulated him. She told me that she asked me that back then I responded that "there was something wrong with him and they fixed him." In the past years I had an ICD implanted and my mother said that they are turning me into the 6 million dollar man. My wife said no, they are turning him into his childhood hero, Vader.
One of the other popular uses of science fiction is to disguise a sensitive subject to make a statement about it. Star Trek did that a lot and was one of the main reasons the show was created. Sometimes science fiction is used to tell an existing story in a new or interesting way. Examples of this type are the Star Wars movies that are about the hero's journey and Battle Beyond the Stars which is a retelling of a western called the Magnificent Seven that was the retelling of a samurai story called the Seven Samurai. In each version of the same story technology and location affected the way the story was told and helped make it fresh and interesting.
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