Posted by Anthony on February 10, 2009
Hat tip to Charles for pointing this article out to me.
Recently ChristianityToday had an excellent article on the use of science fiction to communicate a distinctly secular and atheistic world view. If you are a Christian that cares for the state of the Church today and our modern challenge, you should read the article.
The article correctly says:
… viewers don’t leave movies such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hancock, X-Men, and Contact—or television programs such as The X-Files or Heroes—scratching their heads in confusion. We are intrigued, but not surprised. Why? Because stories of advanced extraterrestrials, ancient human-alien contact, superior intelligences roaming the universe, and emerging super-races have grown familiar through repeated exposure. Thanks to the longstanding efforts of a wide range of artists, popular writers, and even scientists, we immediately recognize intelligent aliens and advanced humans. We now see space and the future as sources of hope.
One of the things that I’ve noted (see this blog entry on Heroes and Philip Pullman) is that the modern method is to denounce anything we might call supernatural as nonsense in one breath, and in the other breath re-issue the same phenomena but provide a naturalistic explanation for it. Heroes is a great case in point, as most of the ‘heroes’ have powers that, if we ever met them in real life, we’d instantly conclude were supernatural. But Heroes prepares the way for 2 Thess. 2:9-10 in that it provides a ‘plausible’ explanation for how even the miraculous is merely natural. (In my discussions with atheists, no evidence for natural explanations is necessary- plausibility is sufficient. See, for eg., abiogenesis, and Dawkins hemming and hawing at the end of Ben Stein’s Expelled).
Another case in point is Carl Sagan’s Contact, where scientists are able to scientifically detect intelligent design. We are told today that this is impossible; the implications involved in conceding even the mere possibility of reliably detecting design are too frightening to be allowed by our ‘methodological’ naturalists. So, Contact would not have been written today, but even so it served to show how ‘advanced’ information is no evidence at all for God, and can be- and should be- interpreted in natural terms. With this method in mind, it is no wonder that atheists conclude there is no God. They are merely ahead of the pop culture trend, prepared to interpret all facts in naturalistic terms and then smug in their conclusion that no facts exist to support supernaturalism.
So how does one combat this? WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Anthony on March 26, 2008
The Chronicles of Narnia for Grown Ups
A Presentation for Churches
View a sample of Anthony speaking- a graduation speech he delivered with Lewis and Tolkien themes.
Click Here for my review of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movie. Prince Caspian is due out in mid-May, 2008. Here is one of my posts on the Christian themes in Prince Caspian. Click here for information about a bulletin insert on Prince Caspian. This presentation is in line with my ministry that aims to apply the arts to the promotion of Christianity as described at my formal non-profit ministry page at www.athanatosministries.org
Details
Frequent attention is given to C.S. Lewis’s obvious Christian elements of his ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ series, especially in connection to helping children understand the Christ story with them and in them. Indeed, the Narnian tales provide a great opportunity to share the Christian story in a new way, even in some ways right under the nose of our secular society. The clearest example is “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
But there are six other books as well, and these too are packed with insight into reality from a Christian perspective. They receive far less attention then TLWW but provide as much interesting and usable material. However, before Christians can apply the lessons from these books the way we apply lessons from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” adults must be made aware of them.
The Chronicles of Narnia recently came under ‘attack’ by the Philip Pullman series, “His Dark Materials.” Pullman wrote that Narnia disgusted him which is a reaction that most Christians would find surprising to say the least. (To read my responses to the whole “Golden Compass” mess click here) What the Pullman series really does is illustrate the world view gap between Christians and others, in particular secular humanists and atheists. Thus, even though the Narnia series is written for children, Christian adults must take an interest. Pullman did, and he wrote a response.
This presentation covers other important Christian themes in the Chronicles of Narnia as well as the obvious ones in the more famous “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” All of these themes are ones that are fruitful for adults to explore and if Christian parents are familiar with them and their importance they can more effectively and deliberately transmit those principles to their children. Below are several of the themes that Lewis weaves into his tales that are covered in this presentation:
- Courage and Bravery
- Loyalty
- Moral Cause and Effect
- Greed and Avarice
- Fantasy and Adventure
- Accountability
- Myth
- Duty
These and more are matters that adults must think about as much as children need to. Sadly, our children do not hear much about such topics as deliberately and intentionally as they ought. However, adults- parents, teachers, and pastors- can use Lewis’s books to do just that in a way that is fun and entertaining to children. Fortunately, they are fun and entertaining for adults, too.
The presentation can be reduced to 90 minutes, or it can be expanded to up to four hours.
Here is the outline of the presentation, regardless of the time frame:
01. —- Introduction to C.S. Lewis, his works, and the “Chronicles of Narnia” in particular.
02. —- Special attention to the explicitly Christian material in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
03. —- The Adventure of our Lives: Are we Narnians? Exploration of the themes in the Narnian Tales of Myth, Fantasy, and Adventure.
04. —- Morality is not All Negatives: Courage, Bravery, Loyalty, Duty, Devotion and Love- re-discovering the positive truths of Christianity.
05. —- Cause and Effect isn’t only for Physics: God’s System of Moral Cause and Effect. Greed, Avarice, Accountability.
06. —- Why we are Here: God’s purpose in delaying the End, and the End that is Coming.
07. —- Summary: What we adult Narnians can learn from Lewis.
08. —- Application: Connecting with an Entertainment Driven Society and the Children within it.
09. —- Application: Mastering Media, but not being Mastered by It: Using but not being Used. Teaching children how to discern.
10. —- OPTIONAL Application: Ideas for how to use modern media in our churches and homes to teach lessons about Christianity.
11. —- Conclusion: God is the master and maker of the universe, and we are his heirs. All good things are ours: courage to live in grace (adventure) and re-claim the good things (that our rightfully ours) that world has tried to take away from us.
12. —- Discussion
As you can see, cramming this into 90 minutes means being overly concise. Recommended is a 3 hour session, broken up into two 90 minute blocks, with a light snack provided by the host in between.
If you are interested in having me present this material, please email me at sntjohnny@sntjohnny.com, use this form Here, or call me at 202-280-7971. If you would like this or similar material covered (for example, discussion of The Lord of the Rings, as well) or have a specific format you need adaptation to, please do not hesitate to explain your situation.
I will travel nationally provided transportation is covered.
Click Here for more biographical material about me.
I have been involved in teaching and ministering for about 10 years. Some of these years were spent teaching in junior high and high school, but in two of those years I also taught at a college as well. I am a Christian that went through an intense time of examination, even to the point possibly where I could have called myself an atheist. My experiences have prepared me well for Christian apologetics.
Posted by Anthony on November 27, 2007
This is probably my last post on the “His Dark Materials” series and to tell you the truth I’m about ready to be done. There are innumerable issues raised by the HDM series and quite a bit that I wanted to respond to. This blog contains many of those responses and there probably could be even more said. It is my hope that my information serves as a starting point for Christians to learn more about these issues. These issues will always be with us and hiding from them is not the solution.
It has been noted that one of the issues with the Golden Compass is that it is not nearly as overtly anti-Christian as the later books. These themes have been purged even more in the movie so that the unwary movie goer and reader might not ever see what is coming in the later books. Granted, but there is one thing in the Golden Compass that has the potential to catch someone off guard.
In the last few chapters of TGC, chapter 21 in particular, there is a long, extended quote from Genesis 3. This follows a long discussion about the nature of ‘Dust’ and the Church’s grave concern about it. Lord Asriel, Lyra’s father is trying to explain matters and finally compels Lyra to open up the Bible to Genesis and read. In the main, the text is familiar. … “ye shall not surely die yada yada yada” and then it gets interesting…
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and your daemons shall assume their true forms, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to reveal the true form of one’s deamon, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband…
And on like that for awhile. When I read this material myself, I sort of sat back and wondered how the man thinks he can get away with blatant mistranslation such as this. Before my very eyes, I saw thousands of young Christians and even some older ones who ought to know better thinking about this telling of Genesis and comparing it with what they remembered. Has something been concealed in the translation? they may wonder. What else is being withheld? another might say.
Initially, the staggering display of intellectual deceit here took my breath away and then I realized what he was about and where he was going. It was here that I really understood that the Golden Compass, when talking about the Church, and Christianity, and the multiverse, and such, this material was taking place in one of these other rival universes and knew that the bridge to our own universe was on its way.
This isn’t intellectual deceit, you see, because this is merely how the Genesis account evolved in this particular universe. We need not dwell on the intellectual blindness that keeps Pullman from realizing that his whole multiverse system of thought means that there is really a universe where there was an Adam and Eve and a young earth. With innumerable universes to work with expressing all possible outcomes, the improbable will happen eventually: in some universe, the Christians are right. At any rate, this post is not about all that.
This post is for those who stumble on this passage and suddenly wonder if their translation of Genesis 3 is horribly flawed and Pullman is subtly revealing an alternate translation that has been brutally suppressed by that evil, nasty, Christian Church. I have no idea if this passage is going to be read in the movie, so maybe this post will only be for those that read the book.
Conclusion: No. The Hebrew text does not support this translation and Pullman doesn’t need it to because he can have the ‘Genesis’ in another universe say whatever he darn well pleases, and this passage is just that.
The truly astute reader will suddenly remember the pointed claim by Mary Malone that “The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that’s all.” Was she speaking of the ‘Christian Religion’ of an alternate universe, or our own? When she reduced the oppressiveness of Christianity to be symbolized by the fact that Catholics expect their nuns to be celibate, was that an alternate universe, or our own? Correct answer: Our own.
If Mary (the ‘temptress’ of the series) was speaking of a Christianity in a parallel universe we might chalk it up to Pullman’s poetic license. But since he puts his most explicit assertions about Christianity in the mouth of a woman who comes from our own universe, we’ll have to admit it for what it is- a strawman that bears very little resemblance to actual Christianity.
Posted by Anthony on November 19, 2007
Everyone loves a good mystery. As I was reading Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass for my review I kept waiting to hear some dramatic attack on the person of Christ and the doctrine of the incarnation. In fact, the series rarely mentions Jesus at all, and certainly never substantively. Several hypotheses occur to me: Perhaps Jesus is in Pullman’s mind the ‘good teacher’ that CS Lewis so forcefully objected to in his Trilemma. Perhaps the failure to incorporate the incarnation in his re-mything has to do with his failure to grasp the basic claims that Christians make about God and consequently does not comprehend the significance of the Incarnation. I would like to know why Pullman failed to speak to the incarnation because the incarnation ought to have been a powerful counter-balance to some of his arguments, suggestions, and insinuations.
Perhaps another kind of example will help show what I mean. It is common among atheistic circles to take jabs at the ‘Absent God’ that Christians are said to believe in. God never shows up in the real world which drives Christians to generate excuses for why that is goes the patronizing line. When Christians attempt to give an answer atheists resort to Invisible Pink Unicorns, Flying Spaghetti Monsters, and Dragons in the Garage to show what they think of that answer. How could anyone maintain that God is all good when he is all absent, even in the face of horrific manifestations of human wickedness, like the holocaust?
The irony of this whole line of attack is that the incarnation answers it all. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Anthony on November 18, 2007
I thought it might be interesting to gather up some atheist’s response to the Golden Compass. It should go without saying that I don’t at all endorse much of what these links will contain. They make for good perspective. If anyone has some examples feel free to pass them along. I found a million anti-Compass responses but only a handful of pro-Compass ones. I intend to add to this list.
http://www.bay-of-fundie.com/archives/270/my-moral-compass-is-golden
http://stupidevilbastard.com Unlike Donahue, I really don’t think boycotts are the way to go on this.
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/ and here.
Posted by Anthony on
In my 15 page response to the Pullman series I indicated that his notion of God is a strawman notion. The problem is that he doesn’t know that, most atheists don’t know that, and even many Christian theists don’t know that.
In the Pullman series, ‘God’ is a very old ‘angel’ who was merely the first entity to become self-aware as a product of evolution. “Yahweh” then lied and told everyone that followed that he was their creator. In the series, Pullman admits that there may be a creator, and in one interview he says,
“If we’re talking on the scale of human life and the things we see around us, I’m an atheist. There’s no God here. There never was. But if you go out into the vastness of space, well, I’m not so sure. On that level, I’m an agnostic.”
A comment like this helps us see clearly that what Pullman thinks of ‘God’ is nothing like what educated Christians mean. It would be evident to educated Christians that if “Yahweh” is just a super-powerful entity within the universe, it is not the ‘God’ that Christians submit exists. God as Christians propose is by definition the creator of the universe. Or, if you wish to propose countless universe, God is the source and sustainer of them all. This is again, by definition. Pullman has no problem equivocating between ‘God’ as Christians understand him and this ‘imposter’ Yahweh. He draws no distinction. In other words, this evolved agent, ‘Yahweh’ simply cannot be the Christian God, but Pullman proceeds willy nilly to identify the two together.
It ought to concern us all that an Oxford educated professor can so horribly massacre a basic Christian doctrine. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
Posted by Anthony on November 13, 2007
“The Christian religion is a very powerful
and convincing mistake, that’s all.”
(The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman)
This bulletin insert/parent’s guide has been downloaded over 1,500 times!
- Anthony is a former junior and senior high religion teacher. He taught apologetics and Biblical Greek at a small Bible college in Rockford before taking a position as a Director of Parish Ministries in Wisconsin. He currently is pursuing his Masters in Apologetics and Philosophy and is the author of Fidelis which was recently featured on Worldnetdaily.com. He is married and has four children and invests substantial time in writing and research in the course of his apologetics ministries. He is available to present at retreats, churches, schools, etc.
Please fill out the form below to generate the download link to the free, printable PDF “Christian Parent’s Guide/Bulletin Insert” responding to the Pullman series…
Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series has been termed the atheist’s answer for CS Lewis’s “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Pullman is not shy about his atheism, though he denies that his books are meant to promote it. No matter, his series is diametrically opposed to Christianity and Christian theism and now that it is entering the mainstream of American culture through that old standby, Hollywood, Christians need to take the series seriously.
Anthony’s ‘Parent Guide’ can also be used as a bulletin insert for churches to use on Sunday mornings. The guide/insert provides valuable introductory information so that Christians can grasp what is at stake and directs them to learn more.
Note, the content of the bulletin itself is cut and pasted below this form.
cforms contact form by delicious:days
Anthony’s Book, Fidelis was given accolades on WorldnetDaily.com!
Would you like to listen to an interview with ReachFM in Florida about some of my other inserts? Here it is: ![]()
If you are interested in other bulletin inserts with apologetics emphasis,
check into my Advent 2007 series.
WAIT! There is more to read… read on »
