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Entertainment today seems to be a neverending cavalcade of human grotesquery. And no, I'm not just referring to american style laughter in a can type sit-coms. Ever since the second man wondered what the first man did when he thought no one was watching, we've been particularly caught up with the idea that voyeurism is somehow cool and chic. That shock value stimulates us beyond our ordinary mundanity into a higher level of human awareness. Reality Television is the biggest culprit of this type of high quantity brain cell serial murdering. And judging by recent trends, it's only going to get worse.
Big Brother for example (a show which I can happily and proudly say I have never watched an entire episode of and intend to keep it that way) relies on being able to provide a series of severe shock and excitement and, if it can, a sense of perversity on its viewers. Therefore we can quite easily watch the housemates cavorting around drunk and happy and trying to get onto each other. And of course, with our sensationalised media philosophy, this is how they want to act. The theory is that by recruiting as many extroverts as they can, they can somehow put forward something that is cool, interesting and will make people want to spend lots of money supporting. The result is that the try-hard wannabes that flourish on the show often end up in the depths of television's "I don't remember who you are and I don't care." vault. The actual push for variety never happens. Hey, I've got an idea, for a really conflict based reality television show, get fifteen people from different religions together. But not just different religions, different denominations of that religion. For example, three different kinds of christian, three different types of muslim, three different kinds of hindu, three different kinds of alternative faith people and of course, three atheists/agnostics. Now that WOULD be a show driven by conflict.
But of course, reality television needs to be as perverse and shocking as it can be, and it seems as if the Dutch (who gave us Big Brother in the first place) have found a new way to lower the average intelligence of the viewer even further. This link here only shows that we are not getting any better except at getting worse. My wife also told me that in Russia they have a show where a bunch of young people all had to move into a house, build it, get together and stay together to win. IT was supposed to run for a season or so. What happened? Simple. Young random peope with cameras on them and alcohol supplied lead to them shagging each other as many times as they could. Getting together, shagging, breaking up and then repeating the cycle with almost everyone else there. The show has been running for more than two years now.
We've been told that Jasmine is Getting Married and it didn't stir our hearts. We have found out that some Australians can indeed dance and some can also sing. We've also seen that some of us can lose weight and better ourselves. But is any of this helping? Is any of it worth watching? Why don't people go out and buy a good book?
JZ
Hopefully the catchy title is enough to get your attention. The reason that I've chosen now to start writing about christians and sex is partly because someone else wrote about abortion so I thought it best to write about what happened before this became an issue. Also because I figured it would be popular.
Sex is one of the most interesting parts of being human. Aside from the obvious reproductive reason, sex has been one of the greatest motivators that we've ever had. Sex is used as an excuse, as a selling tool, as a sign of intimacy, love and acceptance. Sex has also been used as a goad or a lure. It's been used as a form of asserting power over someone else. For all these purposes, sex is an amazingly powerful tool. humans pursue sex like we pursue many other things, but with alot more focus. Sex is a great and powerful thing. But like all good things and virtues, sex has a context.
Sex between a husband and wife is (when things are right) a loving and tender affair. It is an exclusive and wonderful bond between them. As a christian, my beliefs about sex is not that it is a dirty thing, though it can be used in dirty ways, but that it is a beautiful and wonderful thing. I find it interesting that for so long christians were actually kind of scared of it and refused to talk about it. It's usually the things that we refuse to talk about are the things we need to talk about. Funnily enough, it's mentioned in the Bible, in a good way. It has a whole book to itself, the Book of Songs, which is some very beautiful and erotic poetry. The dialogue between the lover and the beloved details a devoted and sensual relationship. Good for them, I say.
But sex in so much of today's society is treated like a toy. Yes, it's easy to find. Aside from the internet, picking up a member of the opposite (or same, but I will get to that in another post) sex is far from being as difficult as building a rocket to go to the moon. We're exposed to it all the time. But is this exposure healthy? Is overloading our senses with a plethora of imagery, soundbytes and what society wants us to believe about it. I don't think it is. We're subjected to the heady pleasure of sex without any kind of break, to the point where it becomes too much. Rather than being enjoyed and valued because of it's exclusivity, its become cheapened. Rather than being pleasured, we're being tormented. The ideals of sex are centered around intimacy, not simply pleasure. That it is shared between a couple that know each other and value each other, not just two horny people wanting to blow off steam.
Almost Eighteen wrote a brilliant article about love and sex last year. I believe Brenton said it was the best article written last year. I'd happily agree. What he wrote about is very much what I am trying to write about here.
JZ
On the basis that the bullets are still flying over at the christians and abortions post at hidden eternal treasures and the previous few posts that have been written by Raven, Winston and co. there comes a point when something has to be said or done about the whole matter about christians vs. atheists. A long time ago they used to simply throw christians to the lions. Now we simply throw them to the internet. It's alot more fun and there's less blood to clean up. What I'm not saying is that one side has clean hands and the other doesn't. We're both human, both imperfect and have alot that needs to be fixed.
There's an excellent article here that I think everyone should read and then we can sit down and have a good civilised chat.
And here's the thing. What has been written from the atheist view about bits of christianity is true in some parts and out of context in others. Some people have said things which are fairly venomous and quite nasty. If I was going to throw something back I would lead the way with the fact that Stalin, Hitler and Chairman Mao were all atheists. Of course, that would be rude and inflammatory so I'm not going to. I could also say that most serial killers and rapists (since the subject was brought up) are also not of a religious bent. As true as it may be, it's not appropriate to throw that at a group of people and say "Well, THAT'S what YOU people believe is okay." Mainly because they don't.
Christians do have a nasty side to them (I know this from personal experience) and yes, the horrible thing is that many of them try to find a way to justify this with the Bible. I don't and I won't. If I don't like someone, I'll keep it personal and not drag the Bible into it.
Well, that's pretty well it. Tell me what you think. I'd rather have a discussion than a screaming match with anyone.
JZ
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The basic functional formula for making a game seems fairly straight forward. Find something cool to keep the player interested, immersed and coming back for more. Sins of a Solar Empire (which from now I will simply call SINS) does this without the need of a high quality 3-d engine, a complicated user interface, or anally retentive micro management
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If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. I have no idea which genius originally came up with that, but they were right on the money. Winston Churchill said "So you have enemies now? Good, it means you stood up for at least one good thing in your life." Optimus Prime said "After this day, one shall stand, one shall fall." Now, as awesome as Prime's quote is, it has nothing to do with this post, but it's my favourite quote from both Transformers movies.
Optimus Prime, Leader of the United State of the Autobots
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In recent weeks, the actions of net based Anonymous have been causing ripples around the world in their war against the Church of Scientology. Their belief is that such an organisation, (these are their words now, not mine) that is as so corrupt, litigious and prepared to keep it's followers in the dark and repress the flow of information has no right to further existence and they have pledged to wage war both online and offline in order to dismantle the organisation once and for all. A video is available on youtube, here.
It has been said that the actions of passionate, dedicated individuals are the only thing capable of changing the world. It is also said that for every action, we will, in time, be held accountable. Their pursuit for the truth is honourable, and their means, so far, have been as true to their word as possible. They have done no individual physical harm, have caused no damage to property. But they are not alone. Sites like Operation Clambake, scientology-lies.com and boycottscientology are all sites calling for the destruction of the organisation of scientology, not because of their beliefs but because of the lacking accountability within the organisation. The fact that the internet can be used for such effective organisations of mob justice (very polite mob justice in this case, but the term still fits) is a historic sign of proletarian vengeance. Big Brother (whether it be in the form of business, religion or governments) now has to be aware that the people have a voice which can carry across the world. While the anarchist within me applauds such things, my fear is that a potential abuse of such a powerful medium is essentially around the corner
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I've decided in order to spruce up my blog for the next few weeks I'm going to post a new motivational picture every week. I'm hoping to do it every thursday and have a new blog post for every wednesday. I'm going to post one tonight to make up for not doing it yesterday.
But anyway, here's my first motivational poster
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Terry PRatchett once wrote that "in a universe full of wonders, it took humanity to invent boredom." The paradoxical upshot of this statement is that boredom, which causes brain cells to painfully atrophy and die, lead us to discover and refine the art of entertainment in order to stimulate the brain cells. That being said reality television, while potentially being amusing, has been found to be absolute brain poison.
In Gary Larson's book "There's a Hair In My Dirt!" it is put forward that young animals play because this stimulates the growth of neural pathways and strengthens their mental acuity. What has been found in most recent studies, is that there are only a few animals that have a high degree of self awareness. Dolphins and elephants have been found to be the most self-aware after humans, and are some of the most playful and trainable animals that we've found so far. Clearly, boredom is not simply a human trait, but is shared by animals in whom there are desires that go beyond survival
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Leonardo Da Vinci's contribution's to his own society made him famous and a byword for inventive genius throughout the ages. Gary Gygax's contributions, have been more known to the paler, more introverted and indoor loving demographic. Of which I am one.
Dungeons and Dragons was to me probably the greatest facilitator to my wanting to become an author of some description. It wasn't simply reading about some guy walking through a dungeon looking for goblins to kill and loot to gather. I was that guy. I chose which path to take, which sword to use, which spells to cast
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The subject of righteous indignation is one that everyone seems to enjoy joining in on. Whether Christian, HIndu, Jew or Muslim a lot of the fun of being part of an organised religion, or simply having a religious position is that you get to be offended by people who have a slightly different or completely contrary theory to you.
I think this picture explains it best
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Comment by JoshZ
on Bring Back The Lions!
A Simple Christian
reality TV does not exist. What does exist is a series of televised pictures with accompanying audio that has been editted to forward a certain agenda or perspective.
I've heard of that lie detector game and I've wondered about it. Surely there would be someone (someone like Ned Flanders) who would get away with a lot of money and not be embarrased.
See ya later,
JZ