Illumination
Film can be a really excellent method for communicating a story. I believe that film has become a much more important and influential medium than the more traditional narrative of the novel. I went to school to learn to write, to become "well read" and to find my voice so that I could communicate something to the world, and to those that would come after me. I am deeply touched on an emotional level more often by the celluloid and light of cinema than by the ink and text of the novel.This gives me pause and makes me wonder about my education. All the time that I was analyzing novels and writing analysis of character development and plot structure, I thought myself so esoteric and irresponsible for not studying finance, marketing or some other area that would be "worthy of a career" -I was learning to write. I thought studying literature made me an artist of some sort, or perhaps was giving me the tools to become an artist by way of becoming a well rounded individual. In hindsight, my education was far more traditional than I would have ever considered. That education prepared me for the career that I hold today, a civil service position at a Big-Ten university. If I had gone to film school, then perhaps this would have put me in a position not to hold a responsible job, but to pursue a career in story telling. Well enough of this meme and on to what this report is really about: mortality and belief.
I received a letter the other day, actually it was not a letter, it was more of a card. It was addressed to me and my gay homosexual lover from my wildly evangelical sister Diane. My lover had opened it first. He knew that it would be juicy, and I am not sure if he was disappointed by the contents. The card was either an advertisement for Jesus, or an advertisement to see a preacher of Jesus; it asked us to attend a service on Easter Sunday. The card read:
The Jesus LegendA location and service times were then listed. My sister had handwritten:
How much of Jesus' life really happened?
The Top Five historical
arguments against
believing in Jesus.
Are they convincing?
We invite you to join us
Easter Weekend to find out
why the evidence suggests
they're not.
To John,
You are invited!
P.S. You won't be disappointed!
Despite her overuse of exclamation points, I was not interested. I have heard this straw man argument before, trying to convince you that there is no reason NOT to believe in Jesus. This is unreasonable, I don't need a reason not to believe in something. I don't need a reason not to believe in unicorns and I don't need a reason not to believe in Bigfoot. Convincing me that I do not have a reason not to believe something is silly. You have to convince me with reason to believe in something.
Why should I believe in unicorns? If you want me to believe in unicorns, then the onus is on you to present me with some evidence that a unicorn exists. Want me to believe in Bigfoot, then provide some documentation that this creature exists. Want me to believe in your god, then present me reasons to believe in your god. Don't debunk arguments for disbelief. Believing that something exists requires evidence. Believing that something extraordinary exists requires extraordinary evidence. Lets deal with reality rather than presenting a straw man argument.
The most unfortunate thing is that my sister thinks that there is something in this line of flawed reasoning that is worthwhile and that will sway a thinking person.
It is also frustrating that my sister is trying to use this card as a substitute for talking with me directly. Instead of speaking with me face to face regarding something that she finds important, she hopes that her pastor will create some sort of magical shortcut to getting me to believe in what she believes in. I find that sad.
Finally, I want to touch on some of the themes that I found really wonderful in the film that JSP and I watched tonight. In Everything is Illuminated Elijah Woods' character goes looking for some links to his family's past after his grandmother gives him a photograph on her deathbed. The photograph contains the image of his grandfather and an unknown woman in the Ukraine. The film unfolds at a beautiful pace and the audience is treated to what it is like for an American to go abroad for the first time, learning that most of the world is nothing like the USA. Eventually he finds what he is looking for, although it is not as simple as he first thought it would be.
Near the end of the film, the woman that he has traveled around the world to find offers him a physical object. Elijah Woods' character is a collector of items, so it is puzzling that he does not want to take this item, a wedding ring. The Ukrainian woman explains to him that he has not come around the world and incidentally found the ring. She asserts that he has come around the world because the ring exists. The subtle but profound difference which she points out, is that he came to find the ring because of the ring's existence. The ring was preserved and holds memory, in a sense it is enchanted. He did not just happen to find the ring, its physical existence is why he came looking for it. Even though he did not know it existed, it was why he made his journey.
This explanation gives the physical item more importance and more power than if it were an incidental find. The Ukrainain woman's perspective imbues this ring with meaning, gravity and magic. This is the kind of magic that I believe in, magic that comes from putting meaning into things and experiences, not from some external fairy-tale thundering god in the sky. I will not believe in worshiping pain and suffering, nor brand-name divinity such as "Jesus saves." I will live and die by my own search for meaning and love, and I will not accept or worship a mass marketed deity created and written down by nomads thousands of years ago. These nomads did not have running water, electricity, reliable medicine, or computers, in short they were even stupider than we are today. I'll trust my own thoughts, feelings and reasoning over theirs any day.
Happy Easter.
Labels: Easter, illuminated, Jesus, love, magic, straw man
JB aka JayBee created this post at 12:11 AM.
