Answering Hitchens's Impossible Question

Let's start the year with a religious post and attempt to address the late Christopher Hitchens's "impossible question."

The question is, "I challenge you to find one good or noble thing which cannot be accomplished without religion." Or name something good a believer can do that an Atheist cannot.

I found two answers by Christians on YouTube here and here. There is one by W. L. Craig on the internet somewhere.

Years ago, I read Prof. Dawkins's The God Delusion where he suggested that we create a believing machine to get around the obvious answer to this question: only believers can believe in God, only believers can love God with all their heart, soul, and strength. According to Dawkins, the machine could believe in God for us so we can go about our business. Prof. Dawkins also derided parents who taught their impressionable children about any religion, especially Christianity with its belief in hell: it is on par with physical child abuse.

From this alone, I can report that no Atheist, or non-theist could believe or teach positively about the Judeo-Christian God, the only living and true God.

But is this good?

I'm part of a non-denominational Habitat-for-Humanity-like apostolate called Good Works in a poor part of PA. At the beginning of the work day, we have a small talk that comes from the Bible and ask for prayer requests. We then pray together with the home owner before we work at the worksite. If someone is not Christian, they can come to the work site after this. From my observation, the Christians show up more often than the non-Christians to work on the houses.

St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta always made it a priority to pray and attend mass before helping the poorest of the poor, to take scheduled breaks for this throughout the day. I'm not Mother Theresa, but it says something that belief in God motivates more consistent and harder work for the poor who are Jesus in disguise (Matthew 25: 31-46).

However, this does not actually address the most important action: loving God Himself. Love requires action. We do this by receiving Jesus bodily into ourselves in the sacrament of Communion and being forgiven in the sacrament of Reconciliation. No non-theist would ever do this in Truth, only mock and/or invert it.

I wonder why debaters against Hitchens didn't say this type of answer every time? Where they afraid that Hitchens would shoot them down? Could it perhaps be that most were Protestant, who believe in sola fides? Love requires more than faith; it requires works, some only Christians can do.

Most Important Books in 2020

Most important (secular) books that I read in 2020:

1a. 1984 by George Orwell

1b. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

2. Bully of Asia: Why China's Dream is the New Threat to World Order by Steven W. Mosher

3. United States of Socialism: Who's Behind It. Why It's Evil. How to Stop It by Dinesh D'Souza

Why are these books important?

1a./1b. Both these books taken together explain and emotionally inform how elites and non-elites conform to social/financial top-tier elites and governments.

1984 explains how the elites manipulate mostly other elites to think how Big Brother wants them to think and live.

Brave New World explains how the non-elites cope with their circumstances by lulling themselves into submission - at least getting them out of the way of the elites - by drugs and entertainment. Think opium crisis and entertainment-imbibing as reason for/ends of living. Marx had it backwards: real, life-directing religion leads people to stand up to oppression (think Pope Saint John Paul II in Poland, "We want God.") while atheism leads to laissez-faire hedonism (often a type of Buddhism).

These books should be standard reading for all high school students.

2. Dr. Mosher (China expert who is fluent in Chinese) powerfully explains that China's effort to be the world's superpower is more than simply spreading communism. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thinks, much like the former Chinese emperors, that Chinese culture/race is the best in the same way that the Nazi's believed that their culture/race was the best. That culture/race should be dominant over all aspects of the world's life and governments. China is to be the sole world hegemon.

3. Mr. D'Souza's most important contribution in his book is showing, in eye-popping detail, how the currently-attempted Socialist/Marxist takeover of the US parallels almost exactly with the takeover of Venezuela. This includes the race wars, gun confiscation, removing statues/rewriting history, and overall political rhetoric.

The Great Star Trek Reset

You may have heard of the Great Reset of the World Economic Forum (WEF), its Leader Klaus Schwab's plan to re-imagine capitalism, i.e., bring about world communism. The outline of the plan is on their website for all to see (and in an entire Time magazine issue, among many other main-stream publications). This is not a conspiracy theory; it's a conspiracy.

The video of other main parts of the plan was scrubbed from their website which included lovely goals such as, "You will own nothing, and you will be happy," and "A handful of countries will dominate." (See more info here.)

All this reminds me of Star Trek, specifically, Captain Picard's explanation of the Star Trek utopian future to Lily in the movie First Contact.

There is no money in the Trek universe (except for some of the backward worlds). Technology has freed us from slavery-in-the-pursuit-of-frivolous-trivialities. He also made it clear that all planets in the Federation of Planets are one-world governments (it is a requirement for entry into the Federation).

The visionary creator of Star Trek was an Atheist. Everyone knew it. He wrote episodes mocking belief in God left and right in the original series (TOS) and the Next Generation (TNG) series.

He would love this development of the world elites in business and government if he were living. He died during the production of TNG, I believe.

On a side note, I plan to read Comrade Schwab's book COVID-19: The Great Reset when I can get a free copy (I don't want to give him more of my money than I have to).

New Eagle Scout Intersectionality Requirement

Well, I was a Boy Scout merit badge counselor. Not after this requirement.

The Scouts (the Boy was removed) is now part of the intersectionality cult. No thank you.

Requiring safety training is one thing (mandated reporter, fighting abuse). Becoming one with Marxist BLM, no way.

 

"Calling all Merit Badge Counselors

"We need merit badge counselors for the soon to be released Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion merit badge.  A draft of the requirements is out but not yet official.  It will be an Eagle required merit badge.  The total of 21 merit badges will not change, there will now be 14 Eagle required merit badges and 7 elective merit badges.  Scouts will be able to start working on this merit badge on January 1, 2021.  Starting May 1, 2021 this merit badge will be required to attain the rank of Eagle.

"Following is a summary of what the merit badge entails:

    ·       Discussions of diversity, equity, inclusion, bigotry, and intersectionality.
    ·       Discussions of the various types of racism.
    ·       How to create a welcoming environment in you unit
    ·       Develop a presentation on diversity, equity, and inclusion
    ·       Research organizations and individuals and how they work in these fields
    ·       Attend or learn about an event an event related to diversity
    ·       Learn and discuss specific scenarios about how to be an upstander
    ·       Other work related to subjects in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

"There are quite a few more requirements proposed for this merit badge, all dealing with the above topics.  The final requirements are scheduled to be released sometime in December."

Catholic-Themed Play Goes Mainstream in Philadelphia

Just watched this play online that a friend suggested: Heroes of the Fourth Turning.

It's produced by a Philadelphia, PA theater (Wilma Theater).

Synopsis: "Four Catholic conservative friends gather at a late-night backyard party in Wyoming, shortly before the 2017 eclipse. As they wait for the arrival of their mentor and newly appointed college president, secret passions and fears surface, revealing their troubled place in a divided country."

It was interesting. Worth the watch? It's definitely dramatic. Had quite a bit of name dropping and theology/philosophy that was unusual for a play. It worked though.

It did win awards:

"Winner of the 2020 Obie Award for Playwriting!

"Best Play, the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award!

"Outstanding Play, Lucille Lortel Award!

"Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Drama!"

I would give it an award for making Conservative Catholics relatable and flawed without making them into devils incarnate.

***Spoiler:***

Well, sort-of devils: I don't know if the possession was necessary. Well, maybe.

CCP Capitalism

 Andrew Klavan of The Daily Wire said something profound yesterday on his show (The Andrew Klavan Show on 12/16/2020) that should become common parlance. He said that elites of corporations desire (Communist/CCP) Chinese capitalism.

"It is this free market with no freedom for the people."

People become consumers with no spiritual dimension. Communist, materialist capitalism is the goal. It's Ayn Rand free markets without selfishness. In actuality, no self at all - only Big Brother.

Advent Lessons & Carols

A choir I'm in at Church had an event "Advent Lessons & Carols" last night 12/13 (the music starts at 4:18). The event can be viewed here. Let me know what you think. (I'm the big one to the left.)

 

The Wolf Grinch

 While watching the Grinch tonight on DVD:

My youngest son, "Governor Wolf* is like the Grinch."

My lovely wife, "Except the Grinch eventually got a heart."

*Gov. Wolf of PA.

I personally prefer the Borg picture I found online.

Will the US become CA?

I just read about VP Joe Biden picking another California politician for his play cabinet.

Biden's (or DNC's parliament) VP pick is another CA politician. They both prosecuted David Daleiden for exposing Planned Parenthood's (PP) illegal sale of aborted baby parts and bodies without prosecuting their PP overlords and patrons who were exposed by Mr. Daleiden.

As I expected before the election, with a Biden-as-president in my mind, he would further push the US to become CA. The US would become essentially a one-party state with the policies and tyrannical fiats of CA.

There are many people, including some famous ones, who are leaving CA for Texas (or Florida). However, where would people want to move if the US became a larger version of CA?

Conservatives Still Deplorable

Last year, I read JD Vance's book Hillbilly Elegy. This year, it's back in the news since there's a movie version of the story on Netflix. 

I listened to part of an interview of JD Vance on the Dailywire.

I got to thinking. This book was a semi-big deal when it came out during Trump's tenure (it was on many book club lists). It gave  coastal elites a glimpse into the lives of likely Trump voters and how to potentially manipulate them.
Now, the critics detest the movie version since it doesn't go into politics really at all (according to the director Ron Howard), and poor white people are not to be pitied on-screen in any way.

I think they also detest it because they believe the book's usefulness is over, and they no longer have to pretend as a group to seem interested in the largest poor group in in the US: poor and/or blue collar, white Trump voters.

BTW, in the end, it doesn't matter what race is portrayed in the book or movie. We should be interested in the plight of our fellow Americans in general, no matter what color, born or preborn.

Opera Libretto

So, I entered a "Call for Submissions" for "Librettos for 10-minute operas" for the Boston Opera Collaborative. I based it on the story of Karlyn Borysenko, a Bernie supporter who went to a Trump rally in NH.

 It was a long shot for them to accept it. It wasn't.

Well, If you would like to read and comment on it, it's here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JFGmyUG9D-HsobIfLS-ljrW8ZHGrGKsI/view?usp=sharing

Unalienable Essence

 (I submitted this before the election to a couple of publications that did not publish it. One liked it, but I was not credentialed enough. What do you think?)

Recently, the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Former Vice President Joe Biden infamously said on The Breakfast Club podcast, “You’ve got more questions? Well I tell you what, if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re voting for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.”

This quote by Biden seems to apply the existential idea of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “existence precedes essence” in a roundabout way. In Sartre’s atheistic view, people are involuntarily thrust into existence as meaningless clumps of cells. There is no pre-rational essence, purpose or value for people in the mind of a god. At some point after coming into existence and achieving rationality, a person decides to have a self-imposed purpose, or no purpose at all. Sartre’s philosophy makes sense if there is no God to ascribe essence onto a human life before coming into existence; however, this atheistic view of essence would be shattered if God in fact existed. In theism, our essence, purpose or value are predetermined by God before we come into existence. In this case, the recognition of our personal essence could coincide, or be in communion with God’s mind, at least partially, or be in contradiction with it.

If Biden’s quote and Sartre’s idea were synthesized, there might be a new atheistic possibility. Other people, other gods, may take the place of the Judeo-Christian God in rationally creating our essence. Assuming atheism is true, we could be open to the possibility that someone else could impute their own perception of our essence, purpose or value onto us. (This is not the same interpersonal dynamic as with The Gaze of Sartre’s Being and Nothingness when our subjective essence is objectified by another while we reassert our own subjectivity.) In this case, we could have as many essences as there are people. We may be in agreement with their assignments or not, just like with the Judeo-Christian God, being in communion with some gods and not others.

Joe Biden may not know a particular black person, but if that person has a problem voting for him, he or she is not black in essence to Biden. The former Vice President is assigning essence not on one particular black person, but on an entire subset of black people who don’t vote for him. Black leftists operating the Black Lives Matter organization (BLM) and running his campaign are real black people. Black people in President Trump’s administration, like Dr. Ben Carson, are not black, whether he personally knows them or not.

Consider one black leader who doesn’t seem to be in full communion with Vice President Biden. Black Entertainment Television (BET) founder Robert Johnson told Fox News,

Now whether [Joe Biden] was as he said trying to be a wise guy or whatever, but if you’ve been supposedly hanging out with black people, you’re eight years Obama’s vice president, you don’t think like that. There’s something in you that tells you I can’t be halfway wise guy, halfway cute by telling a black man and by extension every black person listing that if you even think about voting for somebody other than me and then to use this so-called colloquial expression ‘you ain’t black,’ that’s the biggest turn off I’ve heard from a politician in a long time.

It is a question for Biden as to whether Mr. Johnson is black or not according to the “ain’t black” rhetoric. Since Johnson is turned-off by Biden and may not vote for him, it doesn’t seem that the BET founder would be part of the “every black person” subset according to Biden. No doubt Mr. Johnson has another position on his own essence.

Now consider a statement by Hawk Newsome, the black chairman of the Greater New York chapter of BLM. He told the New York Post, “When black people become police officers, they are no longer black. They are blue. And I have been told this by numerous officers.” Newsome’s statement is another instance of one person or group assigning essence, meaning or value to a group of people beyond themselves.

This could have real-world consequences. In view of the quote by Biden, no black life would most likely be physically harmed if he voted for President Trump in 2020 since voting is carried-out in private. It could be another story for black lives on the police force if Newsome’s quote were taken seriously. If enough protestors, BLM members, and Antifa members took Newsome’s idea to heart and really believed that black cops are not really black lives that mattered, real harm could come to their blue marked lives.

Lastly, BLM wrote in 2018 that, “We deserve and thus we demand reproductive justice that gives us autonomy over our bodies and our identities while ensuring that our children and families are supported, safe, and able to thrive.” The pairing of “reproductive justice” and “autonomy over our bodies” in this BLM quote implies that abortion against preborn black boys and girls is demanded. This has the most dangerous implications for black lives due to the hundreds of thousands of black preborn babies killed every year. When preborn persons of color are not wanted by their mothers, they become products of conception in an abortion chamber.

The unwanted designation of a preborn baby by his or her mother is the ultimate imputation of essence, value and meaning by another person. The differences between being designated a wanted or an unwanted human in utero are human or parasite, precious or bio-waste, life or death.

Mother Theresa’s words at her acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 speak to the power of ascribing value and meaning to preborn children.

And I feel one thing I want to share with you all, the greatest destroyer of peace today is the cry of the innocent unborn child. For if a mother can murder her own child in her own womb, what is left for you and for me to kill each other? … [N]obody speaks of the millions of little ones who have been conceived to the same life as you and I, to the life of God, and we say nothing, we allow it. … [Nations] are afraid of the little one, they are afraid of the unborn child, and the child must die because they don’t want to feed one more child, to educate one more child, the child must die.

At the end of the day, if a mother can declare that her innocent unborn child is not really a human child in essence due to asserting autonomy over her body and her identity in order to kill her child, there is nothing left for you or for me, for black lives or for blue lives, for black Biden voters or for all Trump voters from killing each other.

The final solution against violence is found in the truth of each human’s inherent dignity as Imago Dei which is our true essence, given by God to men and women of all skin hues, born and preborn at the moment of our created existence. This is why the Declaration of Independence announced self-evidently that our essence and unalienable Rights came from our Creator, not imparted to us by those in government, by others, or even by ourselves. Nationally reasserting and unapologetically teaching this American Creed in all schools is the key to bringing peace and unity back to our beloved country.

WZE Update

Hello all. Thank you for visiting Wondering Zygote Emeritus (WZE) blog for the last few months. My goal was to post all throughout Lent. It was mostly successful.

After reading a few books on blogging during that time, I'll be relocating my writing about Christianity and Pop Culture connections at another domain (perhaps start a podcast). I'll let you know the domain in a few months.

Please let me know what you think about the recent blog posts (the ones starting in January 2014) in the comments below. What do you like that should continue? What do you not like as much or what should be emphasized less within the topical framework of this WZE blog?

God bless you and yours.

Violet & Daisy Movie Downplays Assisted Suicide Wacky Wednesday

***Spoilers Alert!*** The Sopranos: The Next Generation

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mbartyzel/6151510963/sizes/l

Violet & Daisy Movie Downplays Assisted Suicide

In all of the vi'lence displayed
It can make a crowd quite dismayed.
So when mercy's implied
In assisting to die,
It's hard to sort out when it's played.

Instead all the vi'lence congeals,
In my view, on that act which reveals
How they all do connect.
Vi'lence: all to reject.
Direct killing itself, stop its wheels.

vi'lence = violence

Atonement Movie Sets a Narcissistic Tone

***Spoilers Alert!*** Atonement is described by one author as a movie with "an attempted act of reparation [that] is exposed as narcissistic self-deception". Ouch. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Image Source: http://www.conspicere.se/category/film/page/2/

Self-deception is one of the things that Easter is meant to get us out of.

Behold! Awaken! Be amazed! We are not ultimately meant to be dirt, perishing in the ground. Instead, Jesus' resurrection is meant to focus our attention toward what God has in store for all of us, freedom.

What is the content of that freedom? The hope in that we will share in what Jesus has and has became. To be victorious over sin, corruption, and death as is it.

It can often be painful in the here and now, especially as our wickedness is wicked from our lives though our cross. But the finish line is there: the resurrected Jesus is holding it before us while he holds the true cross, the sign of our journey and victory.

In short, we should stop deceiving ourselves, shake off our sin with its self-absorption, and follow Christ to the cross and then onto resurrection.

Meaning of Easter by Fr. Barron

Posting will resume after the first Sunday of Easter.

Have a Happy Easter!

In the meantime, Fr. Barron on the meaning of Easter.

Some points:
Jewish expectations after one dies.
Novel idea of encounter of betrayers and returning betrayed.
Novel idea to bring peace to Earth.

Catholic Sister Confronted with Cultural Concoction Wacky Wednesday

A Catholic Sister presented the Church's teaching on same-sex attraction (SSA) at a Catholic High School and received negative feedback for touching on this controversial topic (as was described in this interview with a spokesman of the Catholic diocese where sister spoke). As part of her talk as a PhD expert, she spoke out about scientific studies regarding the genesis of same-sex attraction (the Church does not take an official position on said genesis).

This directly confronted western cultures' concoction that people with SSA are "born that way". There is research with large sampling back to Freud (see part I) that opposes this conclusion.


Catholic Sister Confronted with Cultural Concoction

A sister said matter-of-factly
That same-sex attraction is * stat'ly
Not simply a gene.
Becoming a queen
Starts other ways she said compactly.

stat'ly = statistically

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Movie Shows Happiness is Found in the Truth

***Spoilers Alert!*** Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day was very well written. It had to be since there were dizzying twists and turns that naturally proceeded from webs of lies.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/12089644@N03/3077412944/sizes/o/

Lies by every main character made them all personally miserable. It all changed when one was entranced by a word of truth (he's pictured above with Miss Pettigrew).

From that one true complement made from the heart of Miss Pettigrew about a beautiful scarf he designed, her life and the lives around her found new life in true (almost non-Hollywood-like) happiness.

Truth changes lives so that one can truly live. The Truth of Jesus' words changes lives in similar ways.

"The Glory of God is a human being fully alive!"

Hanna Movie Shows Human Commodity

***Spoilers Alert!*** The movie Hanna (2011) was quite disturbing. Hanna was quite literally made into a human killing machine.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/canburak/5746918145/sizes/l

What was even more disturbing is that Hanna and many other in-utero children were genetically mutated to become human killers for (probably) the military. What is more, they were selected from babies that were going to be aborted in abortion-killing-chambers.

Catholic social justice starts with the belief that all humans from their conception (pre-, post-, and in-utero) have inherit worth. From this, no human can be made into a commodity for any reason.

Hanna's genetic manipulators (including her "father") knew this, but they did it anyway. It was clear in the movie that Hanna was to be terminated to keep their dealings secret.

If they knew genetic manipulation for creating human commodities was wrong, why did they do it? Did they think preborn humans were less valuable?

Catholic Sister Disparaged for Catholic Marriage Talk Wacky Wednesday

This Wacky Wednesday was inspired by the article, "Charlotte [North Carolina, USA] diocese backs nun who gave school talk promoting Church teaching on homosexuality" by Kirsten Andersen.

[Update 4/15/2014 (YouTube): "Charlotte Diocese Fully Backs Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel"]

Image source: http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/charlotte-bishop-backs-nun-who-gave-school-talk-promoting-church-teaching-o

A sister said truth about marr'age.
Expectedly some had to disparage
The obvious truth.
She wasn't uncouth:
One man and his bride ride the carr'age.

There's someone else who took the risk;
The way it could sound was quite brisk.
His name now is Pope,
He said Satan's hope:
Gay marr'age turns brains into bisque *.

The bisque will have sev'ral key parts:
Confusion, half-truths a la carte.
Homofascists arise.
It's no big surprise:
The Church fights with Truth to change hearts.


* "Let's not be naive, we're not talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive pretension against the plan of God," wrote Cardinal Bergoglio [now Pope Francis] in a letter sent to the monasteries of Buenos Aires. "We are not talking about a mere bill, but rather a machination of the Father of Lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God."

For Google translation:
marr'age = marriage
sev'ral = several
carr'age = carriage

The Search for Spock Movie Laughs at Superior Science

***Spoilers Alert!*** Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ironically puts down progress in science and technology and lifts up simple, mortal ways.

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/102537907@N03/13313565214/sizes/l

First, the Genesis science project goes to hell (quite literally). The USS Excelsior's new warp drive goes kaput. The USS Enterprise is blown up. The heroes are transported in the end by a flying tin-can warship. Were the writers laughing at superior science and technology?

It took an unethical scientist to use banned proto-matter. It took the removal of only a few computer chips to disable the state-of-the-art trans-warp drive of the Excelsior. It took three people to destroy the Enterprise. Reading Klingon, getting back to basics was required to leave the self-destructing Genesis Planet.

For what? To get the movie's namesake to his home-planet in able to get their quasi-witchdoctors to put him back together. How back-of-the-woods?

Why are they doing this? I think it's because no matter how much science discoveries and technology inventions are revealed, mortals still have a desire to relate to mortal matters.

What do you think?

When the Time Has Come Gnostic Lyrics by Huey Lewis and the News

The song When the Time Has Come by Huey Lewis and the News was looked at in two previous posts regarding redemption at the end of the world and Universalism.

In this post, an apparent gnostic idea of the song will be explored.

Image source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Jul/10/huey-lewis-and-the-news-interview/

A portion of the song is this:

Everything's gonna clear up
Everybody cheer up
Walls are gonna crumble
All men will be humble

Feeling getting stronger
Won't be down much longer
We will be free
When the time has come

"We will be free" seems to indicate that at the end of the world, people will cast-off their bodies and be only spirits. This action will lead to a kind-of-freedom. This is a gnostic idea.

Gnosticism under the umbrella of Christianity has been around since the beginning of Christianity (even before the Christian Bible was canonized).

Christianity calls Gnosticism a heresy since Jesus is revealed to be resurrected in a glorified body. The body is not seen to be a prison for the spirit, but a temple of our spirit.We were meant to be embodied souls just like incarnated Jesus, the archetype of humanity.

Blu-ray Disc and DVD Player HDMI Connection to RCA Component Jacks on TV Info

I've been trying to connect my new (on sale) Blu-ray player with a HDMI output to my old CRT TV. The TV I have is a Sanyo HT3246. The Blu-ray player I bought was Sony BDP-BX510.

My TV has a digital input shown below (from the manual).

Most TV's just have 3 inputs, 2 audio (red and white) and 1 video (yellow). If this is the case, you'll have to buy a not-cheap "scan converter" (or buy a new TV with HDMI and/or Pr/Pb/Y digital connections). (My TV doesn't need a converter since it has an internal converter via the Pr/Pb/Y connections.)

If you have a mid technology TV (CRT) like I do, you should have three inputs for video (Pr/Pb/Y respectively Red/Blue/Green; see figure above) and the same two audio inputs (R/L).

You'll need a HDMI to Five RCA Audio/Video cable (like here) to connect the HDMI to the 5 component jacks (3 video/2 audio).

Lastly, make sure the ratings for the HDMI cable, TV specs, and Blu-ray outputs are compatible. My TV uses 480i, the Blu-ray outputs have that rating listed (here at page 4), and the cable I bought also has the rating (above).

Hope this helps.

Captain America Movie Transhumanist Superman Wacky Wednesday

***Spoilers Alert!***

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/93779577@N00/5975886634/sizes/l

Captain America is a Product of Germany

The methods used weren't so new,
Some light'ning's still part of the brew.
The science still mad,
The methods a tad
Unethical. Who's on the crew?

A scientist of Hitler's docs
Came over with some of his socks.
It's now understood,
Capt's life's now a good
Who's freedom is now under locks.

Noah Movie is an Adaptation from the Original Genesis Story And So Is the Church

The Noah movie with Russel Crowe follows the pattern of all book adaptations that I have seen. The movie departs substantially from the book. The question is, how much departure is too much?

Image source: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2014/02/21/do-christians-care-if-noah-movie-jibes-with-bible-survey-says-yep/

Here are three takes on the question:

(1) Fr. Barron "Noah: A Post-Modern Midrash" ("The midrashim—extremely popular in ancient Israel—were imaginative elaborations of the often spare Scriptural narratives.")

[Update 4/15/2014 YouTube: "Fr. Barron comments on 'Noah'"]

(2) The Catholic World Report "Noah: A Theological Reflection: Darren Aronofsky’s controversial film is sometimes divisive and divided, but is also deeply serious about Scripture and essential questions"

(3) Alfonzo Rachel "ZoNATION: Does the Noah Movie Float?"
"Zo knows that liberal Hollywood has long leeched off the Bible to promote their world view. Whether it's making characters that are religious fanatics to make people prejudiced against the Bible, or cherry picking scriptures and twisting what they don't even really believe in to justify their world view. The 2014 Noah movie is no exception."

The traditional Christian understanding of Noah's ark compares it to the Church. The word Church comes from the Latin word ecclēsia (ecclesiastical is the adjective in English). It literally means to "call out from".

In a similar way that Noah, his family, and animals were called out from the fallen, disordered world, Jesus and His Bride the Church are to call all of humanity from its fallen-ness, or sinfulness onto the boat of the Church. We are all called to be passengers on the boat that Jesus built, and baptism is the way onto the boat. We just have to answer the call and follow Jesus on His Way.

Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arche_No%C3%A9_Vaisseau_Eglise.jpg

So, maybe the latest Noah movie departed from the original Genesis Noah story in some substantial ways. The Church also has in some aspects, but She relies on Jesus for the Way to depart from the world today.

 (The picture above shows Noah's Ark in the upper portion, while the lower portion shows Jesus in the boat with His followers, the Church. Many church building show Noah's ark which represents the Church.)

Huey Lewis and the News When the Time Has Come Describes Universalism

Huey Lewis and the News' song When the Time Has Come really says quite a bit about the end times of the world/universe, or eschaton (as I mentioned last time).

Image source: http://espngrantland.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/gl_g_hlts_57611.jpg?w=524

These lyrics will be looked at.

So don't you worry about a thing
Cause you know that train is gonna run
You will be on it
Not just for some
We'll all be on it
From here to kingdom come
When the time has come

The "kingdom" is heaven. "We'll all be on it" says that everyone will go to heaven. This is Universalism.

Jesus didn't teach this. There are quite a lot of places where Jesus mentions hell; I'll just point to Matthew 25: 31 and on.

[Jesus said,] "Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." (Matthew 25: 44-46)

"Eternal punishment" is commonly referred to as hell. So, according to what is revealed by Jesus, we won't "all be on" the "train" from "here to kingdom come".

Huey should tell Madonna. (The one in the picture, that is.)