The Lone Ranger Part III

Here's Part I of The Lone Ranger.
Here's Part II of The Lone Ranger.

I was wondering about the possibility that The Lone Ranger movie helps to prove Dr. Craig's knock-down point about Atheist Sam Harris and his Moral Landscape (see the video below at 8:44 for the knock-down argument to Harris' definition of "good").



Perhaps the flourishing of the Cavendish brothers ("conscious creatures"), and really the flourishing of the rest of the country for the "progress" they provided, over the destruction of the tribes they massacred would prove Dr. Craig's point that the definition of the "good" Harris provides is a deal-breaker for his moral landscape argument.

Nye-Ham Debate Wacky Wednesday

So, I thought I would do something different. It is called Wacky Wednesday.

For this installment, I composed a limerick about the Nye-Ham (Bill Nye and Bill Ham) debate between scientism and creationism.

Here's the debate:



Here's the limerick:

Ham and Nye are so very suspicious.
Ham on rye: it is oh so delicious.
Is it God who they seek?
Both their posits are weak.
Without God nothing could be nutritious.

(BTW, this article can shed some light on my limerick: "Creationism Is Materialism's Creation")

The Big Bang Theory Theme Song Part IV

Here are Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Have you noticed that The Big Bang Theory theme song lyrics are mostly descriptive of how the universe and humans came to be?



There are four ways to describe things that Aristotle wrote about, called Aristotle's Four Causes. They are:

1. The material cause; What is the thing made out of?
2. The formal cause; What is the essential structure of the thing?
3. The final cause; Where it the thing headed? What is its purpose or ultimate orientation (telos)?
4. The efficient cause; How did the thing get where it is? How did it come to be?

It seems as if The Big Bang Theory theme song really relays the material and efficient causes but doesn't address the formal and final causes, especially on the portion that is shown on TV.

The only lines that minimally address the formal and final causes are:

Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!
...
Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating how we're here they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Descartes or Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!!!

Why does this matter? Many young people think that all one needs to learn about are the material and efficient causes, especially in school.

I was asked once by a middle school student why they needed to learn about formal and final causes (I didn't present the labels formally, but was teaching them nonetheless). The student thought that school was solely about learning what they needed to get a good job, mainly with science and math. I couldn't blame her assessment since public education (in government schools), especially now with Common Core, stresses only material and efficient causes in the classroom.

There are schools which teach the entire range of causes called classical schools (here's a link to an institute on the subject; here's a school list), but they are few in number.

From the link above:

[1] But I observed that even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets; because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom.... – Socrates, The Apology

[2] Hence it is that his education is called "Liberal." A habit of mind is formed which lasts through life, of which the attributes are, freedom, equitableness, calmness, moderation, and wisdom.

[3] But education is a higher word [than instruction]; it implies an action upon our mental nature, and the formation of a character; it is something individual and permanent, and is commonly spoken of in connexion with religion and virtue. When, then, we speak of the communication of Knowledge as being Education, we thereby really imply that that Knowledge is a state or condition of mind.... Newman, Idea of a University

May we return to learning about the fullness of God's creation with all its causes.

The Lone Ranger Part II

Here's Part I of The Lone Ranger.



***Spoilers Alert*** In the last post on The Lone Ranger, it was pointed out that the The Lone Ranger was really the natural man as written about in Locke's Two Treatises of Government instead of the scholarly man John Reid.

In this post, I would like to examine the Christians in the movie (without excusing them).

Most of the Christians in The Lone Ranger were hypocrites. The greatest bad guy in the movie, who portrayed himself as a Christian, says of Tonto's village years after he and his brother slaughter them for a fortune in silver, "Nothing is accomplished without sacrifice." (His brother was a cannibal.) The head cavalry man (Was is Custer?) prayed before he mowed down the Native Americans.

Could it be true that we're all hypocrites?

It's the saints who know they're hypocrites, pray to God for forgiveness, and ask for absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Most of the Christians in The Lone Ranger didn't know their hypocrisy. It is in knowledge of ourselves and especially our God that we have hope to escape from our sins. The truth will set us free.

May God forgive us, we know not what we do (Luke 23:34). That's why Jesus is The Way (Acts 9:2) out of hypocrisy.

The Lone Ranger Part I

In a meetup group that I attend, one of the members mentioned that The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp wasn't that bad. ***Spoilers Alert*** He also mentioned the fact that the man who becomes The Lone Ranger is reading a copy of Locke's Two Treatises of Government in the beginning of the movie.



***Spoilers Alert*** Most reviewers of the movie point to bad images of Christians in the film and how the Native Americans and Chinese were exploited. There was no review that closely examined the man who was The Lone Ranger, John Reid.

Let's give it a go.

Mr. Reid was found among Presbyterians (baptized Christians) on a train heading out west. He was discovered by one of the group carrying John Locke's Two Treatises of Government that he considered "his bible". As a lawyer, he believed that bringing men to justice within the court system was the way to handle every criminal. He would defend this belief for most of the movie with his life.

However, when the rubber hit the road, he had to reevaluate his position. In the end, he believed that he had to personally take the lead to exact justice.

This transformation reminded me of Ambassador and Dr. Mary Ann Glendon's book The Forum and the Tower: How Scholars and Politicians Have Imagined the World, from Plato to Eleanor Roosevelt. In it, she describes how many scholars end up not being effective politicians and vice versa. It takes a special person to pull off both. "Perhaps Plato put it best when he chastised both the man of action who never looks beyond immediate concerns and the scholar who keeps his head in the clouds."

John Reid was an example of the scholar. It took experience to know that most times, people need to take up the mantel of justice themselves or in associations of people, just not leave it to government agency.

This is the irony of the movie: it takes the emergence of The Lone Ranger to actualize Locke's natural man who was John Reid. It took experience in action to understand the Two Treatises.

The parallel for Christians is that Love in action is what actualizes faith in Jesus of the Bible.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corr. 13:2)

The Lone Ranger Part II
The Lone Ranger Part III