Sunday, May 21, 2006

Fun!!! That's crazy talk!!!

Hello again world, and Happy Monday..

Well another 2am night, and I get to give my supervisor my section of a chapter. Mark another one down!!! I must confess though, not much time for fun.. I did go to a birthday party with Alex this weekend though (Rebecca came as well). It was at this massive play centre whcih probably is about 4-5 of me high, so it has several levels... To give a better idea of the magnitude of this place, there is a slide within this thing that goes from about the 6th to 4 level or something. Massive, and the coolest thing about it, is that adults can go in as well!!! I didn't this time, but the last party that was there I did, and I played! The only problem I found with it was my own fault. It says to wear socks when you go in, and I didn't have any... I know, what a rebel I am. But when I went down the slide, I burned my heel on the plastic. Only did that once!

So that was probably my fun for the weekend.

Watched "The Life Aquatic" Saturday night. I would describe it, but it's kind of hard to. Bill Murray (Of Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day, Lost in Translation etc fame) was in it and this guy is getting better and better with each movie he does. I really like him. He has a tendancy to understate things, and be... surprisingly great. He runs around in speedos a bit in this movie, as he's kind of a Jacques Cousteau type guy filming his "last" oceanographic documentary. And being a man of very little fitness, it's kind of funny... But it works really well.. I would recommend watching it. Owen Wilson, Willam Dafoe, Cate Blanchette are also in this. It's not a fast paced movie, but it's time well spent...

The Da Vinci Code is released here as well now... I don't think I'll see it. I'm not a big Tom Hanks fan, and didn't really think the story was that good. I think it's so popular mainly because it challenges current perceptions of Christ held by many of His followers. Straight up I have to admit that I think religion (in general) is one of the most fascinating of all topics and one in which I am passionate about, and as such, I try to read whatever I can regarding any religion. I once had a bunch of Mormons come over, so I read some of thier official books. Really interesting reading, and I would recommend it to anyone, especially to Baha'is as the time period of the Mormons beginning and John Smith's declared purpose are fascinating.. I have also read a fair bit about the Bible (through several sources, Baha'i perspective and various Christian sources to remove potential bias). The Mormon's stopped coming to my house after a few months of visits as they started to read other religous literature that I gave them and we were having some really good conversations. I miss them actually. They were fascinating.

I've read some sources regarding the Da Vinci code as being entirely false, but these sources have an inherent bias, as does Dan Brown, of which I will not deny. But the precept of the book is interesting, but hinges on this Priory of Sion and that codes were in Da Vinci's artwork etc. What if Da Vinci was just playing around. THe lines of logic drawn through the book are pretty solid though, and a look at the very early development of the Bible as a liturgical piece is pretty awesome as well. It was written by Jews (as these were the first Christians), and initially as an addition to the Old Testament, as the early Christians worshipped in Synogogues alongside the "Orthodox" Jews and the "Christians" were merely Jews who also followed the teachings of Jesus Christ.... Anyway, that's beside the point... read up on it, it'll put some things in a new (not damaging!!!) perspective. You can actually download The Gospel of Mary Magdelane (Spelling?) and Judas off the net. These are interesting reading as well... All in all, I think the controversy stirred up by the book/movie highlights an important question as to what are we really worshipping, the message or the messenger?

A comment made by "Fireguy" in an earlier post nails it though, if it gets people talking, it's good. Jesus Christ is of God, and the Bible contains the Word of God. This is truth. In each book of the Gospel, the moral and ethical teachings are the same, even if actual events contradict, the message is always the same.


Ya, I tend to blabber on about that, but what has changed and defined societies more than religion?


I have to go now though, but I hope I haven't bored you, but maybe given something interesting to think about....

2 comments:

NanNan said...

Great blogging Mike, have been anxiously awaiting your next production- see, it isn't a wasted effort- you and i have the same learning style get it wrong first, then the right way is clear- terance took his site down, will write to you about it- love mama

Tuffysmom said...

Love reading your blogs Mike. The Da Vinci Code movie grossed $77,000,000 over the weekend in the States. It sure does have people thinking and talking...and in some cases arguing and fighting. This is just my opinion, but I don't God and organized religion are necessarily one and the same thing. And I certainly don't think He wanted wars fought in His name.