Entertainment

Atheist Sam Harris was the guest on The Colbert Report recently. A few weeks back I blogged an excerpt from an interview with Harris where he commented on Islam and civil society. You can watch him on Colbert here. Harris began the interview by trying to establish that an atheist is not exactly an exotic specimen:

Colbert: Tonight I'll ask, "If there is no Jesus, then who carried me on that beach?"... Harris: We're all atheists with respect to Poseidon. We all know exactly what it's like to be an atheist with respect to Poseidon. Anyone worshipping Poseidon, even at sea, is a lunatic... Colbert: Your book is called the end of faith. Um, what do you mean by the end of faith? Is faith ending or do you believe that faith should end? Harris: I think it should end. I think either you have good reasons for what you believe or you don't. If you have good reasons, those beliefs are part of the world view of science and rationality generally. If there were good reasons to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin or that Mohammad went to heaven on a winged horse, that would be part of our rational world view. And it's only when people lose their purchase on evidence and argument - when they have bad reasons - that they talk about faith. Colbert: Well I've got historical evidence. The Bible tells me that Jesus was born of a virgin... The Bible is without flaw. It is inerrant. We know this because the Bible says it is without flaw...

Harris' main point seemed to be that society is not sufficiently critical of the harm caused by religion (for example, opposition to condom use exacerbating the spread of AIDS in Africa) because of the respect it gives to religious dogma.

The episode of King of the Hill from a couple weeks back featured the Hills going church shopping after their favorite pew at the Arlen First Methodist Church was taken by a new family. Among the churches they tried before settling on a megachurch were a fundamentalist/revivalist type meeting under a tent, a Spanish Roman Catholic church, and new age/progressive type (where they didn't even get in the door before turning around to leave upon hearing "Day by Day" strummed on a guitar). They eventually got burned out at the megachurch with the endless string of activities occurring virtually every night of the week. The frequent calls asking them to take surveys to find out how they felt about this or that activity got old too. They return to Arlen First Methodist and get their favorite pew back by encouraging the new family to try the megachurch.

Today I finished watching Oscar and Lucinda (1997,R) (Screen It! Review). From Wikipedia:

It tells the story of Oscar Hopkins, an English Anglican priest, and Lucinda Leplastrier, a young Australian heiress who buys a glass factory. They meet on the boat over to Australia, and discover that they both like to gamble. Lucinda bets Oscar that he cannot transport a glass church into the outback in one piece. This bet changes both their lives forever.

I really enjoyed this one. I give it 4 out of 5.

I watched the first two episodes of God or the Girl series on A&E. I was afraid it would be silly or cheesy or a joke or a soap opera or something, but it's not. It's actually a serious show. It almost seems more like old-school documentary instead of new-school reality TV. Four interesting, dedicated, and like-able young guys are trying to make the agonizing decision of whether or not it's God's will for them to choose seminary and celibacy. Set your vcrs or Tivos for 1 to 5 PM and 10 to 11 PM this Sunday (April 23) to see the five episodes.

Today I finished watching The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). From Wikipedia:

It tells the story of a man who has to impersonate a king, whom he happens to closely resemble, when the king is abducted by enemies on the eve of his coronation.

It was mildly enjoyable. It's certainly a crime for me to give it the same score I gave The Nutty Professor, but that's what I'm going to do. Obviously, my rating is intended to gauge how much I enjoyed the films, not their objective intrinsic merit. I give it 3 out of 5.