I love Halloween, as does Ginger. Costumes, candy, trick or treating... there is NOTHING bad about this holiday. Of course, growing up, Halloween was not a welcome holiday in my parents' household.
There were many years where my mom decided that trick or treating and getting dressed up was not in accordance with Islam. I was allowed to get dressed up to go to school, but once I got home the costume had to come off and I was stuck watching bad Halloween specials on tv (they never showed "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" ON Halloween when I was a kid). Of course, there were several years where my parents would head out for some event or another on Halloween (not holiday related) and us kids would sneak out with our pillow cases to be filled with candy.
This was always backed up at Sunday school by our teachers who would caution us against going trick or treating and celebrating Halloween because it was against our religion. While Halloween may have started as a pagan holiday, it has long lost that meaning. I mean, do we really think that ancient pagans intended me to get recycled peanut butter kisses when I went out trick or treating? While those peanut butter kisses may have been produced during the time of the pagans (does ANYONE actually like those things?), they were not intended to be forced upon children generation after generation after generation.
Maybe we need to bring Halloween back to its roots and find some pagans to teach us how. Of course then my mom would be completely justified in ruining my dreams of candy filled pillow cases....
Friday, October 31, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Music to the Soul
So I had a similar instance of divine intervention as our friend Yusuf's. Admittedly, it may not have been quite as cool, but it was still something. So I will admit to everyone out there, I watch the CW. I probably watch it more than someone in their late 20's should. Well, as of late they have had these commercials that just list the names of shows and what time they are on... nothing fancy, nothing special. Except for the music.
Anyone who has known me since my pre-law school days will know that in my natural state I am somewhat of an audiophile... okay I am completely an audiophile. (Law school has seriously dampened my obsession, but it still lingers in the background.) So when I hear a song that catches in my head, I HAVE to have it. This CW commercial played music in the background... simple music, no words. It was incredibly catchy, even in its 15 seconds of play. Talking to my fiance (who is a great enabler of my music addiction), I could not even recreate what the music sounded like because the instruments were so unique. It was driving me crazy. I kept running searches on Google and other search engines trying to figure out what the song was.
I started to hit rock bottom. I was jonesing for the music bad, real bad. I found my prayers being tainted with pleas to God to find the song. I laid awake in bed at night, staring at the ceiling and making deals with God to figure out what the song was. It looks like the Big Guy heard my pleas and decided to indulge me.
After several weeks and searching I began to give up and concentrate on other aspects of life again, like school. While conducting a marathon research session in the law library I was listening to my new iPhone (something I think Ginger should profile as something God owns stock in), when all of a sudden I heard the faint beginnings of some music. It rang familiar in my head... the excitement began to build. But surely, I could not have owned the song all along. The music kept playing... I listened with anticipation... and there it was, the familiar guitar chord repeating. It took all the energy I had not to get up and start laughing like a maniac at the miracle I was experiencing. Apparently, I had downloaded the song (which was Great DJ by the Ting Tings) from iTunes on one of their free Tuesday downloads and just had never really listened to it (come on, I have like 4,000 songs on my phone). I said a small thankful prayer to God and ran to share the news with Ginger, who was not as impressed, but nonetheless it was my miracle from God.
Which leads me to another point I am going to touch on quickly, since it probably deserves its own post. Super religious people who don't believe music is kosher/halal/down with God. There are plenty of extremist Muslims who say that music is against the religion. I would imagine that there are similar folks in other religions as well. Now I understand the concept that things that take you away from God are not good things... but seriously, I do not think listening to Death Cab for Cutie makes me a bad Muslim. If I listened to the Jonas Brothers, that probably would, but I am safe on that point. Music is a good way to unite people and bring them together. It is not something that needs to be rallied against. The Mullahs who outlaw western music in the Middle East are sorely going about it the wrong way... but outlawing it, they are making people want it more. If they would just hand out free Rihanna albums, no one would want to listen to her anymore. Maybe that is the secret to getting rid of the Jonas Brothers....
Anyone who has known me since my pre-law school days will know that in my natural state I am somewhat of an audiophile... okay I am completely an audiophile. (Law school has seriously dampened my obsession, but it still lingers in the background.) So when I hear a song that catches in my head, I HAVE to have it. This CW commercial played music in the background... simple music, no words. It was incredibly catchy, even in its 15 seconds of play. Talking to my fiance (who is a great enabler of my music addiction), I could not even recreate what the music sounded like because the instruments were so unique. It was driving me crazy. I kept running searches on Google and other search engines trying to figure out what the song was.
I started to hit rock bottom. I was jonesing for the music bad, real bad. I found my prayers being tainted with pleas to God to find the song. I laid awake in bed at night, staring at the ceiling and making deals with God to figure out what the song was. It looks like the Big Guy heard my pleas and decided to indulge me.
After several weeks and searching I began to give up and concentrate on other aspects of life again, like school. While conducting a marathon research session in the law library I was listening to my new iPhone (something I think Ginger should profile as something God owns stock in), when all of a sudden I heard the faint beginnings of some music. It rang familiar in my head... the excitement began to build. But surely, I could not have owned the song all along. The music kept playing... I listened with anticipation... and there it was, the familiar guitar chord repeating. It took all the energy I had not to get up and start laughing like a maniac at the miracle I was experiencing. Apparently, I had downloaded the song (which was Great DJ by the Ting Tings) from iTunes on one of their free Tuesday downloads and just had never really listened to it (come on, I have like 4,000 songs on my phone). I said a small thankful prayer to God and ran to share the news with Ginger, who was not as impressed, but nonetheless it was my miracle from God.
Which leads me to another point I am going to touch on quickly, since it probably deserves its own post. Super religious people who don't believe music is kosher/halal/down with God. There are plenty of extremist Muslims who say that music is against the religion. I would imagine that there are similar folks in other religions as well. Now I understand the concept that things that take you away from God are not good things... but seriously, I do not think listening to Death Cab for Cutie makes me a bad Muslim. If I listened to the Jonas Brothers, that probably would, but I am safe on that point. Music is a good way to unite people and bring them together. It is not something that needs to be rallied against. The Mullahs who outlaw western music in the Middle East are sorely going about it the wrong way... but outlawing it, they are making people want it more. If they would just hand out free Rihanna albums, no one would want to listen to her anymore. Maybe that is the secret to getting rid of the Jonas Brothers....
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Religulous and the Quality Threesome
So I was the lucky guy who got to take Ginger and Eli to Religulous last night. Two important qualifications to that statement: 1. When I take a girl to a movie, she still pays. What else can you expect from a feminist Jew? 2. Quality threesome? You decide.
Religulous is funny. The problem with religulous is that it tries to have a point. Bill Maher going around arguing with Biblical Literalists provides for funny moments and an interesting, if not narrow, expose on fundamentalism.
But then Religulous tries to have a point. It has three points. Two of them are good, but then the bad point eats the good points and then the movie ends.
First the good points. The first good point of the movie is that it sucks that atheists are marginalized. Maher points out that about 16% of Americans identify themselves as atheist, but that this demographic has no political sway while much smaller demographics, Jews, blacks, unions, etc., have tons of sway. The analogy between ethnic minorities and atheists as a interest group isn't a great one, but, still, the point is well taken. Atheist-phobia, like some other phobias, is just another narrow-minded, squeamish intolerance.
The second good point is that people should be humble when attempting to answer life's difficult questions. Does God exist? What happens when we die? Is there a destiny heading towards Armageddon? The answers to these questions should be 'humility' and little more. If people realized that faith was based on their personal intuitions, not on some capital t-Truth, people might be less willing to die and kill over religious matters.
The problem is with Maher's third point: religion really sucks. In fact, religion will cause the end of the world. Religulous, after being pleasant for like 90 minutes, degrades into a Clock Orange style say 'religion' over and over again while showing disturbing images, namely mushroom clouds, to convince the audience that religion is bad.
This bad point swallows the good points for a couple reasons. First, while it may convince some atheists to come out of the closet by being so outspoken, Maher more than anything makes atheists look like people who hate religion. Making 'intolerance' intrinsic to atheism makes atheism seem like bad news bears. Plus, as pointed out by Ginger, by labeling religious progressives as enablers of religious fundamentalists, Maher leaves no room for a viable religious left. It can't be good for spreading peace, tolerance, etc if fundamentalists necessarily have a monopoly over religion.
Maher's general distaste for religion also jacks his point about humility. Maher states astutely that people should answer the big questions with humility. The problem is that Maher, when dialoguing with various people throughout the movie, doesn't ask what people think happens after death, etc. He instead focuses on the silliest parts of the Bible, the talking snake in the Garden of Eden, Jonah and the whale. Of course, Biblical Literalists can't say that Jonah didn't get eaten by the whale and then stupidly go on about miracles and whatever. So Maher's questions do provide a good attack on fundamentalist literalism. But, honestly, how many people's religious identities center around Jonah getting swallowed by a whale? Maher sets up straw men and dodges taking an intimate look at the way people actually grapple with difficult questions.
Also, for God's sake, it is not humble for Maher to declare that religion should die while showing nuclear bombs going off in the background. Militant atheism can be pretty dangerous too (see Mao, Stalin, et al). At the end of the day, religious people and atheists shouldn't be dicks.
That pretty much counts out Bill Maher.
Religulous is funny. The problem with religulous is that it tries to have a point. Bill Maher going around arguing with Biblical Literalists provides for funny moments and an interesting, if not narrow, expose on fundamentalism.
But then Religulous tries to have a point. It has three points. Two of them are good, but then the bad point eats the good points and then the movie ends.
First the good points. The first good point of the movie is that it sucks that atheists are marginalized. Maher points out that about 16% of Americans identify themselves as atheist, but that this demographic has no political sway while much smaller demographics, Jews, blacks, unions, etc., have tons of sway. The analogy between ethnic minorities and atheists as a interest group isn't a great one, but, still, the point is well taken. Atheist-phobia, like some other phobias, is just another narrow-minded, squeamish intolerance.
The second good point is that people should be humble when attempting to answer life's difficult questions. Does God exist? What happens when we die? Is there a destiny heading towards Armageddon? The answers to these questions should be 'humility' and little more. If people realized that faith was based on their personal intuitions, not on some capital t-Truth, people might be less willing to die and kill over religious matters.
The problem is with Maher's third point: religion really sucks. In fact, religion will cause the end of the world. Religulous, after being pleasant for like 90 minutes, degrades into a Clock Orange style say 'religion' over and over again while showing disturbing images, namely mushroom clouds, to convince the audience that religion is bad.
This bad point swallows the good points for a couple reasons. First, while it may convince some atheists to come out of the closet by being so outspoken, Maher more than anything makes atheists look like people who hate religion. Making 'intolerance' intrinsic to atheism makes atheism seem like bad news bears. Plus, as pointed out by Ginger, by labeling religious progressives as enablers of religious fundamentalists, Maher leaves no room for a viable religious left. It can't be good for spreading peace, tolerance, etc if fundamentalists necessarily have a monopoly over religion.
Maher's general distaste for religion also jacks his point about humility. Maher states astutely that people should answer the big questions with humility. The problem is that Maher, when dialoguing with various people throughout the movie, doesn't ask what people think happens after death, etc. He instead focuses on the silliest parts of the Bible, the talking snake in the Garden of Eden, Jonah and the whale. Of course, Biblical Literalists can't say that Jonah didn't get eaten by the whale and then stupidly go on about miracles and whatever. So Maher's questions do provide a good attack on fundamentalist literalism. But, honestly, how many people's religious identities center around Jonah getting swallowed by a whale? Maher sets up straw men and dodges taking an intimate look at the way people actually grapple with difficult questions.
Also, for God's sake, it is not humble for Maher to declare that religion should die while showing nuclear bombs going off in the background. Militant atheism can be pretty dangerous too (see Mao, Stalin, et al). At the end of the day, religious people and atheists shouldn't be dicks.
That pretty much counts out Bill Maher.
Movie Review: Religulous
***Editor's Note: POF took a field trip last night to see Religulous at our local theatre with the intent to blog about our thoughts. I am the first, but stay tuned for reactions of the other Porkers. ***
The only thing I had seen about Religulous prior to seeing the actual film last night was the movie poster, which had a picture of Bill Maher on a piece of toast, a la the many sightings of Jesus and Mary on various everyday items. (Click here to see a story about the Virgin Mary under a Chicago overpass.) I like Bill Maher, and he mostly pleased with this candid and hilarious film that was mostly about asking questions.
As you might be able to tell by now, this blog is exactly about this sort of thing - challenging the ridiculous parts of religion that usually tend to cloud the real stuff. The "real stuff" being a connection with the universe and each other. Maher is unabashed about his questions, and even more so about calling people out when their answers are laughably absurd (like believing in a "talking snake".)
Maher is very well researched to provide quick comebacks to some of the typical answers that people give to justify these beliefs. In particular, it was interesting to me to hear about the striking parallels between the characteristics of Jesus and those of the Egyptian god Horus. I think very few people could doubt the contradictions that Maher points out about religion, including a senior Vatican priest.
What Maher doesn't focus on is the benefit to faith. I think this is OK, since his movie is likely intended to shock people out of their heretical belief systems. Early in the movie, he points out that people intend for religion to do such good things, but it always ends up with people doing really bad things for their religion or in the name of their religion or because of their religion. This point comes to fruition in then ending, which blames religion for war, global warming, and every other imaginable evil in the world. Although a bit sudden and underdeveloped, this ending does cause the viewer to think about what the unintended consequences of their beliefs might be.
What was particularly unsettling for me was Maher's contention that even conscious, moderate religious followers are contributing to a system which ultimately is causing fundamentalism and thus the bad consequences described above. My instant reaction was to disagree. Why should it matter that I take communion on Sunday and pray to a God that is clearly made up from thousands of years of mythology, if I'm not hating others for their religious beliefs, or lack thereof? But, the reason this is so unsettling is that I see he has a point.
No matter how offended you get by the movie (I thought it was offensive in a hilariously irreverent way, but that's just my opinion), you have to appreciate it for the questions that it asks, and the ultimate theory that it concludes. Maher is just a guy who is trying to understand this whole religious thing and ultimately I think he is trying to make the world a better place by doing so. (Tell THAT to the people he interviewed...something tells me they won't believe it!)
The only thing I had seen about Religulous prior to seeing the actual film last night was the movie poster, which had a picture of Bill Maher on a piece of toast, a la the many sightings of Jesus and Mary on various everyday items. (Click here to see a story about the Virgin Mary under a Chicago overpass.) I like Bill Maher, and he mostly pleased with this candid and hilarious film that was mostly about asking questions.
As you might be able to tell by now, this blog is exactly about this sort of thing - challenging the ridiculous parts of religion that usually tend to cloud the real stuff. The "real stuff" being a connection with the universe and each other. Maher is unabashed about his questions, and even more so about calling people out when their answers are laughably absurd (like believing in a "talking snake".)
Maher is very well researched to provide quick comebacks to some of the typical answers that people give to justify these beliefs. In particular, it was interesting to me to hear about the striking parallels between the characteristics of Jesus and those of the Egyptian god Horus. I think very few people could doubt the contradictions that Maher points out about religion, including a senior Vatican priest.
What Maher doesn't focus on is the benefit to faith. I think this is OK, since his movie is likely intended to shock people out of their heretical belief systems. Early in the movie, he points out that people intend for religion to do such good things, but it always ends up with people doing really bad things for their religion or in the name of their religion or because of their religion. This point comes to fruition in then ending, which blames religion for war, global warming, and every other imaginable evil in the world. Although a bit sudden and underdeveloped, this ending does cause the viewer to think about what the unintended consequences of their beliefs might be.
What was particularly unsettling for me was Maher's contention that even conscious, moderate religious followers are contributing to a system which ultimately is causing fundamentalism and thus the bad consequences described above. My instant reaction was to disagree. Why should it matter that I take communion on Sunday and pray to a God that is clearly made up from thousands of years of mythology, if I'm not hating others for their religious beliefs, or lack thereof? But, the reason this is so unsettling is that I see he has a point.
No matter how offended you get by the movie (I thought it was offensive in a hilariously irreverent way, but that's just my opinion), you have to appreciate it for the questions that it asks, and the ultimate theory that it concludes. Maher is just a guy who is trying to understand this whole religious thing and ultimately I think he is trying to make the world a better place by doing so. (Tell THAT to the people he interviewed...something tells me they won't believe it!)
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