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Why I Won’t Let My Kids Play Video Games

Growing up, my brother and I never played video games because we didn’t have any. Our parents never got us any consoles or games, so we just never had them in the house. Of course, we’d go to friends’ houses and they would have video games, and we would sometimes play with them, but other than that I pretty much grew up without video games…and I think I turned out fine. In fact, I’m really grateful that my parents didn’t get me any video games as a child because it helped me learn a lot of different things, and ultimately shaped me into the person that I am today. My wife and I both strongly believe that we don’t want our kids playing video games either. Here are 8 reasons for why I won’t let my children have video games. 1. They’re expensive. Simple as that. This is the essential reason my parents didn’t get me video games as a kid; they just thought it was a waste of money. And I think that’s true! Not only are the video game consoles expensive, but the… Read More »Why I Won’t Let My Kids Play Video Games

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Why Man of Steel Was Disappointing

I absolutely love Superman. I want to be clear about that. I grew up watching Superman on TV and reading the comics and so forth. But Man of Steel was not Superman, it was some misfired execution of a bad idea stormed up in the minds of Zack Snyder and David Goyer (with Christopher Nolan’s permission). I was so eagerly anticipating the release of a really good, new Superman film, Man of Steel (especially after the flat and awkward Superman Returns) trusting it would be amazing because it seemed to have a great creative team (Nolan, Goyer, Snyder). Man of Steel was the most disappointing film of the year for me. There are number of reasons for why I thought the movie was bad but let me list 5: 1. The setup on Krypton felt long but also too fast, and was just awkward overall. I would have either liked to see more of a backstory with Jor-El, the Council, and Zod, that didn’t feel rushed (like what was done in Superman The Animated Series) or none at all. 2. We never saw Jonathan and… Read More »Why Man of Steel Was Disappointing

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Why I Hate Horror Films (And Think You Should Too)

I believe in objective goodness. I believe in objective truth. I also believe in objective beauty …and horror films are not beautiful. They are (objectively) ugly.  Strangely, many Christians have no problem believing in the objectivity of goodness and the objectivity of truth, but many of them don’t consider beauty to be objective. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” right? No, of course not. Just like truth and goodness isn’t up to me to decide, neither is beauty. When we see a mighty waterfall pouring down a cliff, it moves us (as something independent of us)  not just to feel like the waterfall is beautiful to me, but to say, “That is beautiful!” When we hear an amazing symphony by someone like Mozart or Beethoven, we say, “It is beautiful.” Similarly, if we saw rats eating and defecating on another, the response we would have is something like, “Eeeww! That is gross. That is disgusting,” not just “I’m having feelings of grossness.” Or what if someone looked at heinous sin, and found it beautiful, would they be (objectively) wrong? Or what if someone… Read More »Why I Hate Horror Films (And Think You Should Too)

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