The problem of evil is a challenge to religious belief, and yet the New Testament writers felt that the death and resurrection of Jesus effectively disempowered the forces of evil in the world, and evil should not be a hindrance to trust in God.
How does this make sense?
Read More »Black Panther and the Problem of Evil
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Is the Matrix a classic? What makes it stand apart from other movies? What philosophical themes show up in the movie? Please comment with your own thoughts, share, and subscribe.
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Read More »The Matrix, with Sheb, Sam, and Rebekah Varghese
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John Mark Reynolds wrote a critique of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast here, and here. Dr. Reynolds has been tremendously influential in my own intellectual formation, and I am nearly always in agreement with him. So I was somewhat surprised by his critique of Disney’s Beauty and Beast.
Read More »In Defense of Beauty and the Beast: A reply to John Mark Reynolds
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With the cinematic reboot of the DC Universe, with “Man of Steel” in 2013, and “Dawn of Justice” in 2016, many fans have had a hard time with the vision and direction Zack Snyder and David S. Goyer have taken with these characters and storylines. Read More »Batman v Superman: A Reason for Hope (Guest Post, Samuel Varghese)
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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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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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