Issue 129

News: Aquinas' Quinquae Viae.
When my second Latin teacher learned about my attitudes towards religion, his suggestion was that I check out Thomas Aquinas' proofs of God from his Summa Theologica. Eventually, I looked in the Aquinas in the Great Books of the Western World set downstairs. In case you want to look, it is in the First Part, Section: Treatise on the One God, Question 2: The Existence of God, Article Three- whether God exists. One would think that there would be strength in numbers, but as I will show you, there isn't much in this case. For instance, the first three arguments are essentially the same argument at their core, with only differing initial premises. starting from the statement that there had to be a source for all movements and causes , and that since an infinite regress is impossible (at least to Aquinas), there must have been something to have set it off, and that this is supposed to be God. Of course, the biggest problem with that argument is that with the causes given, there is no reason to believe that said source has to have any of the properties that we as humans identify with God. Interestingly enough, the initial premise is also arguable. The motion of gas molecules is often not spurred at all by anything internal or external, and there are many other examples of unmoved motion that effectively undermine the validity of these arguments. With the first three arguments down, the fourth argument states that since there are degrees in things, there must be a being that has the highest degrees of certain properties, and that this must be God. However, the premises Aquinas gives are flawed, particularly in his statement that if an property can be conceived of as being in a greater degree, it must exist, which is often not the case. The last argument is the Argument from design. It is one of the few arguments still in modern use by most Christians, although the people at my Catholic grade school were fond of this argument. According to the argument, if something seems too orderly to have occurred by random chance, and had to be designed. However, even if one were to reject evolutionary theory, there are many cases of poor design which would most likely cast doubt upon the idea of their being created by a loving and all-powerful creator. For instance, the fact that most animals and plants can synthesize Vitamin C for themselves, but human beings, and a few other animals cannot, or a more familiar problem, the appendix, which serves no purpose in humans and is likely to end up almost killing them when it ruptures.

Band name of the Day: The devil's Mouthpiece, from J.C. Webster's nickname for radio personality Art Bell.

Play Idea of the Day: A musical about a youth with extreme involvement in crime (from thievery to sexual assault to video hacking) is given a choice between going to jail and putting on a show. Guess which one he chooses. It will be done in a big way, and quite possibly end up, for a while anyway, being in a venue created exclusively for it. Don't worry, I'm sure that it will be much better than it may seem at the moment.

Film Review of the Day: Hamlet 2. This film was the thing which helped inspire the play idea above. Of course, putting that aside, this movie was actually pretty good. It was probably one of the funniest all year, except possibly Expelled. Steve Coogan plays a Tiny Tim-lookalike rollerblading drama teacher who, shocked at his job being cut from the roster at his school after not being able to get any other work, manages to end up creating a sequel to Hamlet. After many obstacles, including the objections of the star's parents, a cease and desist order from the school, and his wife leaving him, he finally puts on the play, and it becomes a resounding success. I thought it was hilarious, and even my mother, whose overlap in sense of humour is often quite small, was laughing throughout much of the movie.

Quote of the Day: "My father molested me as a child; Maybe that’s why I’m so mean."
_____________The Principal from Hamlet 2.

Link of the Day: The Cynic's Sanctuary.

Issue 128

News: Here's some Philly cultists.
Recently, one of the forums I frequented has become more or less dead, mainly when most of the members moved to another forum when one of the moderators lost his mind and started trolling the forum. So, I am becoming as productive a member there as I was on Newspeak Dictionary before Carl (the mod) took complete leave of his senses. One of the stories I recently commented upon there was a story about the recent discovery of a cult in Philadelphia called "1 Mind Ministries". The world seemed to discover this cult by the murder of one of its members: a 19-month old toddler named Javon Thompson. Specifically, it was about his murder by the cult itself, for failing to say "Amen" after meals. A toddler was starved for being unable to say "Amen" and put in a suitcase after he died, and he possibly wasn't even able to correctly say "Amen" anyway. And people ask atheists why they they are against organized religion.

Band Name of the Day: Savior God Scientific Allah. This was actually a name used by some parents for a baby. I kid you not.

Film Idea of the Day: Nothing today.

Film Review of the Day: Ripping Yarns. I must say that not enough has been said about this spinoff of Monty Python, especially in comparison to the other spinoff from the same era, Fawlty Towers. However, it is just as funny as Monty Python series was in many cases. Of course, only Michael Palin and Terry Jones were involved, and some of these episodes may be funny to those people familiar with the prewar genre being spoofed. However, many of the episodes are funny on their own merits as well, especially "The testing of Eric Olthwaite," the story of an autistic (or in their words, "boring") young man tries to better himself, and ends up doing so by developing a life of crime for himself.

Quote of the Day: "... did you just gety (sic) gang raped by a bunch of monks or something?"
__________Sorianofan, the quote which apparently led Carl into madness.

Link of the Day: RationalWiki: A subjective wiki dedicated to opposing Conservapedia.

Issue 127

News: Didactic Cloudcuckoolanderism, or CAPAlert II: Electric Boogaloo.
In December, I mentioned and criticized CAPalert in one entry. Recently, I decided to email them about one of their articles, which stated that basically, because movies often tend to not reflect daily life of many people in the most extreme cases, (taking several examples from Natural Born Killers), but, as one may have guessed, Fundies tend to not cotton to differing opinions. When I made my point that just because things don't happen often in one's daily life, this doesn't mean that it's not representative of the real world, the person answering my email frequently brought up Spiderman. Of course, just because one never got bitten by a radioactive spider and gained superpowers, never means that one never went through many of the same things that Peter Parker went through. Of course, after reading their reply to a section where I paraphrased Robert McKee's speech in Adaptation in response to Charlie Kaufman's claim that "nothing happens in real life", I suddenly realized something; Somewhere, a point was missed entirely, perhaps it was when they said movies are not representative of the real world, or perhaps when I said that art does often reflect real life, or maybe when it became clear that their focus was not on what was, but on what should be, which are two entirely different concepts to me, but apparently not to CAPalert. Sure, kids shouldn't see American Psycho until they're old enough to see that Patrick Bateman is not in any way a role model, but maybe the films themselves should not be criticized solely on moral grounds, but maybe what should be criticized are parents who allow young children to watch these movies, and any non-children who assume that characters in films should be good role models to children, whether or not children are intended to see said movie. I'm not replying to them via email, because, as I said, Fundies don't cotton to differing opinions, and accordingly, they appear to have blocked my email address. The Moral of the Story: Never debate with fundamentalists, because it's not worth it. Oh, well. If you want to keep taking the blue pill and join John Gardner, feel free to do so while I take my red.

Band Name of the Day: Chicken Corn Whores. Apparently from a sight my family witnessed at a farm in Door County earlier in the summer.

Film Idea of the Day: A study of the antecedents and the aftermath of the public suicide of a Nazi War criminal.

Film Review of the Day: Brideshead Revisited. I recently saw the movie, and while I had not read the book, I did enjoy the movie, although I'm sure much of the reason I enjoyed it was because of the fact that I had not read the book, since the movie was apparently gleamed of much of the subplots in order to fit into a 100-minute film. Of course, even with the questionable ending, I would give the film thumbs up.

Quote of the Day: " Every poem, it is said, should inculcate a moral; and by this moral is the poetical merit of the work to be adjudged. We Americans especially have patronized this happy idea; and we Bostonians, very especially, have developed it in full. We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem's sake, and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true Poetic dignity and force:--but the simple fact is, that, would we permit ourselves to look into our own souls, we should immediately there discover that under the sun there exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified--more supremely noble than this very poem--this poem per se--this poem which is a poem and nothing more--this poem written solely for the poem's sake."
_______________Edgar Allen Poe.

Link of the Day: Garfield Without Garfield: A webcomic.