A recent survey by Pew found most Americans, purported to be religious, did not know common tenets about their faith.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100928/ap_on_re/us_rel_religious_literacy_poll
It’s like investing in a stock, without knowing P/E etc..
I watched Charlie Rose interview Oliver Stone and the two main actors.
Josh Brolin says “at least, I day traded so I knew some basic terms when accepting this role”.
Even actors have to learn the lingo when stepping into the shoes of the character.
Trading derivatives is a complex thing.
And that’s just financial matter, on earth.
Until we deal with faith matter, in heaven.
So we rely on interpretation, on hearsay.
I wonder how many suicide bombers actually knew what they were dying for.
Unlike Martin Luther, who insisted that it was a matter of conscience, and he couldn’t do any other way.
Although the result might be the same (apostasy, for instance), people might pursue a different thought process.
More than ever, we have access to voluminous information that easily overwhelm even the best minds.
Some cult members were found praying in the park rumored to have pulled a mass suicide just last week.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-09/20/c_13520198.htm
And remember Jim Jones (sun glasses). Utopian .
Technology, ever evolving, promises instant gratification (location-based groupons, foursquare check-in, or trendly tweets).
Right now, the next frontiers would be clean energy, smart appliances and paperless/wireless society.
Back in the early 70’s, I remember the promises of “small is beautiful – Schumacher- ethics in the White House -Carter, and faith in America – Reagan”.
We have wrestled with clean energy and clean conscience for decades now. At least, the former goals are measurable (emission level). It’s the later, especially on Wall Street, that needs stricter oversight.
And the movie strips down the complexity by putting on some meat into the characters.
And as a matter of insight, we all learn something valuable during these two years: our actions are not without wider consequences.
We are so inter-connected that a hacker in the Philippines can bring down the house of New Orleans, or another sub-prime loan signed in Las Vegas outskirts can bring down Lehman Brothers.
I still have faith in the human spirit. It got us to the Moon and back many times. That same spirit, if tamed and honed for good use, could surely make appliances to talk, environment to be cleaner and a society more livable. But my faith needs insight, because one cannot engineer one’s self out of the moral and technological complexity of the here and now. Not on sheer blind faith.
Thang Nguyen 555 