Virginia Tech – Gun Control or Movie Control?

The tragedy at Virginia Tech has recently renewed the Gun Control debate.

Yet Virginia had already defeated a bill that would have allowed qualified gun owners the right to carry on campus. Maybe if they had put up a sign on campus saying “no guns” this young man may have said to himself “Yeah, I’m pissed off and want to kill as many people as I can, but I guess I’ll just stay home tonight and watch a movie because according to this plastic sign said I can’t carry on campus.”

If you think you can prevent a mass-murderer with an 80 cent plastic sign, then I’m sure that you can book the queen of the fairy people to ride her unicorn on campus and give a talk about her magical kingdom.

We already have a waiting period and background checks in place before it’s possible to purchase a handgun. These measures are only applicable to those who purchase their handguns through channels and from a reputable dealer. These measures do not apply to those who wish to purchase a stolen handgun with the serial number filed off. They do not apply to drug dealers, rapists, or anyone else who may not exactly wish to follow legal guidelines.

I wonder if anyone has bothered to point out that this young kid could have done the same damage by driving his car over people. Or a Muslim terrorist with a hybrid car packed with fertilizer and diesel. (the hybrid car is especially scary since it also introduces hazardous waste into the environment – where’s Al Gore when you need him?)

No, we don’t need more gun control laws, what we need are tighter movie control laws. Apparently the VT killer was influenced by the movie “Old Boy” .

Movies have the ability to get in your head and change the way you think. They have the ability to inspire, corrupt, pervert and all manner of adjectives. While I need to wait 5 days and have a background check before buying a handgun, I don’t think you even need to be 18 in order to purchase the latest bloodbath flick.

Movies like SAW glorify death and torture and blood. More and more we see movies coming out with a PG-13 rating that are celebrations in debauchery, that glorify death. While I never bothered to watch a movie like SAW, I’m pretty sure that the scenes of torture and death didn’t involve handguns because if you really want to entice this type of audience, you make a death slow, explicit, and as graphic as possible.

If we’re going to outlaw things, maybe we need to outlaw hammers (the favored weapon of choice in the movie that influenced Cho, or maybe knives, or baseball bats, or drills, or any manner of power tools, or basically anything that isn’t made by FisherPrice or NERF.

No, what we need to do is start glorifying those things which are pure, lovely, good, that have virtue, that are praiseworthy, those things which inspire us to be better than mere animals looking for blood.

Unless we wake up, what will happen is that Hollywood will continue to push out filth, minds will continue to be corrupted, and you won’t just have mass murders, you’ll also have tortures, you’ll have all manner of fictional scenes recreated in real life, with real people. And the best thing that decent people could do is to purchase a handgun to protect themselves from such corrupted minds and hearts.

You will never stop murders by tighter gun control laws, or even by outlawing guns because what we’re dealing with here is the heart. It’s the heart that has all manner of evils in it, it’s the heart that is desperately wicked – who can understand it?

In Romans chapter 1, Paul lays out the truth of a godless society – people have been turned over to their sinful desires, they desire all manner of wickedness, all manner of evils, greed, and depravity. Hollywood feeds off of this and in turn, Hollywood further inspires this behavior.

In our society, people are not ashamed to watch death and torture on tv, but they get upset at the name of Jesus. Jesus can change a heart, but some people just don’t want to hear that. Jesus can remove this heart of stone, the debased heart, and He can give peace.

Paul also wrote in Romans 1 that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes. Ashamed does not simply mean “embarrassed,” it means that he was not shamed, his witness was not defiled or discredited because the gospel is the power of God. The very power of God brings salvation to everyone who would believe.

Buried

Just wanted to update my blog a little bit and give a shout out to the people who read it.

Recently was just wicked busy studying Historical Theology. It was da bomb. Took forever to read all the books and articles for the class, but it was awesome.

Hopefully, I’ll get the time and inclination to write some more articles. Got a ton of good stuff to write about in church history as well as posting a series of apologetic classes that I recently did on the cults.

DIY iPod battery packs!

One of the biggest complaints… well, the only complaint about the iPods is their battery life. Sure we all want the battery to last 100+ hours between recharges, but that’s not going to happen.

However, there are battery packs on the market. I was in Walmart the other day and they had the Belkin 4AA battery pack on clearance for like 20 bucks. It claims to give you 8-16 extra hours. I went with one from Staples, a 9v model which claims 4-8.

But you can also just make your own for under 10 bucks.

I found this website My Homemade iPod Battery Pack which tells you how to do it. He’s also got a ton of references to other diy projects. I really like his Band-Aid battery pack. Very nice.

But got to say my favorite is the Atari battery pack.

Depending on the design, you can get away with spending as little as say 10 bucks (price of a firewire connector, two 9v and two AA’s), or you could get really crazy with regulators and various other things.

The hidden cost is the price of an iPod… say if you end up doing a poor soldering job and have to purchase a new one. But it seems pretty straightforward.

So do-it-yourself battery packs, starting at bucks to a few hundred.

Update from someone in Israel

Ronny Simon was our tour guide when we went to visit Israel this last March. The dude knows a LOT of stuff. He occasionally sends out emails with insights, from an Israeli perspective, on current happenings in Israel.

Check this one out regarding the latest stuff with Lebanon.

From: roni simon
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 4:49 AM
Subject: Ronny Simon – up date about Lebanon
Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 09:48:59 +0000

Shalom from Jerusalem.

Thank you all for your concern and e-mails of support.

These are hard times in Israel. It is not the first time and unfortunately might not be the last time. While the majority of the people carry on with their daily lives, a million people on the northern part of the country, Galilee, Haifa and the Golan heights are spending most of their time in bomb shelters.

Some short history to explain how we got to the present situation.

In May 24, 2000, the Israeli forces that were deployed in Southern Lebanon had pulled back to Israel. That was to comply with a Security Council resolution calling on all foreign forces to evacuate Lebanese territory. The Syrian army and its thousands of soldiers did not remove its forces from Lebanon and the country was held captive by the Syrian dictatorship. Lebanon was only independent by name. The decisions for Lebanon’s future were taken in Damascus.

When the Israeli withdrawal was completed, the U.N. with Israel’s approval had sent over a party to make sure that Israel had pulled back to the international border and that there are no territorial issues between the two countries.

Israel’s hope that the Lebanese army will deploy its forces along the border as the resolution dictated, were in vain. The Lebanese army never stood to the mission because Syria would not allow that. Instead, the Hezbollah, with Lebanese consent and over a $100 million annual support from Iran started to build a terror infrastructure on Israel’s northern border. More than 12 thousand rockets were hidden in bonkers all over south Lebanon. In the same time the Iranian government was building Hezbollah a fortified quarter in the southern part of Beirut, the Lebanese capital. That’s where the headquarters and the logistical center were. Israel was watching frustrated how the world was ignoring what was going on and doing nothing to stop Iran and its armed militia Hezbollah.

I made deseretnews!

Now, this is pretty insane. I’m mentioned in a deseretnews article and I only had one article on Mormonism. Sheesh, I guess I’m going to have to get busy writing.

Was Joseph Smith a Martyr?

I was poking around on the two big Mormon apologist sites (Fair and Farms) and they both have articles on Joseph’s martyrdom.

Christian apologists usually make the argument that Joseph wasn’t a martyr because he went out with guns blazing. You can read about his death in the “Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints” volume 2 by BH Roberts.

The usual story you will hear is that Joseph went to Carthage, was held there and then the mob came up and killed him.

Last year we took a tour of the jail and it was very interesting but our tour guide said nothing about the pistol that Joseph Smith used to fire three shots at the mob.

Then instantly rising to his feet he drew the pistol Cyrus Wheelock had left him, and with a quick, firm step, and a determined expression in his face he advanced to the door and snapped the pistol six successive times; only three of the loads, however, were discharged. (B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. [Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press, 1930], 2: 284 – 285.)

Now, there’s the argument by the Mormon apologists: the word “martyr” merely means witness, Joseph Smith was a witness even to the end.

Armageddon is coming! What, again??

Here’s an interesting article about Jehovah Witnesses

Believing Armageddon is imminent, Jehovah’s Witnesses go on a mission
FAITHFUL OUT TO CALL ON EVERY HOME IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

In case you weren’t aware of it the Watchtower has a very consistent record of false prophecies. Here are a few:

Armageddon 1914

The Watchtower Reprints, January 15, 1892, p.1355
“The date of the close of that ‘battle’ is definitely marked in Scripture as October, 1914. It is already in progress, its beginning dating from October, 1874.”

The Watchtower Reprints, July 15, 1894, p.1672
“We see no reason for changing the figures – nor could we change them if we would. They are, we believe, God’s dates, not ours. But bear in mind that the end of 1914 is not the date for the beginning, but for the end of the time of trouble.”

The Watchtower Reprints, September 15, 1901, p. 2876
“The culmination of the trouble in October, 1914, is clearly marked in the Scriptures; and we are bound therefore to expect a beginning of that severe trouble not later than 1910; — with severe spasms between now and then.”

The Watchtower Reprints, June 15, 1905, p.3576
Charts showing 1914 date.

Pi and very silly people

Third try is charm for new pi record

How about some pi? This kid can recite 10,980 digits of pi. Sheesh, what happened to the good old days when kids would memorize tv theme shows… what are things coming to today.

Of course the world record is 42k digits.

But it is pretty impressive, especially for engineers who usually say "oh, it's about 3.1415 something – close enough".

Look, I can barely remember my phone number. I'm an engineer, I've been trained in math that's mainly alphabet soup, I don't do real numbers. I can do imaginary numbers, I can do transforms, I can find surface integrals and work differential equations but when it comes to balancing my check book I take the best 2 out of 3 totals.

Now this lady here is a nut bar: Pa. Woman Sentenced for 'Stealing' House

She didn't have a dollar to her name, then goes to closing with some forged papers. That's just dumb, I mean, what were you thinking? It's not like you can fence it or exchange vin's or put a new coat of paint on it and the bank will say "Well, the city survey says that the house should be here, but we sold a green house and this one is white… I guess we'll just keep looking."

It certainly isn't going to be the case where the bank will go "Oh, it's just 328 g's, just let her have it."

Unless the house has wheels, you probably shouldn't try and steal it.

Out and About

I haven’t posted here in a while since things have been crazy busy. Went down to Charlotte NC for some schoolin. I’m an external student at SES and they require four module classes to be taken on campus. A module is basically a week long class from 6-10pm Mon-Fri and from 8-4 on Saturday. You basically get an entire semester’s worth of teaching in one week. It’s a good way for me to kick start my degree path since being an external really bites.

I attended a class by Gary Habermas on C. S. Lewis. It was a very interesting class, especially from Habermas.

If you don’t know who Habermas is, he’s a guy who has pretty much specialized in the resurrection of Jesus. He got his doctorate in it, he’s written tons of books about it, and that’s just his thang.

He gave a little bit of his testimony and basically he became a Christian and then pretty much doubted everything about it for a little bit…. like 10 years. And one of the things that brought him back was the resurrection. For him the resurrection of Jesus is the center of Christianity and everything is relative to it.

And indeed, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 (the resurrection chapter) Paul makes this same statement because if Jesus isn’t raised from the dead, then we’re the most miserable people on earth.

But what also makes Habermas interesting is that when he debates atheists, he uses only material that they’ll accept. Paul & 1 Corinthians 15 is accepted as early and historical by skeptics and Mark is accepted by skeptics. From a handful of points that all the skeptics accept, he goes on to demonstrate that the resurrection of Jesus is a historical event.

I watched Habermas debate the famous atheist Anthony Flew (who has become a theist recently – but he’s not a Christian) on the John Ankerberg show. If you haven’t seen this debate it’s off the hook!

Habermas presents 12 lines of evidence and Flew couldn’t refute one of them. It’s really interesting especially since Flew is probably The Foremost Hume Scholar in the world.

You can watch the video on Habermas website.

He talked with an atheist while he was down in Charlotte (actually he talked with several) and this guy asked for one book that defined what he believed and Habermas said “The Risen Jesus and Future Hope” – I’m going to have to get that one.

I’ve got his “Historical Jesus” which is fascinating especially when all the skeptics are running around looking for the “historical Jesus”.

I hope to get me some time to post up in here in the next few weeks. I’d like to post more about Mormonism, especially the doctrine that they taught back in the good olde days that Adam was God, I want to post some C. S. Lewis articles, and some other stuff.

Hey, if you guys have any questions or criticisms about the Bible, Christianity, or Terry Pratchett, email me at bishopbooyah at gmail.com. And I’ll post on those whenever I get a chance.

Why Mormon Prophets?

I got to meet with a couple of very nice Mormon missionaries the other night and they kept bringing up how they have a living prophet today.

So I asked a very logical question: Has Gordon Hinckley given any prophecies that I need to hear about? (Hinckley is their current prophet – their prophets are voted in)

They responded "Oh, yes!" and gave me a pamphlet on how important marriage is written by Hinckley. That's not really a prophecy, that's just good common sense.

What else you got? "Well, Hinckley prophesied that the Nauvoo Temple would be rebuilt and it was!" Okay, but city planners make this sort of prophecy all the time – they've got the money, they've got the men, they've got the equipment, they've got plans and schedules, where's the prophecy in that?