http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703 A Rare Bird, A Strange Duck, One Funky Blog Sun, 07 Sep 2008 06:29:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1614 Philip Shropshire Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1614 CS Lewis, like many former atheists, gave up reality. He needed those tasty bliss station moments. For most people, its either drugs or religion. Being that this is the United States, a lot of folks are into both...<br /><br />No, the best putdown of CS Lewis came from a brilliant piece of fiction by Greg Egan called the "Oracle", where the time traveling AI (have you resigned yet? God hates you for doing AI research doncha know...)meets up with thinly veiled characters that strongly resemble Alan Turing (who's gay so he's burning in some Catholic hell I guess) and our own CS "Screwtape Letters" Lewis. It's an incredible read. The link is here:<br /><br />http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/MISC/ORACLE/Oracle.html<br /><br />The punchline: The oracle gives the CS Lewis character a choice between self controlled evolution and eternal life and death and the certainty(?) of being united in heaven with your God...He chooses death of course! How fitting. No wonder you admire the man so...
No, the best putdown of CS Lewis came from a brilliant piece of fiction by Greg Egan called the "Oracle", where the time traveling AI (have you resigned yet? God hates you for doing AI research doncha know…)meets up with thinly veiled characters that strongly resemble Alan Turing (who's gay so he's burning in some Catholic hell I guess) and our own CS "Screwtape Letters" Lewis. It's an incredible read. The link is here:

http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/MISC/ORACLE/Oracle.html

The punchline: The oracle gives the CS Lewis character a choice between self controlled evolution and eternal life and death and the certainty(?) of being united in heaven with your God…He chooses death of course! How fitting. No wonder you admire the man so…]]> http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1615 Funky Dung Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1615 Ephesians 5:5 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1616 Steve N Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1616 Funky, you were way too kind. Rand's rant is a classic example of simultaneous gnat-straining and camel-swallowing. He is a "Christian" who has reinvented Christianity for himself, reserving the right to exclude (or at least threaten to exclude) those who don't subscribe to his peculiar "orthodoxy." At best he is a dolt, at worst: schismatic. The very idea that edifying "theology" (man's futile, and inherently flawed, attempt to wrap his head around God) was even a goal, much less a product, of <i>Great Divorce</i> or <i>Screwtape</i> would be, had it not such tragic consequences, laughable in the extreme. In short, Rand has made a god in his own image: a god of theology, a modern ashtoreth of mental masturbation, representing the absolute worst of evangelicalism. God help us...<br /><br />My $0.02 Great Divorce or Screwtape would be, had it not such tragic consequences, laughable in the extreme. In short, Rand has made a god in his own image: a god of theology, a modern ashtoreth of mental masturbation, representing the absolute worst of evangelicalism. God help us…

My $0.02]]> http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1617 h2 Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1617 I don't think there's a negative context to saying Lewis appealed to a wide variety of Christians -- why would that be a bad thing? http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1618 sibert Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1618 I'm not a blogger, nor am I intimately familiar with this medium. I've not read all of Lewis's work but have reread those which Spirit used to speak to me. I am someone whose life has been changed by C.S. Lewis's writing. He appeals to people, I think, because he was indeed interested in communicating "mere" christianity; our faith at it's most basic, distilled, simplest form. Far too many of us spend far too much time making it all far too complex. Once Lewis broached the simple, the complex always became a wonderful treat to explore, not an orthodox moral calculus to be mastered. The man was simply a genius and a saint. http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1619 Philip Shropshire Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1619 Ooops! Should have said "eternal life OR the certainty (?) of being united in heaven with your God..." http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1620 Jerry Nora Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1620 The Four Evangelists and St. Paul are rather popular across the Christian denominations. Are they fluff? :) ]]> http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1621 Steve N Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1621 Well, Ashtoreth was a fertility goddess... once I latched onto the metaphor, I just kept... hrm... "wacking away"... as it were...<br /><br />;-)
]]> http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/archives/1703#comment-1622 Funky Dung Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000 http://alesrarus.funkydung.com/wordpress/archives/1703#comment-1622 Wouldn't "ego-stroking" or "back-patting" have been sufficient metaphor?