Thursday, January 28, 2010

Collision: A movie review

I haven’t yet reviewed an apologetics movie for the blog, so I thought I would discuss a movie I’ve just shown to my classes: Collision. Collision pits the witty, irreverent, and sometimes self-deprecating Christopher Hitchens against pastor, professor, family-man and author Doug Wilson. The two went on a debate tour while promoting their book Is Christianity Good for the World?, and this chronicles their discussions.


First, I do believe that this is the first time I’ve ever seen an apologetics movie that has the opponents at so many, and at such a variety of venues. They go from a school sponsored debate, to a bar, to a restaurant, to a taxi cab, to a helicopter, etc. etc. Yes, I do agree that the producers and directors were trying a little too hard to be “hip” with their format and music choices (see the reviews on Amazon) but I don’t think this detracted from the overall meaningfulness of the movie. While there were many critical issues raised that sparked discussions amongst my students, I found the most interesting and I daresay compelling undercurrent of the whole film was the respectful relationship that developed between the two men. It reassured to me that there are some atheists and christians that can actually disagree civally.


While Wilson comes from a different apologetic perspective of my own (he’s a presuppositionalist- where I’d take a more classical approach), I think he did a great job clarifying his position and an even better job dismantling Hitchens’ objections. The pairing could not have been better. They continually played off of each others arguments, often times with a humorous and even playful interactions that spawned giggles from the audience. Of course, not all of their dialogue was amusing, but all of it was definitely intriguing.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone with one warning: If you are planning on showing this to a church or youth group- be forewarned that there are a couple of minor expletives. (Oh my!) The one used by the pastor started an interesting discussion in my class on the propriety of language in apologetics debates, and when, if ever, is there an appropriate time to use this sort of exclamation point.



I give it an easy 4.5 out of 5 stars. (The .5 off was because a few arguments were offered by one party- but the other party was never given the chance to answer. ) Visit http://www.collisionmovie.com/ for more details.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Our Young People are Confused.

It’s no wonder that our high school and college students are so confused about God, right from wrong, and our purpose in life. We are teaching them two completely different perspectives, two opposing worldviews, then we expect them to function in a complex society with this shifting and unstable foundation.




Students spend hours a day at public school and are educated in the fundamentals of evolution. Everything came about by chance, there is no overarching purpose to their lives, they aren’t special unless they have something unique and valuable to offer society, and right from wrong is only determined socially and culturally. Beauty is relativistic and love is merely lustful attraction. Reality ends at the edge of the material.



Christian young people go to church on Sunday, and possibly one other time during the week; spending possibly two or more hours in the setting of other believers. You may expect that I’d write that these students are then taught the Christian side of the story, but often times, this doesn’t even happen. But to give the benefit of the doubt: the young person is taught that he or she is special, is divinely created for a purpose, that God is Good and that the term “good” is defined by the nature of God and his perfect and design for us. Beauty is objective, real, observable by all, and has the possibility of creating an aesthetic experience. Love is real. Its roots penetrate our soul, and God is its exemplification and embodiment.



Lets see what happens to our students. Unfortunately, we don’t have to wait to find out. You can already see it here: http://www.youthapologetics.com/video.php . Many of our young people are confused, no…very confused. How can we help?