Reasons Newsletter - 2009 - May/June
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Response
By Kenneth Richard Samples
British author J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has been a runaway bestseller since its release. The last four installments set records as the fastest-selling books in history and the film franchise is one of the highest grossing of all time, with the highly-anticipated sixth movie to be released on July 17.
The series, which follows the titular adolescent as he grows up to become a wizard endowed with magical powers, has sparked controversy among Christians. When a teacher from my church asked for my personal opinion about the books, I took it as an opportunity to help parents think through the influence of literature on the minds of children.
Most believers consider occult practices and powers real and damaging to a person’s mind and soul (Deuteronomy 18:10–12; 2 Thessalonians 2:9–10). Consequently, some Christians feel that Harry Potter instills these dangerous concepts among young readers. I encourage parents to ask four questions in determining whether to allow their children to read Harry Potter and similar works.
- How can Christian parents test their decisions in terms of Scripture, conscience, and reason (Philippians 4:8; 1 Thessalonians 5:21; 1 John 4:1)? These God-given authorities can guide believers when making tough decisions. Confidence comes from aligning one’s life according to God’s Word and the faculties of reason and logic. The following questions flesh out this guiding principle.
- Is it appropriate to use dark and occult images in fantasy literature to convey imaginative narrative? Christian authors C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien certainly thought so. Many fairytales use similar imagery. I ask parents to consider whether they agree or disagree with Lewis and Tolkien and why.
- Does the book use these images as literary devices simply to propel the broader story, or rather to promote occult involvement? Parents need to progressively instruct their children on the differences between fiction and reality. This helps kids appreciate the basic elements of literature as well as distinguish actual spiritual deceptions and counterfeits.
- What is the overarching worldview reflected in the books and how does it compare and/or contrast with the historic Christian worldview? In other words, how do the books picture or frame such ultimate issues as God, the cosmos, truth, goodness, values, and humanity? Teaching young people the skill of thinking “worldviewishly” is critically important in their ongoing intellectual and spiritual development.
Ultimately it’s up to parents to decide whether Harry Potter is suitable for their children. Asking thoughtful questions puts believers in a position to discover what is good, right, and profitable before God.
Resource: For more tips on applying reason and logic to Christian beliefs, check out Ken’s new podcast, Straight Thinking.
Only in the Movies: The Harsh Realities of Deep Space Travel
Adapted from material by Hugh Ross
Ever since the original USS Enterprise first zoomed across television screens at warp speed in 1966, Gene Roddenberry’s space fantasy, Star Trek, has captivated people’s imaginations. Space epics like Star Trek make it easy to dream that one day NASA will find a way to send astronauts beyond our solar system to distant planets. I hate to be a spoiler, but imagination is where such journeys must begin and end.
Distance is a huge problem. The nearest star to our star (the Sun) is 25 trillion miles away. Even if that star were orbited by a planet, it would take NASA’s fastest spacecraft 112,000 years to get there. That’s a bit long, even if we took turns driving and resting. Radiation exposure for a fraction of that time would be deadly.
Traveling at speeds approaching the velocity of light wouldn’t help. The faster an object travels through space, the greater the damage from collisions with particles (such as protons, neutrons, electrons, even photons) and space debris. Meteorites the size of dust particles have punched holes as big as silver dollars in the Hubble Space Telescope’s solar panels. If the relatively slow-moving telescope had been traveling a thousand times faster, the damage would have been a million times worse (because the effect increases by the square of the speed).
Even an expedition lasting just a few thousand years would necessarily extend through multiple generations. This scenario presents its own set of difficulties. Whether or not the original voyagers volunteered for the mission, their children would inherit it. Waning dedication to the goal or shifting priorities could easily lead to revolt and jeopardize the entire trip.
Meanwhile, extinction represents a greater likelihood. Six billion people living on a large planet can survive epidemics, genetic damage, environmental disasters, and wars for a time. But a relatively few individuals (even up to a few thousand) on board a space ship, or cluster of space ships, would be wiped out by any such catastrophes—not to mention by the psychological wear and tear. Biosphere experiments reveal that when small populations remain isolated, confined, and vulnerable, they suffer rapid psychological collapse.
Movies, TV shows, and other forms of entertainment can take our imagination beyond the boundaries of the physical world. But despite the appeal of boldly going “where no man has gone before,” Star Trek’s unattainable modes of transportation remind us that escape from the results of humanity’s sinful nature on this planet is impossible. Rather, pinning our hopes on Jesus Christ and his eternal plans takes us into a realm well-worth exploring.
Resource: For more on deep space travel, check out
Lights in the Sky & Little Green Men
and
The rUFO Hypothesis (DVD)
.
Defusing the Antimatter Bomb
By Jeff Zweerink
A maniacal scheme by a ruthless villain. A desperate search for a time-bomb. A harrowing escape from destruction. We’ve seen these plot devices repeated throughout the action/adventure genre. Obviously, the climaxes of popcorn flicks are rife with scientific inaccuracies. It drives my wife crazy when I point them out, but the unusual bomb set to blow Vatican City sky-high in the recent adaptation of Dan Brown’s thriller Angels & Demons deserves some discussion.
In this prequel to The Da Vinci Code, villains steal and attempt to use antimatter to destroy the Vatican. According to Einstein’s famous formula E = mc2 (where c is the speed of light), when antimatter encounters normal matter, both annihilate and convert all the mass into energy. The enormous energy released by this combination, particularly when involving x-rays and gamma-rays, highlights the catastrophic capabilities of antimatter. The bomb in the story is made from only a quarter-of-a-gram of antimatter (contained by magnetic fields). That may not seem like much, yet even that amount would pack a jolt equal to fifteen thousand tons TNT—similar to the firepower of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The use of a magnetic container in Angels & Demons demonstrates that the author put forth some effort to make the plot scientifically plausible. Nevertheless, TV’s MythBusters would have a field day with the story. For example, the hero uses a helicopter to harmlessly detonate the bomb in the sky over the Vatican. In reality, as demonstrated by the atomic bombs used in WWII, detonation a couple thousand feet in the air would maximize damage.
Unsurprisingly, the story’s plot relies on the antiquated premise that science and Christianity inherently conflict. But the history of antimatter in the universe shows signs of the fine-tuning expected of the biblical Creator. Even though antimatter composed nearly half the mass of the early universe, no significant concentrations of antimatter persist today. However, if the early universe had contained identical amounts of antimatter and matter, none of life’s building blocks would have remained.
Almost every known process for making antimatter produces equal amounts of antimatter and matter. Yet for reasons still not understood by scientists, some process (or processes) in the early universe created only a billion particles of antimatter for every billion and one particles of matter. Subsequently, all the antimatter collided with matter annihilating the antimatter, leaving a universe with an abundance of matter to form life.
Resource: Hear RTB scholars answer your science/faith questions on the I Didn’t Know That! podcast. Submit inquiries to ask@reasons.org.
Stewardship: User Support
New resources, events, publications, an exciting website launch—2009 is turning out to be a thrilling year here at RTB. We want to thank our constituents for their support because without their generosity, these ministry activities wouldn’t happen. This support, in no small part, includes our MOM monthly partners whose faithful provision is truly a gift from God. If you have been encouraged or have found value through RTB this year, we hope you’ll consider becoming a part of the group that fuels us toward our goal of proclaiming new reasons to believe in Jesus Christ! Your gift this month can play an important part in our work. Please use the enclosed response card to send a much needed gift of support today.
