Poses Some Interesting Questions

"The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good."
                                      Bertrand Russell

These kinds of quotations are always fun to examine because they are simple in content yet open the door to a myriad of questions.

Take for instance the word - good. How does Russell define good according to his naturalist worldview? Do his atoms banging against other atoms in a certain way seem "good" to him? And how does he know that these atoms banging together produce a "good thing"? Is it possible that these colliding atoms are not producing "good"? Is goodness a feeling, an idea, a law, and does it have purpose? Can my feelings of goodness change over time? Are the old feelings or definitions not good any more?

What about happiness? If I am only made up of atomic goo, how do atoms make themselves happy? Is happiness defined by my atoms spinning and interacting in a smooth manner?  Is happiness connected to control? If I eat two cookies, I am happy. If I eat forty cookies, I am no longer happy. He puts happiness before goodness - as the precursor. What if the two conflict? Which comes first? When is my happiness no longer good? What if happiness results in someone else's unhappiness? Isn't it possible that one man's happiness could be another man's pain? Is it no longer happiness? How do spinning atoms define happiness? Or for that matter produce goodness? Since in his worldview he cannot define what good is nor can he account for atomic happiness, what is he really saying here?

Russell desperately wants to be happy and good. He knows that these ideas exist. He feels them, and they are real to him. But he cannot nor does he want to go too far beyond the nice pillowy comfort of an esoteric platitude to express his deep longing to be happy. He leads the pack of naturalists who deny the existance of God but cannot account for their own reasoning. They won't acknowledge their frustration with their inability to articulate why they want to be happy and good. They hate the thought of a creator who defines goodness but then borrow from that Creator to explain things like happiness and goodness. When called on the carpet concerning their inconsistent worldview, they retreat to complaining about the Christians and the God that does no good - a goodness they themselves cannot account for themselves. 

Christianity is the only consistent worldview. We are the only worldview that can account for the source, existence, and meaning of goodness and happiness. We can choose to not live consistent with the Christian worldview, but that says nothing of the consistency within the worldview itself. We know we are being inconsistent. They can't see their inconsistency in their lives to their own worldview nor can they see that their worldview is itself unable to account for things like how we know, what is good, and what is reality. 

It is so comforting to know we have a defense to our faith.

Interviews! Humbug!

Yesterday I listened to Dennis Miller's interview of Wilson and Hitchens on his radio spot. I enjoy Miller a great deal but I was disappointed, yet not surprised, at how quickly the interview was over with very little being said. Hitchens did most of the talking because that is what he does. He's bombastic and is not interested in listening at all. It is easy to get frustrated over the fact that Doug was almost shut out of most of the conversation, but as I think it over, it is actually very strategic on Doug's part to remain meek (term used in ancient times to refer to a tamed wild horse)  in all of this. By giving Hitchens the mic in these venues, Doug is allowing Hitchens the opportunity to draw the unbeliever in so that he would want to hear the argument at length and watch the movie where Doug has a better opportunity to explain the truth. I salute Doug's patience. I would be grinding my teeth.

Thoughts from the Kennel

Sabinus and his Dog.

AFTER the execution of Sabinus, the Roman general, who suffered death for his attachment to the family of Germanicus, his body was exposed to the public upon the precipice of the Gemoniae, as a warning to all who should dare to befriend the house of Germanicus: no friend had courage to approach the body; one only remained true - his faithful dog. For three days the animal continued to watch the body; his pathetic howlings awakened the sympathy of every heart. Food was brought him, which he was kindly encouraged to eat; but on taking the bread, instead of obeying the impulse of hunger, he fondly laid it on his master's mouth, and renewed his lamentations; days thus passed, nor did he for a moment quit the body.

The body was at length thrown into the Tiber, and the generous creature still unwilling that it should perish, leaped into the water after it, and clasping the corpse between his paws, vainly endeavoured to preserve it from sinking.

Seeing Christ in a bunny tale, part III

To continue from my last installment, I would make the claim that each main protagonist of the warren is a type of Christ. Fiver represents a prophet telling all of the need for salvation, and Hazel resembles the king leading his people toward the promised land, and Bigwig is Christ-like in his representation of the priest – the priest who sacrifices himself on the alter to bring salvation to his people. But more on salvation in a bit, let’s get to the main antagonist of the story.

The chief antagonist in this story is an immense rabbit named Woundwort. He is the self appointed leader of his warren called Efrafa. His part in the story holds a tremendous similarity to the role that Satan plays in the story of redemption. Satan’s hold on the world is the thing that Christ overthrows in His death on the cross. Satan is strong, Christ is stronger. Satan is crafty and smart, but our Lord is craftier and smarter still. Satan put up a tremendous fight, but Christ tells us that He binds the strong man and plunders what he has and this is exactly what Hazel and Bigwig do. Bigwig is sent into Efrafa, which is located at the center of a crossroad. He is sent into this warren with the sole task of confusing the enemy (binding him) and bringing out with him all that desire to come. It is at this point that the story is the most exciting and the most compelling. There is danger at every turn. But Bigwig is unmoved in his duty – to free the captives. The rest of his warren is out in the outskirts waiting to help him at the appointed time. To make a long story short, and not to give away all of the suspense, I will say that they all escape in a tremendous turn of events. You must read this part, but read it with an eye towards redemption. Woundwort is plundered and is confused by the “miracle” by which it happens. Hazel’s warren takes the long trek back to their warren as victors. Bigwig brings salvation out of Efrafa to his people. But in what way does Adams portray salvation in this story? I would posit that he symbolizes salvation in the form of does, yes female rabbits. Let’s see how this played out.

Just as we see with the Israelites who gained the promise land and yet still lacked the salvation through sacrifice to gained eternal life, from the time that Hazel and the others got to Watership Down, they realized that the existence of their warren could not endure because they lacked the very thing that would ensure their continuation -they lacked does. This is Adam’s representation of salvation. It wasn’t until Bigwig sacrifices himself at the CROSS-road and plunders Woundwort does that Hazel’s warren gains the one thing that they were missing - salvation. (Oh, and did I mention that Bigwig was (dead) in Efrafa for 3 days?) There are too many similarities with scripture to pass up.

So here we have the characters of Watership Down following the story of redemption to the letter and each of them representing a type of Christ in bringing salvation to their people. I am amazed that I never caught it before. It is for this reason that this story will continue to be read and loved. Like any picture of a rose painted by an artist, this story is only a shadow of what it represents, but for Christians this can cause us to appreciate the greater story even more.

Seeing Christ in a bunny tale, part II

To continue on from my previous installment of my commentary on the worldview of Watership Down, I will now attempt to reveal how I see the characters and plot of the story lend themselves to a Christian perspective.

Recall that the main characters of the tale are Hazel, Fiver, Woundwort (the antagonist) and another rabbit called Bigwig. There are many other characters that play minor to semi-major parts, but these four will suffice in getting to my point. Let’s start with Hazel – here is the typical epic hero. Beginning the story unsure of himself, quiet, reserved, filled with doubt, insecure, and filled with the folly of youth, he has no idea how to lead, but it is quite apparent from the start that he is a natural leader. Others instinctively follow him which (following the folly of youth), quickly goes to his head and lands him in some tight spots. There are many times where he has to humble himself and confess that he was acting out of pride. Over the course of the tale, he eventually grows in wisdom, patience, and eventually possesses the one trait that sets true leaders apart from their counterfeits – self-sacrifice. He eventually models a Christ-likeness found in the greatest novels to date. (Yes, I meant to make such a strong statement)

His best friend is Fiver – a scrawny, apparently weak rabbit generally pushed around by everyone else. The significant piece of distinction about Fiver is that he has a strange gift – he can go into a trance and see into the future. He often does not know that he is doing it, nor can he always recall what he has told the others while in his trance, but his gift plays a key role in the story. Now, I know that I have lost some of you at this point because it sounds either hooky or heretical, but bear with me. When I first read it, I grimaced my way through those parts as most Christians might, but I don’t think that Fiver is the Coven member I first thought he was. As I see Hazel as the Christ-like leader of the warren, I see Fiver as the prophet. As an Old Testament prophet often did, he spoke of the supernatural, the unseen. He was the spiritual touchstone for the group. He guided through the supernatural and he was often either mistaken as being crazy or selfish, but his prophetic utterances where never for personal gain but for the sake of the group.

The last of the main characters is a very large, incredibly strong rabbit named Bigwig. What he lacks in brains, he makes up for in loyalty. Once convinced of who is in charge, he rarely wavers in his dedication. His part in the story is probably the most crucial. He will be the one who lay’s down his life for the others. I am not ready to go into his role just yet, just suffice it to say that without him, the story has no real Christian worldview. I will come back to him.

That is all for now – stay tuned.

Thoughts from the Kennel

Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.

Edgar Bergen (1903 - 1978), (Charlie McCarthy)

Thoughts from the Kennel

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.

G. K. Chesterton

Seeing Christ in a bunny tale

I was thinking, of late, about of a book I use to teach when I was teaching sixth grade. My highlighted book of the year was always Watership Down. If you have not read this book, I would highly recommend it. The author, Richard Adams, has a way of taking simple creatures, like rabbits and birds, and weaving an exhilarating tale filling them with the human traits of insecurity, unsureness, hope, fear, courage, and confusion. Again, if you have not read the book then this discussion of the reading will not have much meaning to you but might inspire you to pick it up.

As a teacher in a classical, Christian school, I am constantly being challenged to teach everything in light of God’s word and to teach it from a Christian perspective. One of the greatest challenges I faced in teaching this book was identifing the worldview of the author so that I could compare his worldview to God’s word. Well, this book perplexed me. What is Adam’s worldview? What is he teaching us? These questions plagued me for years. I would get online and seek out anyone who had written anything on this book to get a glimpse of Adam’s worldview. I came up empty every time. The only thing I could come up with was that this was a commentary on the various governmental systems seen in our world today – communism, socialism, democracy, etc. I was not satisfied with this until one day in class it hit me like a ton of bricks; a two-by-four across the head. This was a decidedly Christian story, and I can prove it. You may not agree with me when I am done, but I will endeavor to share what I learned - but first a synopsis of the book.

The book takes place in the quiet English countryside and it deals with a group of discontented male rabbits living in a warren controlled by a rather semi-benevolent, rather absent minded dictator who uses his police force (called an owsla) to maintain control of a bulging warren of rabbits. There is one rabbit in particular, Fiver as he is called, who has a rather unusual gift. He has the ability to see the future and in this instance he foresees a serious calamity coming on the warren. He is not sure how, but he does know it will be soon. It scares him and others around him, but his conviction over what he sees is steadfast. He knows what is coming. He and his friend Hazel, the main character of the story, try to convince the warren’s leader to take the warren somewhere else, but their pleading falls on deaf ears. So they decide to leave anyway. They are followed by a number of other males (as females are not allowed to go with them) and they journey to a place called Watership Down. Along the way they are constantly challenged with hardships and danger, but they make it intact.

It doesn’t take long for them to realize, once they get there, that they are missing something – females (does), and that without them, the warren is doomed. No future! So they head to another warren filled with females to seek some that might want to start a new life with them. Little do they realize that they are entering into the most dangerous part of their journey. The leader of this warren, a colossal, dreadful rabbit named Woundwort, has no intention of letting his warren be disbanded in any way and he plans on bringing Hazel’s warren into his. He rules with an iron fist, and he is terrifying to all who come in contact with him.

Hazel’s warren decides to send in one of their own to gather as many of the females as possible and then the rest would assist them in their escape. The one chosen to infiltrate is a large rabbit named Big Wig. He enters the warren and to make a long story short, he and a group of females, with the help of the rest of Hazel's warren, escape. Now, this does not even begin to do the story justice, but that is not my purpose here. My purpose in this article is to show how this is an incredibly Christian story. But that will have to come in the next installment.