Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Fundamentalist Christans are full of irony


A Kansas professor who was going to teach a religion studies class on creationism and intelligent design was attacked apparently because he sent an email complaining about "fundies". What happened to "love your neighbor" and "do unto others"?


Also, with the upcoming release of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in theaters, churches are pushing the Christian message in the story. These same churches seem to hate everything to do with the Lord of the Rings (esp. the roleplaying that takes place in Tolkienesque worlds). The irony is that it is Tolkein who convinced Lewis to accept Christianity.

1 comment:

Nate said...

There's also irony in how many people think that Mirecki and others like him are wise counsel in the face of religious dogma. It sounds an awful lot like religious nuts who think that their ministers are wise counsel in the face of evolutionist dogma.

re Role playing and fundamentalists:

Overall, fundamentalists like Tolkein's work because they see it as good, clean fiction where Good triumphs over Evil. The main problem fundamentalists have with the Tolkienesque worlds is not the Tolkein parts, elves and dwarves and wizards and such, but rather other things they liken to occultic or satanic symbolism. I won't defned that position, but it's the major one they have.

While there would be irony in selectively picking on only one of Lewis or Tolkien-- more specically Narnia and Middle-Earth--- for reasons other than personal taste in reading, there is no irony at all in liking Lewis while dislikng things Tolkienesque because of disliking the esque.