God's Not Dead! Part 2: My speech in front of the class

So a couple of weeks ago I reviewed the film God’s Not Dead, and in that review, I reported that it is my hope to write out a speech that I would have delivered to the class if given the chance.  This is the result. 

A lot of this is coming directly from points made in debates that I particularly liked.  I’m citing when I recall exactly where I heard it, but in general, please note that I listened to a lot of these debates, so I’ve been influenced by the thought of Greg Bahnsen, Sye Ten Bruggencate, James White, The Narrow Mind podcast, Apologia Radio, Douglas Wilson, etc.

I should also note that I have heard a hundred questions in response to this reasoning, and it would have taken me an additional month to write replies to all of them.  In lieu of that, I thought to just leave off the Q&A.  If you are interested more in this, I would recommend the Bahnsen/Stein debate in particular, but also any of the debates by the people and groups listed above.

Now on with the show! 

God’s Not Dead! part 1: Review of the Film

You may be asking yourself, “Why in the world would the Calvinist Nerd be reviewing God’s Not Dead when that was so last year.  He should be live tweeting Do You Believe like the cool people!”

And if you are thinking that, you have forgotten one of the rules of this blog – I ain’t spending money to do this stuff.  I don’t have a ton of readers, and so to leave my family for an evening, spend $12 on a movie ticket, to watch a bad movie, just so I can mock it here – that’s a really bad idea.

So God’s Not Dead hit Netflix, which meant that I don’t have to pay for it, and I didn’t have to leave the kids to see it.

When this movie first came out, I was intrigued.  It was a film that took apologetics seriously.  You know, most Christian movies just have someone who comes to a crisis in their lives so they turn to God to make it better.  But this is one that actually put a character in a situation where he needed to defend the Christian faith.

And then I saw the reviews, so I decided to wait for it to hit Netflix.  But now that I’ve seen it, let’s take a look.

As a note, I'm going to do this in two parts.  In the first one (this one), I will review the movie itself.  In the second, I'm going to write out the speech that I would give if I were in this kid's situation and was asked to prove God in a class.  Hoping to finish that next week.

Derek, series 2 (2014)

Over the weekend, I watched the Derek special that had just hit Netflix. I had honestly been hoping for a full new series, but I was glad to at least have this ending to a really touching and thoughtful show.

It’s not a series that is appropriate for all ages, and sometimes it is inappropriate for all ages, if you know what I mean.  There’s no violence or nudity, but the language often gets quite strong and the humor is often vulgar.  One character in particular is a very crude man, and when he is in the scene, you can count on a conversation that is at best very uncomfortable.

  

But it’s also a series that, if you can weather with the language, that you should see.  And I’d ask you to read my review of the first series here for an overview of why that is.

I have a lot to say about the special, but I also realize that I never reviewed the second series, which I had originally intended to do, so let’s touch on that first.

“Love was Stronger” by Audio Adrenaline

Song: “Love was Stronger”

Artist: Audio Adrenaline

Year: 2015

So the other day, I wrote a post about Audio Adrenaline coming back, only not with anyone who was actually associated with Audio A before.  And I encourage you to read that.  I will not rant further about it here.

But since I was on the topic, I decided to take a listen to the new “Audio A” song and give it a review.  I was curious as to what they sound like, and now I have a general idea, and will proceed to rant about that here.

Fundamental honesty and Audio A

I’m going to leave the band name out of this story.  I’m 99% sure I remember it correctly, but since I can’t find the original source, I don’t want to risk the error.

Probably close to 20 years ago, I saw a story about some of the old vocal groups from the 50s and 60s who have had their names taken from them and given to other people.  The story focused on one band in particular who actually sued in order to be able to perform under the name that they had created decades before, and they lost.  See, at the time, copyrights and trademarks were owned by the management companies or record companies, and the bands themselves didn’t always (or even usually) own their own songs and name.  So when they broke up, the trademark was eventually sold to someone else, and that person put together a group of completely different people and toured them as though they were the original group.

My understanding is that things have improved for artists greatly since then, but then again, it wasn’t too long ago when Prince had to forgo using his birth name (his actual name is Prince – that’s not a stage name) and had to use a symbol because his record company “owned” the name his mother gave him.  So maybe we still have a little ways to go. 

“If I Die” by Stryper

Song: “If I Die”

Artist: Stryper

Album: Reborn (2001)

Track: 7

I cannot tell you how much confusion this review caused me.  Apparently, the tracks on my iPod are misnamed and numbered at this point, so when I thought I was listening to this song, I was listening to something else.  So in looking up the lyrics, they weren’t at all the same a

s what I was hearing, which made me think that dem internets had messed up.  But no, it was me.

That being said, I was rather looking forward to reviewing the other song, because I really like it, but I’ll get to that one next.

Reflections on Spock and Star Trek

When I was a teen, I went to the Star Trek Experience in Vegas with my family.  The greeter took our tickets, gave us a Vulcan salute, and said, “Live long and prosper.”  Without thinking, I returned the gesture and quoted the lesser known reply, “Peace, and long life.”

My family was staring at me.  I was a little self-conscience, and so explained, “It’s a proper reply.”

They looked at the greeter, who nodded and confirmed, “He’s right; it is.”