Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

The Age Of Google

I research things for a living. Knowing where and how to get information–at least within my chosen field–is the warp and woof of my trade.

This has an impact on how I read and watch fiction. F’rinstance: I like the movie All The President’s Men about the Woodward-Bernstein investigation of Watergate. Set in the early 1970s, I’m fascinated by the way the two reporters go about piecing together the story that’s in front of them. It’s fascinating because they have to go to great lengths to get certain pieces of information that you could get in five seconds today (e.g., by doing a search on Switchboard.Com). They also manage to get their mitts on certain info that would be incredibly hard or impossible to get today due to their being subject now to much greater privacy and confidentiality requirements.

If you wrote a story about a similar investigation today, you’d have to change the ways that the reporters go about putting the story together.

Technology has changed the flow of information in society dramatically, and it has and will continue to force changes in how the flow of information is depicted in drama.

Take the episode "Passing Through Gethsemane" of Babylon 5, which I was watching last night. This episode has a lot going for it:

  • It features the Dominican monks who were recurring characters on the series.
  • It lets one of the Domincans get in a really good poke at those who claim to be "openminded" as a cover for refusing to find a definite belief system.
  • It features the only on-screen (or off-screen) administration of the last rites I know of in any mainstream sci-fi TV show.
  • It has extensive discussion of religious belief including the strain Jesus was under in the Garden of Gethsemane.
  • It has ethical discussion of the death penalty and the sci-fi alternatives there might be for it.
  • It focuses heavily on themes of sin and guilt and atonement and forgiveness, including making the point that God can forgive your sins even if you don’t remember them.
  • Part of the soundtrack is Gregorian chant.
  • It shows monks living up to ideals that are harder than humanly imaginable, but clearly worthwhile.
  • And it features Capt. Sheridan and Garibaldi doing something flagrantly illegal that you’d never see Picard and Riker doing in a million years. (Sticking a bag over the head of an alien telepath so he can’t identify a human telepath as she rips a crucial, potentially life-saving piece of information out of his head against his will.)

And all this written by an atheist!

But despite all these great elements, it’s obvious that the episode was written before Google.

Why’s that?

Because one of the Dominicans in the episode–Brother Edward (played by Brad Dourif)–beguns to have a number of really weird and sinister things happen to him. Among them are the appearance of a black rose and the words "Death Walks Among You" apparently written in blood on a wall.

Br. Edward reports this to Security Chief Garibaldi, but despite this fact, the first thing Garibaldi doesn’t do is search Google (or the 23rd century equivalent of Google) for the words "black rose" and "Death Walks Among You."

Any kind of ritualistic clues like that immediately call out for a cyber-search to see if there are any parallels to them.

Had Garibaldi searched on these items sooner, he would have found out what was at the basis of the mystery much sooner, and possibly prevented a crime and saved a life.

Heck, if you search Google today for those items, you’ll find out what was at the bottom of all this.

TRY IT.

In the future, expect a lot more cyber-searches in detective stories.

Art imitates life. (At least to some degree.)

Still a great episode, tho.

Will On The European Constitution

I’ve said it before: EUROPE NEEDS TO REJECT THE CONSTITUTION IT’S NOW CONSIDERING.

GEORGE WILL ECHOES THE SAME, WITH PARTICULARS ABOUT SOME OF THE NUTTINESS THAT WOULD BE ENSHRINED IN THE CONSTITUTION.

UPDATE: My apologies for the lack of the link to the George Will piece! Didn’t realize it wasn’t there. Let’s hope the French vote totally derails this constitution. As Will makes clear, it’s got a lot of really nutty stuff in it.

A-Ha!

Y’all may remember that a piece back I was complaining about some really Evil web advertising by the ringtone company Jamster, which has been under investigation for its marketing practices.

The advertising featured what I described at the time as "a repulsive and depraved looking photo-art fishman (with a figleaf over
his genitals and a pair of aviators’ goggles) who zoomed jerkily and
frenetically back and forth across the ad space in a nauseating fashion."

I never visited Jamster’s page–even to complain–but I recently turned up information on what the evil fish character is all about. It turns out that the character was not created by Jamster but buy some Swedish guy, and it (the character, not the guy so far as I know) is named "The Annoying Thing." (Big surprise.)

It was inspired by a popular sound on the Internet by another Swede imitating the noise made by a particular kind of moped engine.

The evil Jamster then licensed The Annoying Thing as an advertising mascot and used the sound as the basis for a ringtone.

The ringtone is called Crazy Frog (warning: some crude content), and it has been extensively marketed in the UK, causing folks there excruciating anguish.

Now there is a music single out based on the ringtone called "Crazy Frog Axel F," which is set to go number 1 on the British charts.

People are acting all surprised about this–"How could a ringtone get to the top of the charts?" they are wondering–but it’s not much of a mystery when one listens to the thing and realizes that despite the presence of a sputtering Swede in it, "Crazy Frog Axel F" is really just a remix of "Axel F," the smash-hit themesong to the 1984 movie Beverly Hills Cop (about a guy named Axel Foley, you may recall).

LISTEN HERE IF YOU NEED A REFRESHER ON WHAT AXEL F SOUNDS LIKE: WMP | REAL

Since virtually none of the young people driving the British music charts today were alive in 1984 (and even fewer capable of remembering Beverly Hills Cop), it is hardly surprising that one of the biggest songs of the day could be brought back, introduced to the new audience, and do well on the radio.

What we really have here is the Crazy Frog sound hijacking an existing popular song. If you just played the engine-sputtering Swede on the radio, it wouldn’t do nearly as well. It’s because a well-written song has been infested with the Crazy Frog sound that it’s able to get that far.

And of course that’s even assuming the British charts are honest and the whole thing isn’t just a publicity stunt cooked up by evil executives at Jamster in league with evil chart cookers and the Easter Bunny (and the Annoying Thing).

The Fall Of Constantinople

ConstantinopleToday in 1453 Constantinople fell to attacking Muslim forces, ending the Byzantine Empire.

That this happened was a great tragedy and yet another instance of jihad being successfully waged against Christendom.

The tragedy could have been prevented had European Christians worked together, and both western and eastern Christians are responsible for the fact that they didn’t.

The fall of Constantinople also comes as a salutary warning for Europe today, whose demographic trends are dooming them to cultural extinction in the face of Muslim demographic jihad.

GET THE STORY.

A Day At The Brain Spa

Psychoactive or performance-enhancing medicines? We’re getting better at them than you might think.

GET THE STORY.

I’m still waiting for an over-the-counter learning aid, though. Man, I’d love to be able to go to the pharmacy and pick up a safe, effective, no-prescription thingie to help me better learn Aramaic . . . or canon law . . . or calculus . . . or linguistic theory . . . or history . . . or . . .

Christianity Today Explains Why Evangelicals Should Be Happy About Pope Benedict

EXCERPTS:

1. He takes truth seriously. Born in Bavaria in 1927, on the eve of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, young Joseph Ratzinger saw firsthand the brutality and terror of the Nazi way of life. Behind totalitarian violence was utter contempt for the truth claims of the historic Christian faith. As a schoolboy, Ratzinger once witnessed his Nazi teacher replace the cross in the center of his village with a Maypole, a neo-pagan symbol of Teutonic native religion.

Despite the defeat of Hitler and Stalin, the de-Christianization of Europe and, to a lesser extent, of North America continues to pose a great challenge to the church today. This is why Cardinal Ratzinger spoke, on the eve of his papal election, of the "dictatorship of relativism."

On his episcopal coat of arms are the Latin words "cooperatores veritatis," a phrase taken from 3 John 1:8, "That we may be fellow workers for the truth." The Christian faith stands or falls with the imperious claim that the almighty Creator of all that is has acted in space and time to reveal himself in nature and history and to redeem the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a statement about the way things are, not merely about what is "true for me."

GET THE STORY.

(CHT to the reader who e-mailed!)