Wake Up Call

ok I made yet another Harry Potter video.

This one is loosely based off of the Deathly Hallows... focuses on Ron's jealousy of Harry and Hermione.

Call to Arms

My latest video, and I think... my best video.

Enrolled

Recently I’ve seen the film “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” with a group of friends. Though the movie was not perfect, I believe it got its point across… and that scares me. I was sincerely angry with the ignorance and close-mindedness of the interviewees in this documentary, and I found myself frightened at how much power these people are gaining in the world of science.

Basically Ben Stein goes all over the place looking to broaden his knowledge on the fight between Intelligent Design/Creationism and Evolution/Darwinism. It becomes obvious at it goes on that the view Ben finds most interesting and perhaps most disturbing… is that I.D. should not be allowed to be taught in the classrooms; and not only that, but that those teaching it should be “expelled” from their places of employment and never be allowed to teach again. To even just suggest I.D. as a theory in an article… is completely forbidden. All over the world, the right to suggest, explore, or be taught this theory is silenced. The freedoms America fought so hard for, they’re all going down the phylogenic toilet. The point of this film is that yes, Evolution is gaining power but with power comes rebellion… and it’s time to fight for the freedom we earned… to be able to open our minds and allow ourselves to explore the possibility that we didn’t just happen.

I’d like to explore the IDEA that evolution is the logical choice and that even with the concept of evolution… God is still the answer, the end, the final frontier.

Now I wasn’t there so I can’t say for sure how it all went down, but word on the street is that it all began with a cell that just happened to form inadvertently. As time went on, this thing became more complex... stuff was forming in water, stuff in the water was forming into other stuff, other stuff was forming into monkeys, and monkeys were forming into humans. (Though I was taught in biology at good ole Thornwood H.S. that humans are actually closer to pigs in terms of a fetus forming in a womb, than they are to any other creature)

Anyway, with each change in a species over time, came the addition of complexity; not only in physical traits but with intelligence as well. Now some may argue that to put the Tendency (or the Drift) Towards Complexity in the same boat as Evolution is not a fair assessment, but I disagree. In fact, I think it’s painfully obvious that with the idea of evolution comes the idea that each species and its environment are growing more complex.

Okay, so on to the Tendency Towards Complexity. Don’t ask me how since I have never taken physics, but somewhere along the line I was able to form somewhat of an understanding of this Tendency Towards Complexity. However, being able to describe it in an intelligible manner is beyond me so I will now refer to a blog entry I found on the internet that I think describes it best.

“It means that, our universe has a craving for complexity. It has a life of its own and is continuously expanding. And as it expands, it becomes exceedingly complex. So, haphazard energy and unstructured matter were transformed into more meaningful entities. Energy became matter and matter metamorphosed into energy.

In this way, the first stars were born. And as our universe grew, the first stars died out and formed the first planets. And the various forms of matter came together, attracted by the influence of energy and formed complex cosmic systems.

According to the law of conservation of energy and matter, we recall that matter and energy are interconvertible and cannot be destroyed or created. Which simply means, that our bodies are remnants of stars that shone bright and proud several million years ago.”

Excerpt courtesy of http://blog.360.yahoo.com/hacker_ab

Now, before you go all “that has nothing to do with evolution” on me, let me first explain that I do NOT think they are the same but that they go hand in hand, that they simply run parallel to each other. It is my personal opinion that whether it started with stars or with cells, that IF the universe is growing more complex over time and the species on our planet are growing more complex over time as well… that it is not a coincidence.

Now recently I came across a theory that the Tendency Towards Complexity is just a path to God. This theory was suggested and discussed in a book called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. (in the link provided above, the writer of the article also refers to this theory which he gathered from Shantaram as well) I’ve found a line from the book that I think helps to summarize how I feel about the Tendency and Evolution going hand in hand, “We human beings are the most complex arrangement of matter that we know of, but we are not the last achievement of the universe.” The idea is that everything in the universe is moving towards an Ultimate Complexity or… God. The idea is that this is what we’re here for; we are all moving closer to God over time.

Now, I of course completely disagree. I believe it STARTED with God and it will end with God. (Though God has no end.) But I think if you’re going to explore the possibility of Evolution, whether your idea of Evolution is the change in species OR the change in universe over time (or both) that you must also explore the possibility that God is the ultimate “species.” If it all started with a cell or a star, and it’s still growing, then at some point there will be an ultimate complexity, there will be an end. What has a beginning, will have an ending.

And he who has no beginning… will have no end.
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This is Home

New video out by Switchfoot. It gives me chills, man. Just the fact they were asked to do this for the Chronicles of Narnia. That's HUGE for them. Jon Foreman has mentioned or refered to C.S. Lewis a billion times over the years. He's got to be feeling so awesome about this!

Also, this video by Feist is supercool. She's becoming famous for her one-take videos. This one is the best. Shane introduced me to it... we're still trying to figure out how on earth no one got burnt... especially the camera or camera man.