Chapter 4: The Good, The Bad, and Plato

For this post, I have some good news and some bad news. 

- Bad news is that this post is a bit shorter because a lot of what we covered in class was review from last time or concepts that I already was familiar with.  A major part of our class the Plato's allegory of the cave, which I'm familiar with from other philosophy classes and I wasn't really sure how to explain it well in my notes. If you are unfamiliar with Plato's Cave read this article and then go watch The Matrix.

- Good news! Not only have we toped 150 visits to the page already (big thanks everyone!) but I also have some news about the class itself. After we apparated out of class, I conversed with Dr. Poe and he said that he not only thought that the distribution of knowledge that you are reading right now was a wonderful idea, he also said that he would permit me to record him in the future. Therefore, you may very well be able to listen or watch parts of lectures in the near future. I still have to learn some of the spells that will be needed to make this happen, but I wanted you to know you have something to look forward to!

That is all for now. Enjoy this week's installment and start spreading the word among your friends about this blog! 

- Victor Bennet 

Last class, we said that we had the same worldview as Dawkins. This time we are going to explain that. Everyone has a different point of view. Up until a few decades ago, we looked at the worldview of the culture and the worldview of the individual as the same thing. We share with Dawkins a Western worldview, even though our points of view of the universe and God are very different. (This is Dr. Poe's explanation. I personally find terms a little harder to follow, but then again I greatly enjoyed reading Sire. -V.B.)

Christians are cultural deviants. Our culture's understanding or view of God is very different from the way that we look at God.

After 411, “Rome” moves to Constantinople. “Rome” ended in May 1453 when the Turks invaded Constantinople. When the church lost its empire, it thought the world was coming to an end because they had "taken Revelation, multiplied it by Daniel, and divided by Ezekiel." They determined that the Lord would return in 1492 (the same year Spain started the Inquisition, Columbus sailed, and Nearly Headless Nick was *almost* beheaded). When Jesus didn’t return, the church didn’t know what to do. Thus they either had to come to terms with the fact that they had interprated the Bible incorrectly and that they had believed what they wanted the Bible say. It was because of there preconceived notions that they were wrong. But rather than admit that they were wrong, the Russian church said that Moscow must be the third “Rome” and that the king must be Cesar (Tzar). 

Back in the days of the Roman Empire, there wasn’t much consentience on anything but peace, thus they gave up for their Republic for the Empire.

St Augustine read the Bible through the eyes of Plato and when you do this, the Bible does some interesting things. Augustine’s view gave the Middle Ages a concise view that everyone agreed on. 

In Timaeus, Plato said that the Over Soul emitted matter (but did not create it). The highest form of matter is Man (not Mankind, just Men). This is because of the Greeks love of courage. If a man is courageous, they rise to a higher from, but if they weren’t courageous they would become a lower form of life (a woman). Plato had a high view of kings and believed that everyone had their place in the hierarchy of live. Thus, this birthed the feudal system.

St. Augustine brought in the Middle Ages. By 1250, Thomas Aquinas was the great thinker of the Middle Ages and he loved Aristotle.  If you change one ingredient of a worldview, you will come up with a different culture because the core values have all changed. Out of the core values come our customs and behavior, and from those come institutions.

Lewis’ first scholarly work was a book on the change of marriage from a business deal to romantic love. When he started writing he was a atheist, when he finished he was a Christian.

In a culture, you have different types of ideas. Religious, philosophical, political, social scientific, and moral/ethical ideas that make up a cultural worldview. A lot of people like James Sire, just look at philosophical questions that make up a view points. (And here I interject again. James Sire wrote a wonderful book called The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog that I highly recommend to anyone remotely interested in the subject of worldviews. The book gives an overview of the worlds key worldviews [theism, atheism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, postmodernism and the like] and explains their shortcomings when compared to true Christianity. This is a book that gives a good basic understanding to how the world around us thinks and is a constant part of my bookshelf. -V.B.)

Epistemology is the theory of knowledge (what do you know and how do you know it?). Empiricism is one form of knowledge ("Jews demand a sign") Rationalism is another ("Greeks desire knowledge"). During the Enlightenment, you have two movements: Naturalism and Materialism. Empiricism isn’t that big of a deal because a dog or a sunflower is an Empiricist. But Plato said that matter is evil, therefore Empiricism is bad. What we see is not the real world, but the real world is the world of ideals. We only see a fallen world of reflections of the true forms. We remember how things were when we were parts of the Over Soul, this is apriori knowledge (prior knowledge). (See Plato's Cave)

Next time we will talk about Aristotle and Rowling and how they relate.

Chapter 3: Muggles, Magic, and C. S. Lewis

When did we first hear about magic? Santa, fairy tales, etc.What is magic about Santa? He has a flying sleigh with flying reindeer. What is magical in Fairy Tales? Cinderella’s godmother. What is a godmother? It is a Christian term. Who is Santa? He is SAINT Nick. What is a saint? A Christian. So there you have it! The start of Christian themes in magical stories!

What is Magic?

There are three categories it can fall into and Rowling deals with all three of these in her books.

1. Make believe – Not related to facts in anyway, just for fun and story telling.

2. Wisdom and knowledge – In ancient times, studying to gain wisdom and knowledge was considered supernatural.

3. Occult religion – Associated with dark powers, Satan worship, and the like.

C. S. Lewis didn’t choose to do philosophical work, because his “day job” was medieval literature. He didn’t start with Christian apologetics, but rather, was asked by his book publisher. The publisher asked him to write on how there can be suffering if there is a loving God in heaven. The book did well, and a programmer at BBC radio wanted Lewis to talk on the radio. These talks became the book Mere Christianity. His last apologetics book was called Miracles and he was asked to do this book by Dorothy L Sayers.

Sayers started as a mystery writer but then became interested in Christian apologetics. Sayers loved drama and so started writing Christian apologetic drama. Sayers said that someone must write a book on miracles, because there is no place for God in a cause and effect universe. And we live in a world that only knows cause and effect.

In his book, Lewis broke the world into two parts: People that believe in “something else out there” and those that don’t. Thus there are “Naturalists” and “Supernaturalist”. Rowling is doing the same thing that Sayers did with drama and what Lewis did in his fiction only she used the word Muggle to describe Naturalists. Harry is a true innocent. He doesn’t know anything at the very beginning and then learns about the supernatural over time.

Lewis said that a logical argument in apologetics was to be used for the edification of those who already believe (Poe disagrees because Chuck Colson’s conversion due to reading Mere Christianity disproves that idea). Lewis said that the best type of apologetics was a book of any subject with Christianity underneath it all.

Dr. Poe has written many Christian works, but wrote a book on Edger Allen Poe for the recent bicentennial. Hal Poe followed Edger Allen Poe’s human struggle and eventual conversion and used it to place Christianity underneath the overall story. The book won the Edger Award and was very popular.

Muggles

Richard Dawkins is a good example of a “Muggle”. He would say that the Bible is a book of “magic” and make believe. Marxism is a purely “Muggle” philosophy.

Worldview - The core values and beliefs of a culture.

What is Rowling’s attitude toward the history of magic?

Ron and Harry find it boring. Hermione finds it very useful. Their teacher is a ghost. He was so boring he didn’t even notice he died and has just continued to teach.

So what is Rowling’s view of history?

Personal history is important. Personal background is very important. But… how do you solve the Chamber of Secrets if you don’t know the history?

We have to know how we got here, what we are doing, and where we are going.

How would Harry’s relationship with Snape changed if he had known their relational history

What are her thoughts on history teachers?

She has strong views on what is a good teacher and a bad teacher. She loves education. She loves history but hate the way it is taught.

Timelines

The Bible has a timeline from the beginning to the end of time. Hebrews saw history as cyclical rather than linier. Solomon said that there is nothing new under the sun. Seasons are a cycle. There is no physical evidence that history is linier in their eyes.

The Bible adds direction. It shows that the world had a beginning and is going somewhere.

Until the 1970s it was believed that the universe had just always existed. But then science caught up with the Bible and found that there was a sudden beginning to the universe from nothing.

Where does a linier view of history come from all of the sudden? Revelation from God. Cyclical views of history always have a unconscious god or no god at all. The Bible (and the religions that came after it) has a personal God that is sending messengers that can be tested. If a prophet is from God, what he says will come true.

The prediction of future is a TEST. NOT the message. “Prophecies” are just to prove that the messengers are indeed from God. Isaiah had proven that he was a prophet said that Babylon was coming, that was his message. This was his message because it didn’t happen until much, much later. And lo and behold! When the time came Nebuchadnezzar took over!

The Bible has changed the way Western people thinks. You don’t even have to be a Christian to acknowledge that.

Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldeans and went to the land of the Canaanites. They were VERY different cultures. They had the same worldview, but very different cultures.

Dr. Poe and Richard Dawkins have the same worldview.

In fact, Dawkins and I have the same worldview.

If you stop to think about it, YOU and Dawkins have the same worldview. We just all have very different “cultures” or whys of thinking, and different points of view. (Yes that was a shocking statement in class and Dr. Poe promises more to come.)

The Babylonians have influenced us today. We have 24 hours in a day, because of them. We would have done it in base 10 because it’s easy to count on our fingers. But the Babylonians counted the JOINTS in their fingers (not including their thumb, because they counted with their thumb). 360 degrees in a circle was laid down by them as well.

After the Babylonians, came the Persians, then the Greeks. By the time of Christ, Jews couldn’t even read Hebrew because they only knew Greek. Then Rome came. Rome conquered the Greeks, but Greek culture conquered Rome. Rome included almost EVERY culture that they had conquered. They didn’t have a unified worldview, there was nothing to hold it together except the army.

In 411 Alaric sacked Rome and this started Augustine writing City of God.

And then Dr. Poe ran out of time and we have to wait until next week.

V. B.