Time Travel and Ethics...Weird Question

OK, so today I was eating lunch with two guys that I regularly meet with to pray and study the Bible. We weren't very spiritual today, owing to the fact that we're between books of study and also enjoying the nice lull of life right after our semesters have finished. So, we were discussing the intricacies of time travel, especially logical problems with it and the interesting possibilities it could offer.

My friend brought up a very interesting question: what would you do if you could go back to the time prior to Hitler's rise to power and, knowing all that he would do in his life, had the chance to kill him before any of it could happen? Would you do it or leave things as they historically happened?

There are all sorts of things that a person might say here, but I think I'll leave it up to you from here. So, please share your opinion.

We Need to Check Spending

As I was changing into my uniform for work today, someone had a radio station playing over the PA system in the locker room at work. As I was listening, there was an ad for some credit company, promoting their "product" with an offer for a zero-percent interest loan right at the beginning of someone's use of their service. This was framed as a quick way to get some Christmas money, and it was also called several times "free money." That bothers me to no end, and I think it should be illegal to call something free which clearly isn't. Anyone using this service definitely has to pay that money back.

Now, I see something similar every time I get a credit card bill. (We don't actually use our credit cards, except for emergencies, which we haven't yet had, and for expense items that will be repaid by work - even so they still send the dang bills.) I don't know about you, but every credit card bill I've ever received had a "check" attached, made out to me for several hundred dollars. I've been raised to distrust, even abhor, borrowing money, so this has never caught me. However, I wonder how many people cash that check, whether they know that they will have to pay it back or not.

I just think that credit card companies are just barely legal and should be required to be much more forthcoming in their information disclosures. I would hope that this would lead to lower levels of indebtedness. However, I realize that the real reason we Americans owe so much in consumer debt is that we simply want more "stuff" than we can afford. Our hearts are never content, always seeking more only to find that more doesn't satisfy either.

Some people might point out that lower levels of consumer debt would cause an economic slow-down because people aren't buying as much. This would lead to a loss of jobs. However, I think that would only be temporary. When people are no longer saddled by such debt, they will have much more income to spend on things because they won't be paying the interest. The key is having the patience to wait, which most just don't have.

Grey's Anatomy - Where It Goes Wrong

Well, my lovely wife and I have been watching a few shows via DVD for the past couple months. Actually, there have only been 2 shows that we've seen this way - Grey's Anatomy and The Office. ( As an aside, I think this is a far superior way to view TV - no commercials, you get to watch them on your own schedule, it frees you from the addiction to TV to an extent, and, if you have the will to do so, you can censor them yourself.) However, after watching the first 2 seasons on Grey's Anatomy, I've had some mixed feelings about the show, and I think I will be much more careful about watching it in the future, if I do at all.

First of all, the show, which is about a group of surgical interns learning how to cut people open and fix them up and all their other life experiences, lacks any understanding that actions have consequences. The interns are constantly breaking the rules and cutting corners, and this in a business where life and death occur daily. Now, I realize that this is just entertainment, but entertainment often teaches us far more than books or classrooms. One intern even stops a man's life-sustaining heart treatment in order to make him worse so he could move up the donor list, only to have him die of some freak complication a day after he gets the new heart. While that intern, I've heard, gets booted out initially in the current season, I've also heard that she gets to come back. In addition, this sort of 2+2 does NOT equal 4 logic extends to their personal lives, where they are all sexually promiscuous and drunks.

The lack of integrity is bad, but the thing that Grey's Anatomy does that is so horrible is that it, through good storytelling and cool characters, makes the viewer start to want the things that the characters want, most of which are immoral things. This was pointed out to me by my wife, who said that the show makes her wish certain things would happen to/for the characters that she would never wish for a real person.

The best way I can illustrate this is with the following contrasting example - Grey's Anatomy, in the TV world, causes me to wish that Meredith and Derek, who is married to someone else, would become a couple, but in real life, I would never wish a marriage to end so a man could start an illicit relationship with a girlfriend. In fact, I would strongly counsel those people to stay apart and for the marriage to seek help, and I would pray for them and witness to them. The show so muddles things that the idea that there really is a right way to live life is gone.

So, I realize that there are probably some people here who do watch this show. I'm not saying you have to stop to be a Christian, but I am warning you to think about how you feel and think while watching any show. If the feelings and thoughts that are evoked are contrary to the truth of God, as revealed in the Bible, then you might need to stop watching. Sometimes, I wonder where the line is between being a person who will watch these sorts of things on TV for entertainment and being a person who would do them himself.

Movie Review - United 93

Well, my lovely wife is away for a couple of days at one of her company's marketing meetings. So, I got the chance to borrow a movie from the video store that I wouldn't normally get to see. She has higher standards with regard to violence and movie rating than I do.

As I looked through the store, I saw a few items, but what caught my attention the most was United 93, a movie about the events of September 11, 2001, especially what happened aboard that one flight.

Several things are worthy of note. First, this movie brought back to me most of the emotions and thoughts I had sitting in my apartment that day, watching these events unfold from a very different vantage point. That is enough, I think, for me to say that this is a good movie. Any time a movie can bring a person back to a real world event, it is powerful.

Second, the movie makes clear just how confusing and unprecedented the attack was. I realize that the makers used large amounts of license, but the waves of confusion the air traffic controllers and military personnel were getting hit with as the different planes were taken over and smashed into their targets must have really happened on some level. Also, the disbelief and complete lack of a plan to do anything about this sort of attack seemed real.

Third, there was a powerful moment near the end that really puts the entire conflict between Islam and the West (here I'm using a higher definition for our culture, and I am including our common Christian heritage, even if that is no longer dominant - it could definitely be argued that I'm wrong to use it so) into perspective. There is a moment, right before the passengers are about to try to retake the plane, where they start saying together the Lord's Prayer. At the same time, the camera cuts away to the terrorists aboard, who are praying in Arabic to Allah, and to the several bloody, dead bodies they have already killed in taking the plane. I know that there are issues relating to those attacks that are extremely complicated, but this is simple. In that snapshot, you can see what is wrong with Islam and what is right with Christianity.

I definitely recommend that you see this movie. There are no big stars in it, and you will probably find yourself feeling quite sad at the memories, but the courage those people displayed deserves to be remembered and respected.