酷我-北美枫

[Champagne]

Signs: A Sign of Faith as Victory over the Intrusion of Doubt


After the meal this afternoon, I was in a good mood to see a film on DVD. Signs, an alien attack*, is intended to be an allegory about the recovery of Christian faith. The protagonist that Mel Gibson plays is a former Episcopal priest who lives with his children in rural Pennsylvania, and who leaves his church after the tragic death of his wife. An alien attack and the near death of his son bring him back to his faith at the end.

I think the faith that Signs portrays has more to do with an optimism, which views faith as victory over the intrusion of doubt that the alien attack embodies, than to have faith in God. This kind of faith means choosing one approach as the only way to the exclusion of all others. For me, it is not only short-sighted but also dangerous. As German theologian Dorothy Solle puts it, faith without doubt is not stronger; it is merely more ideological.

For the priest about whom this film describes, faith without doubt is indeed stronger, and it crushes aliens into oblivion. But my question is: how long will this kind of faith persist? Or I put my question this way, is it possible to have faith and doubt at the same time?

Before answering this question, we need to think twice about what doubt really means.

In Signs, faith is implicitly implied in the plot structure as a kind of mindset where there are no doubts about the unique system of belief which each of the believers uses in an attempt to grapple with the so-called "Big Questions" -- questions about the meaning of life and death, one’s place in the universe and the ground of one’s being.

In the same rationale, doubt is viewed as a lack of certainty about faith, and thus it can be a mark of personal failure in faith, or a good reason to walk away from the faith community as the protagonist did after the tragic death of his wife. There is almost no grey area where faith and doubt overlap. This is why Dorothy Solle comments that faith without doubt is not stronger but merely ideological. In her view, a lack of certainty about faith is an invitation to invest oneself more into the pursuit of meaning-seeking and meaning-making rather than holding onto a fixed set of principles by which one deals with these thorny issues that fall into a grey area.

As Lillian Smith claims, faith and doubt are both needed -- not as antagonists but partners working side by side -- to take us around the unknown curve. In doing so, doubt is useful to deepen our faith. That is to say doubt is not the opposite side of faith; they are poles in a dynamic relationship. Faith itself is dynamic in that it calls for action. Faith is demonstrated through living in response to what one believes. To doubt what one believes is an active force which compels growth and deeper understanding. Faith requires doubt in order to be more faithful to what one believes.

Seen in this way as poles in a dynamic relationship, faith is not some kind of belief about which one is one hundred percent sure because being one hundred percent sure is having it in one’s hand. Faith is viewed as an engaging process of growth, and is always evolving. The driving force to compel one’s growth in faith is to doubt constructively and to think deeply. To begin with a new vision of faith, one should realize that one’s need is not to find something to believe as the protagonist did after he crushed the aliens and saved his son, but rather to discover what one’s life indicates one believes right now.


Footnote:

*The headline of The World Today, ABC broadcast around Australia on Tuesday, 13 November , 2007 was that Global group calls for UFO probe

What follows is a full transcipt from The World Today:

Reporter: Michael Rowland
ELEANOR HALL: Conspiracy theories about UFO (unidentified flying objects) sightings and aliens are hardly new. But now it is a multinational group of apparently sane airline pilots and former government officials that's alleging an international cover-up of alien sightings.

Members of the group have gathered in the US capital this week to talk about the UFOs they claim to have seen over the last 30 years and to call for action from the US Government.

Washington correspondent Michael Rowland went along to hear their views.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Something's out there. Just ask the 14 seemingly respectable and sane men gathered in a conference room two blocks from the White House. All say they've had a close encounter of the extremely unsettling kind.

James Penniston, a retired US Air Force officer, tells of the time he came across a UFO that had landed near a military base in central England 30 years ago.

JAMES PENNISTON: When we came up on the triangular-shaped craft, there were blue and yellow lights swirling around the exterior as though they were part of the surface. The air around us was electrically charged and we could feel it on our clothes, our skin and our hair.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: There's this from former Air France pilot, Jean-Claude Duboc.

JEAN-CLAUDE DUBOC: During Air France flight 3532 from Nice to London on 28th January 1994, I observed with my crew a UFO in broad daylight near Paris.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Retired Iranian Air Force general, Parviz Jafari, says he attempted to shoot down a strange object hovering over Tehran in 1976.

PARVIZ JAFARI: I approached the object, which was flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: These so-called ufologists claim there's a massive international cover-up of alien sightings.

Former Arizona governor, Fife Symington, who also says he has seen a UFO, wants the US Government to act.

FIFE SYMINGTON: Incidents like these are not going away. We want the United States Government to stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth and conventional terms. Instead, our country needs to reopen its official investigation that it shut down in 1969.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: UFO sightings are all the rage these days. Democratic presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, claims membership of this elite club.

JOURNALIST: Did you see a UFO?

DENNIS KUCINICH: I did, and the rest of the account … I didn't … it was an unidentified flying object, okay. It's, like, it's unidentified. I saw something.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: This shouldn't disqualify Mr Kucinich from high office. Former presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter both reported seeing UFOs early in their political careers.

In Washington, this is Michael Rowland reporting for The World Today.
_________________
I'm Champagne,
Bottled poetry with sparkling joy.

[[Champagne]]

Signs: A Sign of Faith as Victory over the Intrusion of Doubt


After the meal this afternoon, I was in a good mood to see a film on DVD. Signs, an alien attack*, is intended to be an allegory about the recovery of Christian faith. The protagonist that Mel Gibson plays is a former Episcopal priest who lives with his children in rural Pennsylvania, and who leaves his church after the tragic death of his wife. An alien attack and the near death of his son bring him back to his faith at the end.

I think the faith that Signs portrays has more to do with an optimism, which views faith as victory over the intrusion of doubt that the alien attack embodies, than to have faith in God. This kind of faith means choosing one approach as the only way to the exclusion of all others. For me, it is not only short-sighted but also dangerous. As German theologian Dorothy Solle puts it, faith without doubt is not stronger; it is merely more ideological.

For the priest about whom this film describes, faith without doubt is indeed stronger, and it crushes aliens into oblivion. But my question is: how long will this kind of faith persist? Or I put my question this way, is it possible to have faith and doubt at the same time?

Before answering this question, we need to think twice about what doubt really means.

In Signs, faith is implicitly implied in the plot structure as a kind of mindset where there are no doubts about the unique system of belief which each of the believers uses in an attempt to grapple with the so-called "Big Questions" -- questions about the meaning of life and death, one’s place in the universe and the ground of one’s being.

In the same rationale, doubt is viewed as a lack of certainty about faith, and thus it can be a mark of personal failure in faith, or a good reason to walk away from the faith community as the protagonist did after the tragic death of his wife. There is almost no grey area where faith and doubt overlap. This is why Dorothy Solle comments that faith without doubt is not stronger but merely ideological. In her view, a lack of certainty about faith is an invitation to invest oneself more into the pursuit of meaning-seeking and meaning-making rather than holding onto a fixed set of principles by which one deals with these thorny issues that fall into a grey area.

As Lillian Smith claims, faith and doubt are both needed -- not as antagonists but partners working side by side -- to take us around the unknown curve. In doing so, doubt is useful to deepen our faith. That is to say doubt is not the opposite side of faith; they are poles in a dynamic relationship. Faith itself is dynamic in that it calls for action. Faith is demonstrated through living in response to what one believes. To doubt what one believes is an active force which compels growth and deeper understanding. Faith requires doubt in order to be more faithful to what one believes.

Seen in this way as poles in a dynamic relationship, faith is not some kind of belief about which one is one hundred percent sure because being one hundred percent sure is having it in one’s hand. Faith is viewed as an engaging process of growth, and is always evolving. The driving force to compel one’s growth in faith is to doubt constructively and to think deeply. To begin with a new vision of faith, one should realize that one’s need is not to find something to believe as the protagonist did after he crushed the aliens and saved his son, but rather to discover what one’s life indicates one believes right now.


Footnote:

*The headline of The World Today, ABC broadcast around Australia on Tuesday, 13 November , 2007 was that Global group calls for UFO probe

What follows is a full transcipt from The World Today:

Reporter: Michael Rowland
ELEANOR HALL: Conspiracy theories about UFO (unidentified flying objects) sightings and aliens are hardly new. But now it is a multinational group of apparently sane airline pilots and former government officials that's alleging an international cover-up of alien sightings.

Members of the group have gathered in the US capital this week to talk about the UFOs they claim to have seen over the last 30 years and to call for action from the US Government.

Washington correspondent Michael Rowland went along to hear their views.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Something's out there. Just ask the 14 seemingly respectable and sane men gathered in a conference room two blocks from the White House. All say they've had a close encounter of the extremely unsettling kind.

James Penniston, a retired US Air Force officer, tells of the time he came across a UFO that had landed near a military base in central England 30 years ago.

JAMES PENNISTON: When we came up on the triangular-shaped craft, there were blue and yellow lights swirling around the exterior as though they were part of the surface. The air around us was electrically charged and we could feel it on our clothes, our skin and our hair.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: There's this from former Air France pilot, Jean-Claude Duboc.

JEAN-CLAUDE DUBOC: During Air France flight 3532 from Nice to London on 28th January 1994, I observed with my crew a UFO in broad daylight near Paris.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: Retired Iranian Air Force general, Parviz Jafari, says he attempted to shoot down a strange object hovering over Tehran in 1976.

PARVIZ JAFARI: I approached the object, which was flashing with intense red, green, orange and blue.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: These so-called ufologists claim there's a massive international cover-up of alien sightings.

Former Arizona governor, Fife Symington, who also says he has seen a UFO, wants the US Government to act.

FIFE SYMINGTON: Incidents like these are not going away. We want the United States Government to stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth and conventional terms. Instead, our country needs to reopen its official investigation that it shut down in 1969.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: UFO sightings are all the rage these days. Democratic presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, claims membership of this elite club.

JOURNALIST: Did you see a UFO?

DENNIS KUCINICH: I did, and the rest of the account … I didn't … it was an unidentified flying object, okay. It's, like, it's unidentified. I saw something.

MICHAEL ROWLAND: This shouldn't disqualify Mr Kucinich from high office. Former presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter both reported seeing UFOs early in their political careers.

In Washington, this is Michael Rowland reporting for The World Today.
_________________
I'm Champagne,
Bottled poetry with sparkling joy.

[星子]

Hi, We are keeping us busy....


Good try:D
_________________

[[ANNA]]

Hi, We are keeping us busy....


Good try:D
_________________

[anna]

It is interesting to read this. It reminds me of our talk on Sunday. We started a new Mississauga branch as four of us to meet and discuss poetry and writing.
Rashi brought his long poem, “A Moving finger” which is 80 pages long. It is more like epic or myth. In it he challenge God and smash the three major religions with his moving finger, which is viewed more high and super power.
I agree with him in some point, all the religion tell to fear, fear of God. Why? Because it is the power. As you mentioned in the movie, what brought him the faith, I believed it was the fear. Fear to lose his child.
Often, we could find a lot of people when they were young, they didn’t have any religion, but when they were old and older, they started to believe something. They started to search for their faith. Why? Because they fear. They have experienced a lot and found sometimes they could not change things according to their own will. They needed something to rely on.
All the religion tell us to believe them without doubt. This is the key point to them who create the religion.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[[星子安娜]]

It is interesting to read this. It reminds me of our talk on Sunday. We started a new Mississauga branch as four of us to meet and discuss poetry and writing.
Rashi brought his long poem, “A Moving finger” which is 80 pages long. It is more like epic or myth. In it he challenge God and smash the three major religions with his moving finger, which is viewed more high and super power.
I agree with him in some point, all the religion tell to fear, fear of God. Why? Because it is the power. As you mentioned in the movie, what brought him the faith, I believed it was the fear. Fear to lose his child.
Often, we could find a lot of people when they were young, they didn’t have any religion, but when they were old and older, they started to believe something. They started to search for their faith. Why? Because they fear. They have experienced a lot and found sometimes they could not change things according to their own will. They needed something to rely on.
All the religion tell us to believe them without doubt. This is the key point to them who create the religion.
_________________
---------------------

Anna Yin

《爱的灯塔-星子安娜双语诗选》
<Nightlights> <Seven Nights with the Chinese Zodiac> ...

http://annapoetry.com

[Champagne]

Generally speaking, I agree with you most of your comments.

[[Champagne]]

Generally speaking, I agree with you most of your comments.

[ericcoliu]

[[ericcoliu]]

[Champagne]

[[Champagne]]