Some folks here know about my day job, as an animator. Well, the most recent film I worked on comes out today. This is a short docu-trailer about the process of making a movie in 3D.
I hope you enjoy it. It’s playing in about 700 theaters in 3D, probably somewhere near you. It really is worth it to go out of your way to see it in 3D. I saw it for the first time in 3D last night, and I can assure you, there’s zero eyestrain with the new Disney Digital 3D.
-Siamang
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 12 Comments »I couldn’t go to Off The Map’s conference Inside the Missional Matrix, but to be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d really ‘fit’ anyway. I don’t know exactly what ‘missional’ means (I hadn’t heard that word until I got involved with Off The Map and started reading things that emerging Christians write), but it sounds a bit close to ‘missions’ and ‘missionary’ which are all about converting people to Christianity, which isn’t at all where I’m at these days.
On the other hand I knew there would be some neat people there so I would have liked to go and hang out with them.
The podcasts from the talks were put up impressively quickly (the conference ended on Saturday afternoon and they were up later that day). I decided to listen to them so I could see what ‘missional’ was all about.
I’m particularly interested to hear from the atheists here, but Christians feel free to jump in too, if you have comments: would you listen to podcasts from a conference about being ‘missional’ or would the theme put you off? If you do listen to any of them, I’d be interested in your thoughts - were they what you expected or not?
By the way, one of the podcasts is of Jim interviewing ‘a missionally minded atheist, Eliza in fact, so even if you’re not interested in the rest, you might like to listen to that one.
Posted in Ir (Helen) | 11 Comments »Atheists can get their morals from a book!
By Siamang
I’ve often run across people on the internet who seem to think that atheists don’t have a firm foundation for their morality. I try to explain that we get our morality from our relationships with others, and from philosophical foundations. Often I attempt to explain that we are moral creatures because we are social creatures, and that morality is exactly what we should expect from a darwinian model in societies which have to get along to survive.
But all that is, well, kind of abstract, and a bit hard to understand.
Well, I have found the solution. It’s the single best book on morality I have ever seen. It’s called “How to Behave and Why” by Munro Leaf, the author of “Ferdinand the Bull”.
It’s a kids book, from 1946, but MAN is it ever the most clear, most succinct and most charming book about, well, WHY we should behave like we should.
Listen to this:
No matter where you are or who you are, there are four main things that you have to do if you want to make good friends and keep them.
You have to be HONEST.
You have to be STRONG.
You have to be FAIR.
You have to be WISE.And there is no good in trying to fool yourself. All that isn’t so easy.
Leaf’s simple prose and charming illustrations slice right to the heart of the matter: If you are dishonest, people will not trust you. If you are greedy, people will not like you, and you won’t have good friends.
I recommend it wholeheartedly, to atheists and believers alike.
-Siamang
Posted in A Cacophony of Posts | 5 Comments »