James Bond, Rat Worship and Postmodernism

Mark Roques

REALITY BITES

http://www.realitybites.org.uk/

Methodology

1) Tell Stories2) Ask Questions3) Worldview Awareness

The Key Issue:

Worldviews

Why ‘worldviews’?

Why don’t we just talk about a person’s ‘faith’ or ‘religion’?

Today ‘faith’ and ‘religion’ are not used of secular people.

‘Worldview’ includes everyone.

Worldviews …

• are not academic or intellectual. They are common to everyone.

• are ultimate life commitments that are held by faith.

• are revealed in how we live, and in how our society functions.

Worldviews are what we live, not what we might claim.

Imelda Marcos

Imelda Marcos

“God is love. I have loved. Therefore, I will go to heaven.”

A committed consumerist – “I shop therefore I am”

Marlon King

Marlon King, 31, a Birmingham City striker, was said to have become angry after a

woman rejected his advances, and told her: “Don’t you know who I am? I’m a

millionaire. You’re not even in my league.”

Don the Salesman

We felt so ashamed.

A committed consumerist – “I shop therefore I am.”

Fear and Insecurity

We felt so ashamed.

The boy and his trainers

Imelda, Marlon, the salesmen and little

Jimmy are all living in a worldview story.

We need to understand this story.

Western Religion

Western Secular Worldview

Western Religion

The Myth of Progress

Western Religion

The story of the West is one of continuous advance fuelled by steadily accumulating knowledge.

Western Religion

Science

Technology

Economics Consumerism

I shop therefore I am

Science is …… the way to:

• technological progress

• economic and political power

• hedonistic pleasure

What is Bond’s Worldview

Where are we?

I am living in a world full of gadgets, helicopters,booby-trapped briefcases,beautiful women, luxury and enemy spies.

Who am I?

I am Bond … James Bond.I am a supremely confident MI6 agent. I have complete confidencein my ability to achieve all my assignments. All women find me extremely attractive.

What’s wrong?

Sometimes I lack complete control over nature and other people. Sometimes enemy agents refuse to be killed instantly. Sometimes I am attacked by huge crocodiles.

What’s the solution?

I will trust in science and technology. Q will help me here. I have complete confidence in my ability to conquer my enemies and seduce all the attractive women.

What happens after death?

It’s almost impossible to kill me,but after I die at home in bed,I will rot and be eaten by worms.

James Bond is a modernist hero. He trusts in science and technology. He is confident and self-assured. He is living in a secular worldview story.

So how would Bond respond to Rat Worship?

I Follow Karni Mata

A rat worshipper said – “By eating the rats’ saliva, all the diseases in our

bodies disappear.”

So how do you respond to Rat Worship?

Your answer tells me about your worldview!

“Rat worship is true for them!”

Paul Merton

No-one can be wrong!

Story of two Tyrants

Genghis Khan

(1162 – 1227)

Pomare II,

King of Tahiti

(1774 – 1821)

Be who you want to be!

Be true to yourself!

Follow your heart!

WorldviewAwareness

University Advert

Secularism and RatWorship.

Four Responses.

My response to rat worship is…….

Stories and Subversive Questions for Christian

EducatorsMark Roques

© Reality Bites, March 2010

Jesus and Subversive Questions ?

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• Mark –

• Matthew –

Full of Questions

50 questions

82 questions

“if you met Jesus on the street, he was more likely to ask you something than to tell you something. Even when other people asked him a question, he often replied with one of his own.”

(Conrad Gempf)

“When he wasn’t asking questions, he was telling story-shaped riddles, which are a type of question. We call them parables.”

(Conrad Gempf)

• Why did Jesus tell parables?

Group Work

The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is in parables so that,

“they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving,

and ever hearing, but never understanding;

otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”

(Mark 4:11-12)

Parables act like a

wedge

The Lost Sheep

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?”

(Matthew 18:12)

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

(Matthew 22:37)

Jesus’ Authority

“the chief priests and elders of the people came to him. “By what authority are you doing these things?” they asked. “And who gave you this authority?” Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

Jesus’ Authority

“John’s baptism – where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?”They discussed it among themselves and said,

“If we say, ‘From heaven’, he will ask, “Then why didn’t you believe him?” But if we say, ‘From men’ – we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”

Jesus’ Authority

So they answered Jesus,

“We don’t know.”

Then he said,

“Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.”

(Matthew 21:23-27)

Whose Son is the Christ?

• What do you think about the Christ?• Whose son is he?• How is it then that David, speaking

by the Spirit [Psalm 110:1], calls him Lord?

• If then David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?

(Matthew 22:42-45)

The Challenge

Can we learn to follow Jesus by telling stories and asking ‘subversive’ questions?

Anna Nicole Smith

In 1994 Anna Nicole Smith aged 26 married billionaire Howard Marshall aged 89 in Houston Texas.

Subversive Questions

1) Is marriage just another economic transaction?

2) Is everything up-for-sale?

3) How is a Christian view of marriage different from a consumerist view?

Glenn Hoddle

In 1998 Hoddle was sacked from his job as England manager for his beliefs about reincarnation.He said this:

"You have to come back to learn and face some of the things you have done, good and bad. You

and I have been physically given two hands and two legs and

half-decent brains. Some people have not been born like that for a reason. The karma is working

from another lifetime. I have nothing to hide about that. It is

not only people with disabilities. What you sow, you have to

reap."

“Sacked because of Karma.”

Rome’s La Republica

Subversive Questions

1) Are disabled people being punished for their ‘bad karma’?

2) Was it right to sack Hoddle for his beliefs about karma and reincarnation?

3) How do Christian beliefs differ from Hoddle’s beliefs?

Lotto Lout

"I want my kid to follow its dreams. If he wants to be a bank robber, that's

cool with me."

Subversive Questions

1) Where has Michael gone wrong?

2) Was Adolf Hitler ‘true to himself’?

3) When is it right to follow your dreams and when is it wrong?

Dr Eric Pianka 2006 Distinguished

Texas Scientist

“We’re no better than bacteria.”

3rd March 2006

Dr Eric Pianka

(Texas Academy of Science, 03 March 2006)

He argued that there are too many people. He believes that the human population needs to be reduced by 90%. War and famine are too slow; an Ebola plague would be ideal.

Subversive Questions

1) Do you agree with Pianka’s assertion that we are ‘no better than bacteria’?

2) Where has he gone wrong?

3) What is the Christian response to Pianka?

Natalie DylanAn American student who is auctioning her virginity to pay for a masters degree in Family and Marriage therapy has seen bidding hit £2.5million ($3.7m).

Has she becomea commodity?

The Advert

“She comes to us here at the bunny ranch with a very special gift. Natalie is a virgin and would like to sell this priceless and rare commodity in a very exclusive and private setting.”

Subversive Questions

1) What kind of a story is Natalie living in?

2) Will she become a good therapist?

3) How did she catch this worldview?

Standing Babas

Rajnat, a standing baba said this –“In order to find God you must put your body through hardship.”

Subversive Questions

1) Is bodily existence a curse?

2) Would Jesus approve of this way of life?

3) How would a consumerist respond?

Eric Harris

Eric was one of two boys who shot 12 students and a teacher at

Columbine High School, Colorado, USA, on 20th April 1999.

Eric Harris

“just because your mommy and daddy tell you blood and violence is bad, you think it’s af—g law of nature? wrong, only science and math are true, everything else, and I mean every f—g thing else is man made.”

(from one of Eric’s notebooks)

Subversive Questions

1) Where did Eric go wrong?

2) How did he ‘catch’ this worldview?

3) How should Christians respond?

Methodology

1) Tell Stories2) Ask Questions3) Worldview Awareness

REALITY BITES

http://www.realitybites.org.uk/