|
 More on
Culture - 45 |
Purchase this CD set, Modern Culture, by
Dr. Reynolds
and get, Orthopraxy, the 2009 ERI CD album of
Rod Dryer at
1/2 o f f !
These two talks from two years of ERI compliment each other. They will make great listening and give you some good thinking material.
"Here are some of my notes from the talks. This was a very
interesting lecture. No one dozed off! And when each talk was over,
people began to talk about what they heard. Dr Reynolds is a captivating
speaker. And what he has to say is based on years of observation and
discussion. He is not a light weight speaker After you listen you will
want to pass this on to others!" Don Lourie
CD 1 & 2 Secularism and the New Atheism
Excessive entertainment is leading to the New Atheism
CD 3 & 4 The Cult of Youth
Peter Pan is not the hero
CD 5 & 6 A Culture of Change and Unchanging Culture
The Advantages of Wonder over Skepticism
CD 7 & 8 Beauty as an Apologetic
True Beauty is God's way of leading us to Himself.
Note: MP3-CD contains all talks on one CD as MP3 audio files.
Talk 1
Secularism and the New Atheism
- There never has been a golden age. Every culture has its problems and virtues.
- We are just muddling through. Cultures do not die slowly. May collapse in a single decade. The ignored cultural vises will kill us.
- What will kill our culture? The roots of our cultures death are already here and are growing at a pandemic pace. America and the West is heading towards atheism. The New Atheism is already here and part of our culture. It is in our schools, our commercial ventures and especially in our churches.
- The greatest problem in our culture is boredom. “Not being entertained”
- With entertainment there is a law of diminishing rewards. The more entertained the less we can enjoy the time so more time is spent on entertainment or it gets more graphic or violent.
- Our present day children are being amused to death. The average American views 5 hours of television every day. Over 1 hour a day leads to over stimulation. Now we also have the internet, movies, sophisticated telephones. Some are entertained by shopping and sports.
- The more entertainment a person experiences, the less real emotion he can have. Real music and real conversation is much better than recorded music and telephone talks.
- Oscar Wilde wrote “The Importance of Being Ernest” One hundred years ago, only the very rich could afford endless entertainment. Now it is available even for the poor. So all this boredom and entertainment leads to a less productive society. This leads to the desire for entertainment in every facet of our lives, including our church services.
Talk 2
The Cult of Youth
- Boredom and love of entertainment lead to a degrading of hard work and delayed gratification. As children grow to adulthood, one of the major signs of maturity is delayed gratification. But since our culture runs on entertainment, the sense of “I want to be happy now” pervades our work, our relationships and our beliefs. “Why be chaste now when we can have fun now.” Adults are still acting like children, so they expect to be entertained in work, at school and at church. "If I don't have fun at church I will find a new church that can do entertainment better. "
- Since no one wants to grow up, marketing and sales are pitched toward the youth and even people in their 40's and 50's try to think as young people to prolong this cult of youth.
Talk
3
A Culture of Change and an Unchanging Culture
- True love is just. The laws in America are written to treat everyone fairly. But being fair may not be just. True justice can only be dispensed by true love. God loves us perfectly and can therefore judge us perfectly. No man or society who treats all men the same can be truly just or loving.
- If one is always wary of others in their treatment of my person and actions, I will never be able to them or treat them as God treats them.
- Christianity loves individuals, not mankind.
- Skepticism of others motives and desires leads to mistrust of others. Skepticism of the supernatural world and of God's creation leads to a demeaning of the natural order and gives rise to a false science.
- God has created us to wonder and hope for better things. God gives us the stars and the natural world to increase our sense of wonder and increase our thirst for more knowledge of the creator. This leads to more wonder and a purity of heart which then allows each person want to be good and love god and those one knows.
- But a culture of boredom and skepticism leads to a diminished view of nature and other humans. It leads to atheism.
Talk 4
Beauty as an Apologetic
- There are two basic ways of looking at most all things, ideas and truths. One is objectivity, the idea that things are true whether one believe it to be or not. The second is subjectivity, which depends on the mental state of the person.
- Our culture has confused objectivity and subjectivity to the point that even beauty is now a controversial subject. This loss of objectivity is ruining our culture. So that now those who think they must be entertained to prevent boredom no longer believe in the objective or true values of morality, goodness, and natural beauty.
- True beauty is not in the eye of the beholder. It may have been 400 years ago but today the idea of beauty is used to manipulate the marketing engines of Madison Avenue and influences how our sports teams are supported and even how our church services are attended.
- The new beauty in today's American culture is what someone who wants to influence your buying habits wants us to think is attractive. Yet God has commanded us to desire His beauty and to order our lives and surroundings according to His beauty.
- This sense of wonder and knowing of God's ways will lead us to love true beauty and to love other people as God does. It will lead to a true sense of justice and a true desire that those we know will come to know this infinite God and His creation. Our sense of having to work to improve our lives and that of others will replace that of boredom and the need for entertainment. This will lead us to appreciate the true work of Christ in our Salvation and the salvation of our friends.
Individual CDs: $7 each
Copyright © 2011 [Orthodox Christian Cassettes, Inc.] All
rights reserved.
Revised: January 11, 2011.