Between Questions and Certainties

Just an article dedicated to my favourite band, Nickelback.

Taking a break from the philosophical debates, here is another list of movies which I enjoyed and which I would like to share with you:

Theme = War

Lord of the Rings: As I'm sure most of you are familiar with this one, as it was one of the biggest hits of modern cinema, it will save me the trouble of introducing the plot outline. The feature about this movie that I would like to point out is that it clearly shows the massiveness of war. This was probably the first modern movie to show us the gigantic scale of war and consequent battles. A scene I will always remember from this movie is the epic battle of Helm's Deep (in The Two Towers). A scene brilliantly structured, giving us the thrill, excitement, and fright brought up in a battlefield. Another fact I like about this movie is that it clearly shows the tense situation of an army being heavily outnumbered on a battle field. Anyway, good movie, and not just because of the battle scenes, which is worth watching and re-watching.

Braveheart: Another pretty famous one. The thing that I liked about this one is that it is motivating. It shows that people can be capable of the unthinkable if they devote themselves fully to their beliefs. It shows the long, harsh struggle of the Scottish people to achieve their independence from England. I specifically liked the last scene, which I unfortunately cannot comment on in this article, due to the fact that I would not want to spoil it for those people who have not seen the movie.

Master and Commander: For me, this one is a bit of a curious one. We have seen the story quite a lot in movies, based on the Napoleonic wars, but I think many movies only describe this war showing the famous ground man-to-man battles. This one on the other hand, shows another, slightly less famous aspect of the wars (as far as cinematography is concerned at least), the naval battles. I had never seen many movies showing naval battles, so maybe that's why I pretty much liked this movie.

Saving Private Ryan: Well, what to say about this one? Apart from the fact that I find it a brilliant piece of cinematography, and I hope most people agree with me on that, I really enjoyed this movie because it clearly, almost too clearly, shows the atrocities of war, and the pressure of every man involved in war. It shows the anger, the fear, the excitement, and the despair shown on a battlefield. I think that the opening scene in particular is a scene that extremely realistic, thus extremely shocking to the viewer.

Troy: A very enjoyable movie to watch, I have to admit, but I wouldn't put it at the top of the list. The reason for this is that I think this movie focuses on the Love and Honour side of war, which is very understandable, but I don't think that Love and Honour would be the general feelings showed in a war. However, we can always see it as a movie showing the specific ways in which war affects the lives of certain individuals, a minority actually.
I like this one for its special effects mostly.

Kingdom of Heaven: Not a very big hit, that is true, but the reason I like this movie is because it shows the strategic side of war. It shows that war isn't just men colliding with each other, ready to tear each other's guts out. I think this movie shows the intelligence required in war, the strategies, the actions taken, and the careful studying of your opponent's moves.

This will probably be the last of the philosophical conversations I post for quite a while. It is a conversation between my mom and I, as a result of her reaction from the "Faith...in what?" article posted earlier. It was translated into English by me and should hopefully be interesting. The people who read "Faith...in what?" should probably continue reading this conversation as it is strongly linked to it and launches into some new opinions and ideas. As I said, this might be the last philosophical conversation I might post in a long time, but whenever I feel like asking a question, or expressing my feelings about something, I shall post a short debate-opening article similar to "Faith...in what?". Anyway, enjoy!

Picture: "Vitruvian Man" by Leonardo da Vinci


Mom –
I find your words to be very skeptical. You don't believe that God controls everything? I do, it's just that he leaves you free...We create our own problems, we create our own diseases, we limit our own capacity, not God.

Luca –
What I said was, everyone wants a sign of the existence of God, but we already had a sign, and we denied that sign. So do we really deserve God's forgiveness?

Mom -
Yes! Yes, we deserve it, because he created us with this nature. We fail, and he knows that, but he hopes that we can improve every second, elevate the spirituality, get rid of our selfishness.

Luca -
I understand, but now what you're saying is that it was his intention to create us with all these flaws. He's God, if he wanted to he could have made man without any fault at all.

Mom -
He placed us here so we could evolve, it depends on us, we are energy and energy transforms itself. He didn't tell anyone that Earth is the only place... Who knows, he could be preparing us for a better world, different. The universe is infinite. Why is it only Earth with privileges of being lived upon?

Luca -
So, in your opinion, he could even create us somewhere else after Earth, as if it was our “second chance”.

Mom -
Yes, why not? Not as in a “second chance”, but to keep on improving. I believe in a perfect and kind God. Why would he create millions of living beings just to watch them die after a few years? A perfect machine such as the human body... What about our mind??


Luca -
Or, after the collapse of the human race, he could create another species. Another type of living being, that is superior to man in many ways.

Mom -
Who knows this new superior race doesn't already exist?

Luca -
At this point, we could believe in any type of possibility, seen as God is all-powerful, and seen as it's only him that will decide what to do with us, why do we worry so much in trying to discover more, understand more, about an inevitable thing?

Mom -
Imagine if he hadn't created our curious mind. What would have resulted from the evolution of time? The inventions, the cures, the progress? We are curious and we will always be.

Luca -
There is however, an explanation of God which I have written in the article that you just read [Faith...in what?]: Man had millions of questions that were out his own reach, so with his advanced mind, he created a general solution to all these questions: God. Only to hide from the rest of humanity what they haven't been able to discover. Human beings never admit defeat, it's in their nature, so they're not going to admit the existence of something truly “unexplainable”.

Mom -
I admit, that is the mystery of life, this mystery does exist.

Luca -
With the evolution of science, this creation of man, God, started “dying” more and more because mankind started discovering more and more... But man never stopped to see that he doesn't know absolutely anything. Socrates once said, “The true genius is he who admits he knows nothing”.

Mom -
True.

Luca -
There's a French writer, Maupassant, whom in one of his books said that “Man can only see and understand what his organs allow him to see, but our organs give us a wrong impression of things. Our organs detect something and then interpret it in a different way. For example, vibrations become sounds, effects of light become colours”. So all the things which we do not know of, can't explain, or don't even have the slightest idea of their existence, all these things we call God. It's much easier, but the positive side of this is that this God gave hope to humanity, he gave us a reason to live.

Mom -
For me, he didn't give me a reason, he is the reason of my existence.

Luca -
Yeah you're right. If it wasn't for God many people believe that today we wouldn't even be a grain of sand. However I think the real enigma is found at the beginning of everything. The creation of the world, the creation of man. How can there not be a God, when he have the proof of his existence, ourselves! A being so perfectly structured, so perfectly designed, believed by many that it could only have been created by an extremely powerful being, it could only be the result of a divine action.

Mom -
Yeah.

Luca -
The creation of man couldn't have been a sheer scientific coincidence, there is no way I'm believing that.

Mom -
Thankfully!


Note: I have been requested to conclude this article with a quote to remind us of the power of God and his son Jesus: “The day you believe yourself to be perfect, try and walk on water.”

A good friend of mine, not best of friends, but indeed a friend to keep. I've known Callum for a year now, and we got along well, but I only came to know him better this year. I'm not just putting him up on this blog to recipocrate the article he has dedicated to me, but I want people to know what I feel about this guy. We both seem to share the same thoughts, even though we know each other quite little. I respect his ideas and it feels good to know that somebody thinks the way you do and considers your opinions.

See you around man!

Famous quotes from Callum Wilson:

-"Top of the morning to ye" (nods his head)

-"SCOTLAND!!"

Need any explanations?

Note: You might have noticed I edited the logo, and before you ask:Yes that is my last name.