Tanya Grotter and the Magic Double Bass

Slate has a piece about Harry Potter and copyright worldwide that is a disguised call for copyright reform. Well written, well argued, extremely good argument, won't be picked up anywhere else.

Comments

Re:Nothing new under the sun...

[JonathanBoyd]

Now you see, that is a self-contradictory position to hold. You cannot say as an absolute truth that there is no absolute truth. And the very exclusion of a belief that claims other bleiefs are wrong on the basis that you want every belief to be accepted as possible defeats the idea of accepting every belief. If you want them all to possible then you are requiring mutually exclusive beliefs to be able to exist at the same time - a logical impossability.

Logic requires that we accept that not all beliefs can be simultaneously valid. Some must be wrong, therefore it is possible that all but one are wrong. Such is the position of Christianity, as Lewis very correctly realised. Yes, that's going to offend a lot of people particularly those who hold other beliefs, but:
1) It would not be loving to allow them to contineu with a belief that is wrong without at least telling them that
2) It's pretty offensive to see people putting something other than God first. And how many times a day do you hear someone exclaiming 'Jesus Christ!' or 'Oh my God!'? Bet that would be a lot less acceptable if it was Buddah or Allah being used instead. Respect for people's beliefs rarely seems to extend to cover Chrisitanity.

Re:Nothing new under the sun...

[JonathanBoyd]

Do unto others, dude

What point were you trying to make by quoting that? If you're trying to enlighten me in some way, wouldn't it be more helpful to point out wat exactly it is you feel I should be doing to others?

Nope, I think you'll find it just doesn't extend to your version of Christianity

My version of Christianity is that espoused by Jesus which is the only version that can really be called Christianity.

or any version of religion that's a bunch of holier-than-thou burn-in-hell orthodox I-can't-be-wrong arrogant claptrap

I don't think I'm any better than you. Religions usually claim that you get to heaven/paradise/nirvana/whereever by following rules, being a 'good' person, becoming deserving of a place there i.e. by being better than the people who don't get in. Christianity is different in that it says no-one can be good enough on their own merits and all have to rely on God's grace instead - they ask to be forgiven and out of love, God does so. No-one can boast that they get in to heaven by being better because it doesn't depend on how good we are. The Bible also says we should be humble and loving rather than arrogant.

Which historically is more than can be said for any (organised) religion; they always seem to get up to those religious wars to kill the heretics

The Bible is very clear that we are called to love our neighbour, which includes loving our enemies. It speaks against kiling people and instead calls for us to preach God's Gospel of love and forgiveness. In fact, we have all been heretcs. The idea of killing heretics is preposterous and the parable of the ungrateful servant alone would be enough to show it was wrong. It may have been done by people claiming to be Christians, but that doesn't make it a Christian action. In fact. taking Stalin's purges for a moment, or Pol Pot's 'social reforms' in Cambodia, they were perpetrated by atheists, but that doesn't mean that atheists want to commit mass murder. Judge Christianity by what it says rather than by what people do because people suck and fail to live up to its ideals, which is why we are so desperately in need of forgiveness and hence Christianity.

Re:Nothing new under the sun...

[JonathanBoyd]

As long as you don't think it's your (godgiven) right to rule the "fools" that believe in what you precieve to be a lie; no one can stop you.

I'm not aware of the Bible ever telling me that it's my right to go rule people, so don't worry about that one. In fact, it calls for us to be servants instead.

Did you know Jesus is a prophet in Islam?

Yes. But that's one of the big problems. It recognises him as only a prophet.

So muslims don't deny Jesus' teachings, they just don't believe it is the "final word".

Actually, they do deny his teachings. They deny for isntance that he is the Son of God, the incarnation of God on earth, the necessity and sufficiency of redemption by grace (IIRC, good works will get you into paradise and you don't have to actually believe in Allah) and a few other things. I'm not sufficiently well versed in what Islam teaches to go too far into this.

You do know that all of Judaism, Christianity and Islam worship the same god, do you?

Actually, they don't. For instance we Christians worship Jesus as God, which the Jews and Muslims refuse to and the Muslim idea of God is very different to the Judeo-Christian one i.e. a distant god who requies you to earn a place in paradise rather than a loving father figure who offers it freely to everyone who simply asks for forgiveness and accepts his love. It's only the Muslims who claim that we all worship the same god and they most certianly do not speak for us.

Well, in my humble view it all comes down to being able to prove what you say. If you hold opinions about other people you can't prove, it's not only tolerant but also simply polite (not to mention smart) to not state those opinions as facts.

It is my belief that they are facts :^)

Re:She's destroying something alright...

[Duncan3]

Scottish, not british.