Follow-up to my post on Benedict and his discussion of faith and reason:
If you are interested in the topic, you must, must, Must! read Lee Harris' piece, Socrates or Muhammed?
Harris does a good job of explaining what Benedict was trying to say in his speech. Relevant quotes:
Modern reason is a cultural phenomenon like any other: It did not drop down one fine day out of the clouds. It involved no special creation. Rather, it evolved uniquely out of the fusion of cultural traditions known as Christendom.

A critique of modern reason from within must recognize its cultural and historical roots in this Christian heritage. In particular, it must recognize its debt to the distinctive concept of God that was the product of the convergence of the Hebrew, Greek, and Roman traditions. To recognize this debt, of course, does not require any of us to believe that this God actually exists.

Read the whole thing!
C
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 9/27/2006 11:36:00 AM

 

More interesting news from Germany:

A leading opera house canceled a 3-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech.

In a statement late Monday, the Deutsche Oper said it decided "with great regret" to cancel the production after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of the scene.

After its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over the scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha. The disputed scene is not part of Mozart's original staging of the 225-year-old opera, but was an addition of Neuenfels' production, which was last performed by the company in March 2004.

It apparently has caused tremendous debate all across Germany. Google Deutsche Oper director Kirsten Harms' name and you'll find a lot of discussion.

Interesting times we live in. Nobody's standing up for Poseidon, Buddha and Jesus!

P.S. H: One thing that jumped out at me about your blog post on Benedict's statements: Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the three traditional Western religions. Benedict is only the #1 representative for the Catholics - Jewish people, non-Roman-Catholic Christians, and Muslims don't have any official heads (for better or for worse). I guess I got confused with the Bushie part - are there people out there looking to him for religious guidance? (Something like Protestant fatwas, maybe?) Anyway, the Pope’s comments were aggressive, to say the least, but seem to have accomplished what the Pope was looking for - it made his speech controversial, thus noticed by the media. He wanted to start a dialogue, and I think he did so...
JP: Thanks for the support!

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 9/27/2006 09:59:00 AM

 
More interesting news from Germany:

A leading opera house canceled a 3-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech.

In a statement late Monday, the Deutsche Oper said it decided "with great regret" to cancel the production after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of the scene.

After its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over the scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha. The disputed scene is not part of Mozart's original staging of the 225-year-old opera, but was an addition of Neuenfels' production, which was last performed by the company in March 2004.

It apparently has caused tremendous debate all across Germany. Google Deutsche Oper director Kirsten Harms' name and you'll find a lot of discussion.

Interesting times we live in. Nobody's standing up for Poseidon, Buddha and Jesus!

P.S. H: One thing that jumped out at me about your blog post on Benedict's statements: Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the three traditional Western religions. Benedict is only the #1 representative for the Catholics - Jewish people, non-Roman-Catholic Christians, and Muslims don't have any official heads (for better or for worse). I guess I got confused with the Bushie part - are there people out there looking to him for religious guidance? (Something like Protestant fatwas, maybe?) Anyway, the comments were aggressive, to say the least, but seem to have accomplished what the Pope was looking for - it made his speech controversial, thus noticed by the media. He wanted to start a dialogue, and I think he did so...
JP: Thanks for the support!


- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 9/26/2006 04:15:00 PM

 
More interesting news from Germany:

A leading opera house canceled a 3-year-old production of Mozart's "Idomeneo" that included a scene showing the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad, unleashing a furious debate over free speech.

In a statement late Monday, the Deutsche Oper said it decided "with great regret" to cancel the production after Berlin security officials warned of an "incalculable risk" because of the scene.

After its premiere in 2003, the production by Hans Neuenfels drew widespread criticism over the scene in which King Idomeneo presents the severed heads not only of the Greek god of the sea, Poseidon, but also of Muhammad, Jesus and Buddha. The disputed scene is not part of Mozart's original staging of the 225-year-old opera, but was an addition of Neuenfels' production, which was last performed by the company in March 2004.

It apparently has caused tremendous debate all across Germany. Google Deutsche Oper director Kirsten Harms' name and you'll find a lot of discussion.

Interesting times we live in. Nobody's standing up for Poseidon, Buddha and Jesus!

P.S. H: One thing that jumped out at me about your blog post on Benedict's statements: Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the three traditional Western religions. Benedict is only the #1 representative for the Catholics - Jewish people, non-Roman-Catholic Christians, and Muslims don't have any official heads (for better or for worse). I guess I got confused with the Bushie part - are there people out there looking to him for religious guidance? (Something like Protestant fatwas, maybe?) Anyway, the comments were aggressive, to say the least, but seem to have accomplished what the Pope was looking for - it made his speech controversial, thus noticed by the media. He wanted to start a dialogue, and I think he did so...
JP: Thanks for the support!


- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 9/26/2006 04:15:00 PM

 
Dear Family,

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

C, about the furor the pope's statements caused: I think at this point everyone is so trigger happy that if any statements from either side (more 'conservative muslim' or 'western' sides) are made that could be construed as negative, regardless of context, all hell breaks loose. I mean, considering the fact that a text written hundreds of years ago created such a stir when quoted is pretty fantastic. But we must look at the quoter. It doesn't help that he is the #1 representative of traditional western religion (besides Bushie -haha).

But does that mean we should all back down and not make a peep either way about people who disagree with our way of life? Well, no. No appeasement. At this point, everything is pretty fubar anyway, so these things will happen no matter how much tiptoeing around occurs. However, I don't know if fighting radicalism with no holds barred disregard for the other side is healthy either. So I guess I think it will not ultimately be of much importance. If the pope were tied to any one government or were a member of the press (like to cartoons of Mohammed) it would have been more of a big deal in my eyes.

Classes are going okay. Things are tough. need much moral support. Have my first exam next Monday, in Physics. It's kind of mini exam - only 1/2 of our first exam: our teacher is nice enough to break up the first exam into two parts so that people who are struggling in the beginning and kick ass later don't bomb the course because they failed the entire first exam. This way they only fail 1/2 of the first exam.

Just a weird side note: I have a certificate from US Airways for two $99 roundtrip companion tickets, as long as i purchase a roundtrip for $250 or more. That means that I, plus two others (three people total) could fly anywhere in the contiguous US or Canada for around $450 (minimum). That's pretty cheap - if anyone was thinking about flying anywhere, and maybe making it a family affair, let me know.

Gotta keep doing Chemistry homework.

love to all,
H
- posted by H @ 9/22/2006 02:25:00 PM

 
I don't know if you guys have paid much attention to Pope Benedict XVI's speech last week - it caused some controversy. Churches were firebombed, a nun was shot to death, all over a quotation the pope made in the speech.

I read the English translation, and I was surprised at its complexity. I need to read the German original, but I think that would be tough - I had enough trouble grasping the English version.

Here is the controversial bit: Benedict quotes a dialogue from the 1390s where the Byzantine emperor discusses Christianity and Islam with an "educated Persian." The topic is involuntary, violent conversion to a religion. (A recent example can be found in the two American journalists who were forced at gunpoint to convert to Islam.) Benedict describes the language as being: in erstaunlich schroffer, uns überraschend schroffer Form, so he arguably thinks the language is too harsh. The Byzantine emperor said, „Zeig mir doch, was Mohammed Neues gebracht hat, und da wirst du nur Schlechtes und Inhumanes finden wie dies, daß er vorgeschrieben hat, den Glauben, den er predigte, durch das Schwert zu verbreiten“.

The nur Schlechtes und Inhumanes quote upset quite a few people...

But to focus on this introductory section is to ignore an amazing and very complex speech.
Benedict used the controversial part to reach the conclusion that, for Christians, "The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature."

And that's the central message of the speech (entitled "Faith, Reason and the University"):
faith requires reason, but reason also requires faith.

You guys should read the whole speech, but one point to come away with is found in Benedict's concluding paragraph: "A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures."

It's very heavy stuff, but I think it is worth your time to give it a read!
Benedict is a very, very intelligent man!

- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 9/20/2006 10:18:00 AM

 
Dad:
Congrats on the DW! From what I read, I think it's fully hooked up now, right?
Here's hoping the further lab tests find nothing bad...

H:
Cool stuff about Beaver Avenue! Your description of Doug Stanhope's gf: "bald girlfriend named Bingo" made me wonder if she were perhaps of the canine persuasion, but then she wouldn't be able to sign t-shirts if she were a shaved dog!

Regarding physics, here's my personal scale of 'messiness' in the sciences, where the 'CLEAN' end means you are able to do all the work using objective mathematical formulas, and the 'MESSY' end means more (and more) subjective interpretations are required.

CLEAN
Mathematics
Physics (except that crazy stuff like quantum physics)
Chemistry
Biology
Social Sciences
MESSY

My only real point here is you should remember that Physics is more like Mathematics - learn the formulas you need to, and you should be OK.

(I haven't had Physics since college, but I did take "real" Physics and found it very interesting...)

Congrats, H, on taking this next step!
- posted by Christoph Roggenkamp @ 9/11/2006 02:05:00 PM

 
Dear All,

My first 1/2 week of classes is over, and now I can sit back and think about this new situation. Tuesday I had orientation, which was meager 1 hour, with some speeches, reassuring us (there were probably 100-120 new students at the orientation) that we are in one of the most prestigious post baccalaureate pre-health programs in the country, bla bla bla. The pre-health program encompasses a couple of disciplines: there's a 'special science' offshoot for people who want to get extra training for pharmacy school, etc. Then there's pre-vet and pre-dental as well. But the program has mostly pre-med oriented people, from what I can tell. I guess everyone wants to save lives these days...

Wednesday I had my first physics class, which was mostly introduction to the class structure. I have physics lecture Monday and Wednesday from 6 - 8 pm, and my lab Wednesday from 4-6 pm. I am looking forward to this class, as I way to psyche myself up for a discipline far removed from what I have studied. I haven't had physics since 11th grade at ETA, and that was almost 10 years ago. I have a good amount of connection to my other classes, biology and chemistry, but physics terminology will be new. But I am psyching myself up, putting more wood on the fire of intellectual curiosity that is the only thing that will get me through this course without torture, and with an A and valuable lasting knowledge.

Thursday I thought I would have chemistry lecture. I have chemistry lecture Tuesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 pm and lab Thursdays during the same time slot. But seeing as we started this first week on Wednesday, and I knew from the teacher we weren't having lab, I thought we would have lecture on Thursday. I rode around frantically for 1/2 an hour from the empty lecture classroom to the empty lab classroom, thinking I had viciously misread and misunderstood directions, but it just turned out we didn't have class at all that Thursday. Ha!

Today, Saturday, I had biology lecture from 9 am - 12 pm. Tiny Chinese professor with very good English, and she's pleasant. We discussed cell structure, and a lot of it was very familiar, so this class should be okay. The least of my worries. My schedule dictated that I have biology lab from 12-3 pm Saturdays, after lecture. We didn't have lab this week, which was nice. But then the lab coordinator needed volunteers to switch from Saturday lab to a Tuesday lab from 1-4 pm, as the Saturday lab was too full, so I pounced! Now I will have a more full day Tuesday, which is fine, and I am done at noon on Saturdays, which is MUCH better than 3 pm.

Overall, the schedule looks good. I have the daytime to do homework, which is advantageous since I am day person and do my best learning then. I will blog more as classes develop. I already have a bunch of homework!

Thursday night was Gavin's band's show (the band is called 'Beaver Avenue') at the 'Khyber' music venue in Philly, along with a performance by our comedian acquaintance, Doug Stanhope. Beaver Avenue consists of Gavin on guitar and Radder on keyboards. They pre-record bass and drums, and will continue to play like that until they can find a committed bass player and drummer. So anyway. The venue is not big, fits 100 people MAX. The place was hot and sweaty, and smoky, by the time Doug came on. He did a great show though, heckling hecklers, and delivering a lot of stuff I had never heard. I hung out during the show mostly with our neighbor Natalie, who ended up taking on the role of the Beaver Avenue cd seller, and sold 9 cds for the band. After Doug Stanhope finished, a lot of people fled the place because it was so hot and cramped, but some people stuck around for the band, and Doug was there with his bald girlfriend named Bingo signing t shirts and cds like crazy. The band's performance went off really well. It was video taped, so there is record of it. There were a lot of our friends in the crowd, which is to be expected, but still there were some new people there watching who liked it. Doug eventually came over, hung out with me and saw the last few songs, loved the band, and invited Beaver Avenue to play at his desert party next year in Death Valley. So JP, and C (if you can make it), plan a trip out to DV in May 2007!! The final song, and show stopper, in my opinion, was the Beaver Avenue rendition of 'The Greatest American Hero' theme song, on which I did vocal accompaniment. Radder plays keyboards on the song, as the only instrumental accompaniment, so it sounds like some cheesy Frank Sinatra lounge song. It really brought the house down, with everyone there screaming the words along with us. Great fun. Natalie also took a lot of pictures, so I will post some when I steal them from her.

So it's been an eventful week. Beaver Avenue is playing a block party in South Philly today. It's the block that their occasional drummer friend Josh lives on, so he will play with them. Considering that they haven't practiced with him in almost 1.5 months, we'll see how it goes. I will be there for vocal backing and possibly some hand clapping.

All from me. It's time to go take a nap.

love,
H
- posted by H @ 9/09/2006 01:29:00 PM